Rock Fishing at Stony Bay - Coromandel

Stony bay is a beatiful place located near the tip of the New Zealands Coromandel Peninsula on the eastern side.  You can either fish from the main beach or the rocks.  Snapper are the main species caught but school shark and parore are also common, 

Location 

Stony bay is as far north as you can go by road on the eastern side of the Coromandel Peninsula, the beach and campground are at the end of Stony Bay Rd.  There is a lot of driving on narrow gravel roads to get there so take care, the last 7km are particularly bad with small ruts carved in the road by water - in winter it could get quite slippery.

The Old Boat Ramp 

There is an old boat ramp on the southern side of the bay, it's a few hundred metres along the rocks from the beach.  There is no road down to the boat ramp anymore but there is a large concrete slab that just out from the rocks, this makes a very convenient fishing platform.  There is a lot of kelp around the rocks which can make things a bit difficult but there are good keepable snapper to be caught so it's worthwhile persisting.  I have found that there are sometimes better fish further out from the rocks so do try some longish casts.  From the boat ramp you can see many appealing looking spots further out towards the bays the southern point.

Stoney bay southern point in foreground Southern Point  Getting out to the point by going along can be extremely difficult depending on the tide, it's much easier and safer to take the track down from the edge of the road.  There is a marked doc track that is sign posted just before you get to the campground, it takes about 15 minutes to reach the southern point with a fairly steep descent to get down to the rocks after turning left at the grassy clearing.  There is a large rock platform here that provides very good fishing for kahawai, snapper and kingfish.

Main Beach 

As the name suggests Stony Bay has a rocky bottom.  It's made up of small stones and the action of the tide and waves create some really interesting rippled formations along the beach.  Snapper can be caught from the beach particularly around dawn and dusk, there are also school shark present so bring some heavy leader if you're interested in catching those.

Spear Fishing 

Parore are plentiful in close to the rocks amongst the kelp.  These offer good sport for spear fishermen. 

Accomodation 

The department of conservation has a campground at stony bay.  There is room for hundreds of tents but apart from christmas, new years and long weekends you won't find large number of people here.  The price is a very reasonable $7 per person.  Basic facilities are provided here including toilets, running water and cold showers.  If you're looking for something with more of the comforts of home there are more accomodation options to the south in Port Charles and Sandy Bay.

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