Also known as Rāwaru, Pākirikiri, Sand Perch, Boston Blue Cod. Bait, technique, tide windows, and where the bite is on right now.
Blue cod — The South Island's sweetest table fish, structure-glued and greedy. Also called Rāwaru, Pākirikiri, Sand Perch, Boston Blue Cod.
Blue cod is also known as: Rāwaru, Pākirikiri, Sand Perch, Boston Blue Cod. The South Island's sweetest table fish, structure-glued and greedy.
Regional names can confuse anglers and cause misidentification. The table of common names below covers the most-used alternatives across Australia, New Zealand and the US:
Key to correct identification: check the regulations-authority species sheet for your state or territory before keeping any fish — minimum legal sizes, bag limits and identification guides are published by each fisheries department and are the authoritative source.
Hero spots in our coverage where Blue cod is in season for June. Click through for the live forecast.
Blue cod are a structure fish through and through — find foul ground, broken reef, gravel and rubble in roughly 20-80 m and drop straight onto it. They're far more abundant down south (Marlborough Sounds, Fiordland, Stewart Island, the Chathams) but you'll pick them up over the deeper reefs of east Northland and the outer Gulf too. Anchor or hold over the structure rather than drifting off it; a simple dropper/ledger rig with fresh fish strip or squid put hard on the bottom is the classic method, and they hit greedily. Inchiku jigs and baited slow-jigs (kabura) tipped with a strip work brilliantly when the bigger 'blue' males are about, since the larger fish dominate the best lies. They aren't a long-fight fish — the job is getting them up off the foul before they bury you in it, so don't be shy with the gear, and rotate spots, because cod are slow-growing and a good patch is easily fished out if you sit on it.
Like most bottom species, blue cod bite best when there's enough current to hold your rig near the structure and wash scent through it, but not so much that you can't reach the bottom. Aim for the softer running water either side of the tide change rather than the full rip — in the Sounds and around the southern reefs the locals time drops for the slacker hours so they can fish lighter sinkers and stay in contact with the foul. If the current is howling, move to the lee of structure or wait out the peak flow.
Blue cod aren't a notably moon-driven fish; they're resident, territorial reef dwellers that feed opportunistically whenever bait is presented near their lie, so day-to-day catch has far more to do with finding fresh ground and good current than with the lunar phase. Smaller neap tides can actually fish better simply because the gentler current lets you hold bottom and stay precise over the structure. Pick your day for sea conditions and a workable tide over any solunar peak.
Blue cod are tightly managed in New Zealand and the rules are strongly area-based, with different bag limits, minimum sizes and even seasonal closures or 'slot' style measures in different regions (the Marlborough Sounds, the South-East and Southland fisheries each have their own settings). A slot/maximum-size approach is used in some areas to protect the larger breeding fish, and rules change, so always check the current Fisheries New Zealand regulations for your exact area before fishing. Blue cod are a New Zealand species and aren't part of the Australian fishery.
NZ size & bag limits for Blue cod — Auckland & Kermadec area, verified →
Olli-Mikael Vaittinen has fished his whole life. Fifteen years of fly fishing, guiding seasons on Norway's Lakselva — his favourite Atlantic salmon river — and a blue marlin landed in Vava'u, Tonga. Founder of Fishare — the app that puts the data behind the decisions every angler makes on the water.
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