WAYS TO HAUL IN SNAPPER
THE snapper season has started in outstanding form.
Many big brutes have been taken on the 50 fathom reefs and smaller snapper have been caught on the closer reefs.
One of the great parts of living on the Gold Coast is you don’t need a large boat to get among the snapper shenanigans. Light westerly winds are expected to dominate over the next few months meaning small tinnies can get out there.
But simply fishing in the right areas does not guarantee you’ll be smashing the snapper, there is an art to catching them. That’s why I am sharing some tips that might help you.
Firstly you must be out there at the right time, and that means either first or last light.
I prefer the early morning bite. Head out to either the 24 or 36 fathom grounds and anchor up. By anchoring rather than drifting you’ll be able to use a berley trail.
For your berley trail use old pilchards cut into small pieces and keep the trail flowing.
For bait use a whole WA pilchard with a ganged hook and light leader no more than 40lb. Once the sun rises the snapper seem to go off the bite on pilchards and you’ll need to swap to live baiting.
This will require a change of rig and tactics. At this time of the year we still have large Spanish mackerel and cobia around so it is worth setting three different rods to differing depths to cover all bases.
Place one live bait with a big sinker on the bottom, place one livie half way up to attract cobia and one on the surface looking for Spaniards.
Live baiting is an easy form of fishing especially if anchored as you simply have to wait for the scream of the reel.
The temptation will be to continually check the baits but the more you leave them the better your chances.
I recommend still keeping the berley trail going while live baiting as even if you are slightly off the reef you will attract whatever is around.
Another great tip is don’t throw your unused live baits out until you have entered the seaway. This will give you a chance to have a crack at a big jewie on the way back in.