I think it would depend who you spoke to though, some are catching allot, and other having a really crap season. As far as snapper go, this year has been one out of the box, they are everywhere and bloody easy to catch( up here ). From the boat, there are lots of guranrd, in very shallow also.
Weather diffinitly plays its part, Geno November for us was mainly all north easterlies, which is a wind we do not usually get, and a wind that usually makes conditions very ugly, that is what Gary was refuring too, to catch gurnard here, we need very settled water for a period of a few days and some..... And this is mainly why places like Parongahau has been difficult to catch gurnard.
Gurnard up here in a the past few years has slowed, thats for sure. But at the moment there are still quite a few being caught at opoho, even the cut has the odd one when using fresh bonito. I haven't seen any on long lines though which is a suprize. Mainly all in close on the rods