Best bait for fishing in NZ: a species-by-species guide

Most New Zealand saltwater fish will take a well-presented bait, so the choice matters less than people think. What matters more is freshness, a bait sized to the hook and the fish, and getting it where the fish are feeding.

The short version: carry squid and pilchards, catch fresh bait on the day when you can, and use berley.

Bait by species

Species	Best baits	Usual rig	Notes
Snapper	Pilchard, squid, skipjack, fresh kahawai, jack mackerel, piper, shellfish, crab	Strayline, running sinker or two-hook ledger	Fresh beats frozen. Big snapper also take live bait.
Kahawai	Pilchard, pipi, squid; also lures and soft baits	Surfcasting rig, or cast lures at surface schools	Takes almost anything. Look for diving birds.
Red gurnard	Squid, pilchard, bonito, cut fish	Ledger or paternoster on sand or mud	Small hooks. Keep the bait on the bottom.
Tarakihi	Small pieces of squid, cut fish, shellfish such as tuatua	Multi-hook ledger near reef edges	Small mouths and gentle bites. Use small hooks.
Trevally	Strips of mullet or oily fish, mussel, tuatua	Light ledger or strayline with fluorocarbon leader	Berley brings schools in. Soft mouths, so go easy on the drag.
Kingfish	Live jack mackerel, kahawai, kōheru, piper, squid	Live bait near reefs and pinnacles, or under a balloon	Heavy leader and firm drag. Also caught on jigs and poppers.
Blue cod	Pilchard, mackerel, squid, any fresh bait	Flasher or ledger rig on the bottom over rough ground	Strong trace, because hooked cod spin.
Flounder	Small soft baits on light jig heads, or small pieces of bait on small hooks	Light running rig on sand	Most are netted or speared rather than caught on a line.
John Dory	Live jack mackerel, kahawai, piper or other small baitfish	Live bait near reef edges, weed lines and wharf piles	Slow, steady wind. Net it as soon as it reaches the boat.
Rig	Paddle crab, crayfish, tuatua	Surfcasting or running sinker rig in channels and bays	Rig feed mainly on crabs.

The main baits explained

Squid

Squid is the all-rounder. It’s tough, stays on the hook through several bites, and almost every bottom fish will take it. That makes it a good bait for small pickers like tarakihi and gurnard, where softer bait gets stripped.

Cut it into strips sized to your hook. Leave the hook point and barb exposed so it can set.

NZ anglers cut squid into pointed strips of about 7 cm, or thread a whole baby squid on and bring the hook out near the eyes. A half hitch of the trace around the bait, or a few turns of bait elastic, stops small fish stripping it.

Pilchards

Pilchards are a standard snapper bait and are easy to buy frozen from tackle shops. They are oily and give off a strong scent trail, which is why they work so well with berley.

Their weakness is that they are soft. Thaw them slowly, keep them cool, and use them while they are still firm.

Use half a big pilchard or a whole small one, and wrap it on with bait elastic (bait cotton) so it survives the cast and the first nibbles. Salted pilchards are firmer and stay on the hook better than thawed ones.

Skipjack and bonito

Skipjack tuna, sold in tackle shops as bonito, is a dark, oily bait that snapper favour. Most of the skipjack caught in New Zealand is taken for bait.

Fresh-caught fish: kahawai, jack mackerel, piper and mullet

Fresh fish caught on the day is hard to beat. Strips of kahawai, jack mackerel, piper or mullet are firm, oily and natural. Jack mackerel and other small baitfish are often caught on a sabiki rig, which carries several small hooks, before moving on to target bigger fish.

The same fish are the standard live baits for kingfish and John Dory. Jack mackerel are popular because they survive well in a bait tank and on the hook.

Several of these species are legally baitfish, with their own daily limit. See Bait fish rules below.

Crabs

Crabs are a natural food for snapper, gurnard and rig. Paddle crabs are the bait of choice for rig, which feed mainly on crabs.

Shellfish

Mussel, pipi and tuatua are good baits for trevally, tarakihi, kahawai and snapper around reef. They are soft, so they suit gentle biters and small hooks rather than long casts.

