Easter Saturday snapper...

[Peter4]

Having a weather guru at home certainly helps with the fishing preparation. Kyle told me this morning would be good on the bay despite the poor forecast. We launched at 4.30am - the only boat at the ramp - and sped across to Goat Island to fish the incoming tide. We were looking for shallow water snapper on hardbodies.

We arrived to perfect conditions with heaps of bait being smashed by schools of tailor. Generally, when this happens, big snaps are not far away. We started quietly with a few undersize snaps and a grassy to me and a small snapper and pike to Kyle. Slowly the size of the fish improved helped by masses of bait and consistent cloud cover.

We could see the bigger fish feeding but they just weren't interested in our lures. Kyle decided to throw out a 'red dixon'. This is a light spinner designed for freshwater trout and redfin. He gets smashed on the first cast but drops the fish. Second cast he is smashed again and a 44cm snapper graces the boat. I decide to have a crack with the red dixon. My first cast gets annihilated as it hits the water. After some screaming runs I had a big snapper boatside before he straightened the treble and disappeared. Damn - he was big!

It went quiet for a while so we went back to hardbodies. In successive casts Kyle nails a 40cm and a 38cm snapper while I manage a small barracuda and medium sized tailor that spat up over 35 small baitfish. What a greedy guts!

Not much was happening and we were considering calling it a morning when I decided to have another crack with the red dixon. First cast is again smashed! After an epic fight Kyle slid the net under a feisty 56cm snapper, our best fish of the morning...

Not much after that so we headed home. About 2km short of the boatramp the Gods gave me a strong indication to get into kayaking by delivering a set of paddles to me! Just found these floating in the middle of nowhere. Anyone want them?

We were the only boat at the ramp we we exited the water at 9.00am. Final tally was around 20 snapper to 56cm (six legal), a barracuda, a grassy emperor, a tailor, two moses perch, a heap of pike and a monster - read basketball size - porcupine fish to Kyle.

Top morning...

Cheers

Pete & Kyle

[Bazil Brush]

Very nice fella's, great work, I have a couple of those Red Dixon's used them for Redfin in the river's down here, never thought you would catch Snapper with them.

Baz

[Funchy]

I love how you guys go all unconventional and land some good fish. Well done fellas !!!

[Mick Baker]

Well done Pete and Kyle.You certainly have the local snapper scene worked out.
Cheers, Mick

[UndersizeBreamKing]

That's awesome mate, I always mean to chuck out a spinner bait in the salty stuff, but usually forget when I'm there lol
That paddle is a bit random, I wonder how you lose that in the water? Lol

[3Macks]

Great session Pete and Kyle. Peel fished well on Friday and Monday as well - Snapper to 6kg.

[tippers]

Hey Pete, how do you go with the bigger snaps, I have been getting dusted by a few models using 10 pound mainline and 12 pound leader... Recall some of your other posts saying you use 4 pound!

[Peter4]

Hey Pete, how do you go with the bigger snaps, I have been getting dusted by a few models using 10 pound mainline and 12 pound leader... Recall some of your other posts saying you use 4 pound!

Yep, we use 4lb braid and 12lb or 15lb leaders. We always run with very light drag and generally chase the bigger fish - usually they head for deeper water where we can tire them out.

If you survive that initial blistering run, you mostly end up with the fish...

Hey - does anyone want the kayak paddle??

[tippers]

Yeah righto, so guessing the theory is if your running lighter drag then it may not break if it hits a bit of reef compared to under heavy drag!?

[Peter4]

Yeah righto, so guessing the theory is if your running lighter drag then it may not break if it hits a bit of reef compared to under heavy drag!?

That and the fact that the fish stop running sooner with less resistance. The harder the drag the heavier and longer they pull - it's a bit of a compromise...