Anchovies are a favoured bait for the Whakatane/Matata area, however it really depends on the time of the day. During daylight obviously Kahawhai will happily nail a well presented bait, also large yems and small trevalli can be a problem. The favoured time for snapper to show was the hour before and an hour after the change of light during the evenings. This was also the time gurnard came on the feed.

After dark, into the early hours of the morning, was the favourite time for the larger fish to show. Anchovies always worked very well for me and was the standard bait carried by other locals who usually fared better than average.