Shellfish you gather yourself count toward the daily limits for that shellfish, even if you use them as bait. Check the shellfish limits for your area on the rules pages.

Soft baits

Soft baits are plastic or biodegradable lures shaped like baitfish, worms or shrimp. They are fished on a jig head and worked along the bottom. They don’t replace bait for every species, but they catch snapper, kahawai, trevally and gurnard well. See Soft baits as an alternative.

Rigging bait: the basics

• Match the size of the bait to the size of the hook, and both to the fish you’re after. Big baits and big hooks for big fish.
• Make the bait look natural and leave the hook point exposed, not buried, so it sets when a fish bites.
• If you fish on the bottom, keep the bait moving a little with the current. A bait left sitting on the bottom gets picked apart by crabs and small fish.
• For live bait, hook the fish lightly through the upper shoulder, or through the top of the hood for squid, so it can still swim.
• Handle live bait as little as possible and keep it in clean, oxygenated water.

Fresh vs frozen bait

Fresh bait is better when you can get it. It is firmer, stays on the hook longer, and gives off more natural scent. Snapper have shown a preference for pilchards, skipjack, squid, piper and kahawai, and the fresher those are, the better.

That said, frozen bait from a tackle shop still catches fish, and for most trips it is what you start with. A common pattern is to start on frozen bait and switch to fresh as soon as you catch something suitable.

To get the most from frozen bait:

• Keep it frozen or chilled in a chilly bin until you need it.
• Thaw only what you’ll use in the next hour or so.
• Don’t let it sit in the sun. Warm, soft bait falls off the hook.

Berley

Berley (also spelt burley) is minced or crushed fish, fish frames, pilchards or shellfish put in the water to create a scent trail that draws fish to your bait. It is one of the most effective things you can do to improve a day’s fishing, from a boat or from the shore.

How to use berley

• Use a berley pot or mesh bag. Hang it over the side, or lower it to near the bottom if you’re bottom fishing.
• Cast or drift your baits in the same direction the berley trail is moving.
• Keep it going. A steady trail holds fish around the boat; a single dump drifts away.
• For tarakihi, hold the berley just off the bottom, at the depth the school is feeding.
• For trevally, berley can bring whole schools in and get them competing for food.

From a wharf or rocks, a berley pot on a rope in the current does the same job.

Berley rules

The amateur fishing regulations don’t mention berley, and we found no bylaw banning it. Some council beach bylaws ban fishing near swimmers, such as Tauranga’s ban within 300 m of a flagged lifeguard area, so keep berley well away from swimming beaches. You can’t fish at all in marine reserves, so berley and bait don’t come into it there. Check the rules for the area you plan to fish on our rules pages.

Bait fish rules

Catching your own bait is still fishing, and limits apply. The Fisheries (Amateur Fishing) Regulations 2013 define a group of species as baitfish, with their own daily limit. The baitfish are:

• kōheru and scad
• anchovy (kokowhaawhaa)
• garfish (piper)
• mackerel, including jack mackerel (but not blue mackerel)
• pilchard
• slender and stout sprats
• yellow-eyed mullet

Baitfish don’t count toward the combined daily limit for finfish. Kahawai is not a baitfish and has its own daily limit. The current limits are on our rules pages.

Fish under the minimum legal size have to be returned to the water, so you can’t keep an undersized snapper or other size-limited fish for bait. The amateur fishing regulations (regulation 21) say an undersized fish must be returned to the water straight away, and there’s no exception for bait.

Soft baits as an alternative

Soft baits are worth carrying even if you fish mostly with bait. They cover ground fast when you’re drifting, don’t need thawing, and catch some of the biggest snapper in shallow water.

The usual approach is to cast ahead of the drift, let the soft bait sink to the bottom, then retrieve it slowly with small lifts and drops of the rod.

Our soft bait fishing guide covers the gear, jig head weights, rigging and the soft baits on sale in NZ.

Where to go next

• Species pages for each fish in the table above, with how-to-catch notes and rules.
• Land-based fishing spots in Auckland for where to use this bait without a boat.
• NZ fishing rules for size and daily limits in your area.