Thread: Lower South Island Spearfishing

Karitane is a great spot. I've dived a lot there. Just park up at the north end of the beach at the bottom end of the peninsula there. You can walk around the rocks, but I just gear up & jump in right at the beach & just swim out. Plenty of nice reef structure, & you'll get all the usual staples- butters, moki, blue cod. I've shot some nice trumpeter & once kahawai there too. Just be aware of the East Otago Taiapure (check the MPI regs for proper details) in place along that stretch of coast- means there's a reduced bag limit- only 10 finfish & 5 paua (combined blackfoot & yellowfoot), plus you can't take any paua from within 50m of the shoreline around the Huriawa headland at Karitane.

I didn't dive Moeraki at all in 2016, but dived it a lot in the 2-3yrs prior, & again was a good spot. Just park & gear up at the lighthouse, & follow the track down the hill to the water. I don't usually put the top half of my wetsuit on til the bottom of the hill though cos I get too hot walking down in my wetsuit otherwise. Good butters, moki, cod & paua every time I've dived there. It can be a good spot as often if the east coast is a bit dirty or exposed, the little sheltered bay on the inner side of the peninsula there will be sheltered & significantly cleaner.

Probably half way between Moeraki & Karitane is Shag Point which is a decent spot. Don't bother with Warrington as it's never very fishy & it's just full of tiny undersize paua. The point off the end of Murderers Beach is another good spot- same species as mentioned above.

Moeraki, Shag & Murderers are all also outside of the Taiapure zone too.