Our 8-year-old son loves fishing, and wants
to give fishing a go on a sunny weekend. Being new to the area and having no prior fishing
experience ourselves, we started off by looking for potential fishing
spots with my children.
Fishing in Auckland with Family
New Zealand is a beautiful country
surrounded by the sea, and Auckland being the “City of Sails”, fishing is a
popular hobby. We see many people with their own boats and fishing gear enjoying fishing.
There are also various fishing boat charter
services providing half-day or day-fishing tours. We would love to give these a
shot one of these days.
But for now, our son is only 8-year-old,
and we feel it is a bit too early to go on a whole-day cruise to catch a
snapper. He might get too tired during the trip, or worth sea-sick. These tours
are quite expensive too.
So we have been searching for a local wharf where we could get some fishing experience first. Ideally, somewhere
easily accessible and safe with children. This time, we tried “Okahu Bay Wharf”,
which was described to be a popular spot around Mission Bay, on the internet
websites.
Tamaki Drive, Okahu Bay Wharf in Auckland
On the day, we traveled from Auckland CBD
towards mission bay on Tamaki drive. The target location, Okahu Bay, was on the
left hand side along the stretch of the Tamaki drive. It was right opposite to
the car parking area of the Auckland’s famous Kelly Talton’s SEA LIFE aquarium.
At the Okahu Bay Whar, there is a long stretch of walkway out to the sea, about 150m in length. At the other end, the walk way splits up to T-shape.
It is fenced all the way, but with plenty of gaps so I would not take an eye off little ones. But we our primary school age-son was quite comfortable there. Overall it looked like a nice spot where family with kids could give fishing a try.
Okahu bay wharf
Okahu Bay Wharf is a Popular Fishing Spot
On the day we visited, it was cloudy with some wind and occasional shower. So it was cold day.
When we arrived Okahu bay wharf just before lunch time,
there were already three groups of people enjoying fishing there. At the far end of the
walkway, there was a group of young man who were enjoying swimming! Oh how nice
it is to be young…..
After we started fishing, people with
fishing gear kept on arriving every now and then. A lot of people came passed
us just enjoying walks too, some with kids and some with dogs.
The wharf had visitors on even such a cold
cloudy day, so I would imagine that on a sunny day of early summer, a perfect
fishing day, this wharf will be quite busy with people trying to do fishing here.
At the end of walk way
No Fish for This Day!! (Danm It!)
We tried fishing for about two hours on this day. But unfortunately we could not catch anything ourselves. A guy who was fishing before us, had caught something that appeared to be Kahawai, a locally seen type of Arripis. It was quite large, not fitting his small chilly bin, as he was taking it home.Other than that, no one else caught anything while we were at Okahu Wharf. According to some website or fishing forum though, you could catch some snapper by casting your line as far as possible in summer.
We did see some “hard-core-fisher” people who had really nice fishing gear and setting multiple of them along the wharf. So there is little doubt in us that this is a good fishing spot that attracts a lot of people.
We did not have any luck this time, but we would love to give it another shot at Okahu Bay Wharf.
Bring Your Own Fishing Gear (and Food!)
This Okahu Bay Wharf is a public domain and
there is no entry fee for fishers. But it also does not have any manager on
site or shops nearby. So you will need to bring everything you need with you,
including fishing gear, bait, drinks and snacks.
We picked up our fishing bait at a petrol
station between Auckland CBD and Okahu Bay. You can normally pickup bait and
ice from a petrol station located within short range from a coast. They are
often kept in a freezer outside of the shop with a lock, and you may need to ask
the shop staff for them.
So that was Our First Fishing at Okahu Bay Wharf
Unfortunately we were unable to catch anything, but we did enjoy the experience there. It seemed like a nice spot and we will definitely give it another shot!
It is near mission bay so we could plan a whole day outing with
kids; some fishing at Okahu bay wharf followed by icecream and playtime at the
mission bay.
