b'SURFCASTING With the autumn west coast surfcasting a prime time to hit the beach, editor Matt Hewetson provides tips and intel on when and A utumntime is one of where to fish.my favourite times to surfcast off Ripiro Beach in Northland, and my hometowns local beach happens to be the longest in Godzone offering 107km of coastline.The snapper surfcasting here over the past few years is some of the best I have experienced.Nothing beats hooking big snapper off the beach and the fight they put on coming into shallow water.A 3-4kg fish will put up a scrap that you would swear was a bigger 5-6kg snapper, they just fight harder when hooked in shallower water on surf beaches and they want to get back out to deeper water.BEST TIMESAfter the tricky summer fishing in the bright, hot conditions have past, the cooler months from MarchMay provide better success for snapper surfcasting.When planning a trip to the west coast to surfcast I look to go around the bigger moon phases such as new or full moon.This obviously has a key factor on tides with large moon phases sucking out water at low tide to expose the better sand banks to fish off.This 3kg+ fish hit the writers bait on the Tica Kazumi right on high tide at mid-morning, with overcast conditions ideal for surfcasting.10FISHING IN GODZONE MAR/APR 2023'