Where and what did this "considerable research locally" consist of Hangler. While I don't doubt there are a lot of retired kontiki owners, most of them I see don't seem to be retired at all, I observe plenty of young guys, whole family's etc pulling up at the beach with Kontiki in tow. As a matter of fact I had a 2 family group pull up next to me at Bay View on our last Brass Monkey day. Talking with him he freely acknowledged catching quite an abundance of Snapper during the summer months. However it seems he was also prepared to put in the hours and not be home in time to watch the 6pm news...

And to back up what was earlier stated, there is plenty of Snapper during Summer in the Bay. Although I didn't fish Whirinaki reef last season you could fish there at times and catch your limit within a couple of hours... sure maybe not trophy fish but all legal sized ones (Club size, not MoF). I also caught Snapper last season (Sorry didn't keep a tally of how many), as Rex said if you are prepared to put in the hard yards, maybe drive a little to fish beaches that produce better numbers of fish then you will do ok, maybe not every time but they are there. Certainly better than sitting along Marine Parade wondering why you aren't catching any