First snapper on plastic

boattart · June 2, 2012

With the weather looking good it didn't take much convincing for a couple of crew to take a day off work to fish yesterday (Friday). The call was made to fish the Hump for reds and not long after starting the drift a 35cm model gave us huge encouragement. Shortly later a seal dampened our enthusiasm. About 9.40 my Squidgy was sinking slowly when the slack braid seemed to take up rather quickly and a few seconds later weight. As I struck he peeled of some line then settled into a slugging match. The first minute or so was a stalemate but the head thumps told me the species was right. As he rose to the surface I could see the distinctive bump on the head from maybe 10 metre down and all I could think of was the seal. With great relief we slipped him into the undersized net and no seal. At 65cm and 4.7kg or 10.40lb he was a great start to my soft plastic snapper fishing.

The following 4 hours produced 1 maori wrasse and 1 sargent baker so a quick stop for some flathead was needed so I didn't have to fight the crew for my red. After a few drifts 15 nice fat flatties in the 40-50 cm range were added to the ice slurry and we returned to Cronulla.