Tarakihi

Habitat Distribution

• Native to New Zealand; found around most of the coastline but most abundant south of East Cape and throughout the South Island.
• Juveniles settle on shallow reefs — sometimes just a few metres deep — before moving progressively into deeper water as they mature.
• Adults school over sandy and muddy seafloor as well as broken reef, typically in 50–250 m; in Wellington, the Marlborough Sounds, and Tasman Bay they're regularly found much shallower, sometimes 5–20 m.
• East coast fish form a single biological stock; juveniles recruit mainly through Canterbury Bight and Pegasus Bay nursery grounds, then move northward as they age.

Key Locations

• Cook Strait and Wellington coast — reliable year-round fishery on reef edges from 20–150 m; a go-to for local charter operators.
• Marlborough Sounds and Tasman Bay — fish are accessible in unusually shallow water compared to the rest of the country.
• Bay of Plenty and East Cape — productive grounds, though stocks here have declined more noticeably than in the south.
• Ranfurly Bank and Three Kings Islands — remote offshore banks where the larger king tarakihi subspecies reaches its best weights.
• Canterbury Bight and Pegasus Bay — key juvenile nursery grounds; adult fish present throughout the year.

Specific Spots

• Reef edges and the sandy patches immediately adjacent — tarakihi sit right on the boundary between hard and soft bottom, so target the transition zone rather than the reef top itself.
• Low-lying broken foul in 70–120 m is prime drifting territory; the deeper the water, the larger the average fish.
• When anchoring, work the sides and edges of foul ground in 20–70 m; fish tend to stack up an hour or two either side of the tide turn.
• After dark, fish move onto sandy beaches and shallow inshore ground — land-based anglers can intercept them in as little as 5 m of water along the Wellington coast and South Island shores.