Kickin' off 2012 with a snapper PB...

[Peter4]

Being the last day of my hols I decided to head into the bay with Kyle this morning despite the less than ordinary conditions. We were surprised by a chockers boat ramp at 4.00am but we managed to launch quickly without incident and headed to the reef edge of Green Island.

On the first drift I managed two small snaps but Kyle's 7" paddletail was monstered by a very big snapper. It took about 30m of line before abrading through the 20lb leader. Damn - possible PB missed!

Next few drifts were uneventful with my blade scoring a porcupine fish and two ginners so we decided to try breamin in the shallows. The wind had moved into the SE was was starting to howl at 15 - 20knots. I managed a small bream and a black tipped shark (that went nuts) before we found a patch of undersize snapper where we landed 6 or so between us to 35cm...

Next drift saw us score a double hook-up in 2m of water. My fish hit first and as I came up tight on it, it decided to run. About 80m of 4lb braid screamed off my reel on the first run. WTF? Meanwhile Kyle had also hooked up to a big fish but it chewed up his bream trebles and spat the lure. My beast took another 50m of line on its second run! Huh? Line was rapidly disappearing from my spool...

Kyle jumped on the minn kota and we chased the fish for 100m or so, slowly regaining line as the runs shortened and as the fish tired. I got a flash of colour and realised I had a PB snapper on the end - connected by 4lb braid, 8lb leader and a small bream lure (R2S baby crank). Slowly I led her to the boat where I managed to get a good netshot first up and aboard she came. A big fat snapper that went exactly 60cm...woohoo - a new PB. Took awhile to revive her before she swam away strongly.

Soon after we gave it away as the wind continued to increase. Final tally was a dozen or so snapper (including my PB), two bream, a shark, a porcupine fish and two grinners. Good fun in a short morning sesh with poor conditions.

Pics will follow when Kyle wakes up!

Cheers

Pete