GoingFishing Posted May 21, 2017 Share Posted May 21, 2017 Gday Raiders With the Snapper season coming up we headed out today for a "practise" session to try and sharpen up our Snapper fishing skills. We have cought some nice snapper in the last couple of months but most have been by catch or anchoring in very shallow water. The plan was to spend the entire day targeting Snapper with various plastics,baits etc whilst practising drifting cubed baits down a burley trail. Headed out at first light, water temp at the heads was a surprising 22.1. Wind was blowing in from the west and south west. Swell was running around 1m with the occassional 2m+ Our first stop was wide off DeeWhy in 50m of water. 90% of my fishing trips involve drifting with paternoster rigs,plastics,live baits and metal jigs and i avoid anchoring as much as possible. As we discovered today..... anchoring in 50m is no piece of cake! Everytime we threw the anchor , we would end up passing too far off the mark, short from the mark or too wide off the mark !! ... mix in the moderate wind this morning and direction of the current.... it was a good 40mins before we were anchored up ready to start fishing. Got the burley trail going...we had burley pellets and pilchards going with the occasional pilchard cube over the side.... is that the best burley method for snapper or should u be throwing more cube? Started off with the lightest sinker i thought would do the job to drift baits, then ended up upsizing twice because the current was taking the baits almost on a 20 degree line away from the boat... baits of choice were pilchard and salted bonito fillets. Tried for a good 2 hours for a single Morwong which was disappointing. Determined, we changed locations to some shallower water just south off Long Reef... had the same techniques going and had some better success. Got two pannies at 38cm and 34cm and a little Amberjack which we kept for the table. Gave up around 11am and couldnt help myself when passing Manly i had to stop for a flathead drift... still plenty around but not as prolific as the last couple of weeks so they are starting to thin out now. Both dad and i still managed to bag out, mix of blue spots and marbled average size 36cm to 40cm with two or three occasional larger ones. Wind and swell was starting to get uncomfortable around 130 so we headed back. So the Snapper fishing didnt turn out as good as planned but we had two nice pannies to show for it and learnt some good lessons for next time so i am happy with that for a first attempt and am sure theres still lots to learn. Could have been a donut Whilst out there i noticed this fishing charter which dad and i had a nice giggle over.....not the conventional choice for charter boat!! they were crammed on like sardines ! Thanks for reading Sam Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GreasePit Posted May 21, 2017 Share Posted May 21, 2017 Nice haul of fish as usual mate. Your neighbours must love you! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
luvbigfish Posted May 21, 2017 Share Posted May 21, 2017 Top report champ and a great feed for your efforts ??? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scratchie Posted May 21, 2017 Share Posted May 21, 2017 Great report Sam! Nothing wrong with a flatty drift to bring home a feed either! Keep working those shallower reefs with sps, that's were I find the bigger ones hang! cheers scratchie!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GoingFishing Posted May 21, 2017 Author Share Posted May 21, 2017 12 hours ago, GreasePit said: Nice haul of fish as usual mate. Your neighbours must love you! Thanks mate, its usually the mother in law that gets first dibs haha 11 hours ago, luvbigfish said: Top report champ and a great feed for your efforts ??? Cheers mate. Learnt some good lessons too ! 2 hours ago, Scratchie said: Great report Sam! Nothing wrong with a flatty drift to bring home a feed either! Keep working those shallower reefs with sps, that's were I find the bigger ones hang! cheers scratchie!!! Thanks Scratchie. When you say shallow how shallow should i go? 15m ? Do you find you have better results on the larger fish with plastics in lieu of say baits Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scratchie Posted May 21, 2017 Share Posted May 21, 2017 24 minutes ago, GoingFishing said: Thanks mate, its usually the mother in law that gets first dibs haha Cheers mate. Learnt some good lessons too ! Thanks Scratchie. When you say shallow how shallow should i go? 15m ? Do you find you have better results on the larger fish with plastics in lieu of say baits Most of the reefs I fish on up here are between 15-30m. We mainly drift and look for bait and structure! I also find that snapper spook easy so try not to motor over your drift! Generally as a rule we only fish sps as you find less unwanted bycatch or pickers! Once we set the drift we usually deploy a livie as well that will trail our boat because if there is bait in the area you never know what's chasing them! A very active way to fish and you often forget about the livie until you hear the drag singing! cheers scratchie!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GoingFishing Posted May 22, 2017 Author Share Posted May 22, 2017 2 hours ago, Scratchie said: Most of the reefs I fish on up here are between 15-30m. We mainly drift and look for bait and structure! I also find that snapper spook easy so try not to motor over your drift! Generally as a rule we only fish sps as you find less unwanted bycatch or pickers! Once we set the drift we usually deploy a livie as well that will trail our boat because if there is bait in the area you never know what's chasing them! A very active way to fish and you often forget about the livie until you hear the drag singing! cheers scratchie!!! As always you are a fountain of knowledge Scratchie.... thanks for the advice i must admit the pickers are a big pain the a$$ especially when the burley gets going.... i could see the sweep 2m below the boat yesterday just waiting for my baits to float down... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fragmeister Posted May 22, 2017 Share Posted May 22, 2017 (edited) Not surprising the fishing was so good... Based on the picture of the tall ship your were fishing in the 1800"s Cheers and yet again a good effort on the bottom bashing. Cheers Jim Edited May 22, 2017 by fragmeister Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yowie Posted May 22, 2017 Share Posted May 22, 2017 A nice tub of fish there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GoingFishing Posted May 22, 2017 Author Share Posted May 22, 2017 1 hour ago, fragmeister said: Not surprising the fishing was so good... Based on the picture of the tall ship your were fishing in the 1800"s Cheers and yet again a good effort on the bottom bashing. Cheers Jim thanks Jim.... haha at first i thought it was just out and about for a cruise then it moved closer to us and i realised there were maybe 50 people fishing off the side and it was drifting the reefs ! 22 minutes ago, Yowie said: A nice tub of fish there. Thanks Yowie we had the flathead last night for dinner and put the snapper in the oven with some herbs and tahini..... 10/10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regan Posted May 22, 2017 Share Posted May 22, 2017 looks like some pirates are coming to invade you Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rickmarlin62 Posted May 22, 2017 Share Posted May 22, 2017 if you get hassled by sweep I find if I burley heavy and keep them near the boat then cast out the back of the trail you can still get reds...if the sweep are ratting your baits go to bigger baits or use whole heads off yakkas or slimies..I sometimes cut the head of sweep with part of there body trimmed thinner and use that..rick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scratchie Posted May 22, 2017 Share Posted May 22, 2017 1 hour ago, rickmarlin62 said: if you get hassled by sweep I find if I burley heavy and keep them near the boat then cast out the back of the trail you can still get reds.. Lol..... you've been fishing north rock too much...haha (sweep city) But rick is right, keep them close to your boat and cast out back 30m or so. Remember also that action creates action! Cheers scratchie!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wellzy94 Posted May 22, 2017 Share Posted May 22, 2017 I saw that boat on Sunday, we joked it was advertising for the new Pirates movie! Lol. Good feed, well done! Cheers, Wellzy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leonardgid Posted May 23, 2017 Share Posted May 23, 2017 how many whales did you see on the day ? and did you get any close to your boat ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
big Neil Posted May 23, 2017 Share Posted May 23, 2017 Very good session Sam even if not to plan. Great pictures too. Good job mate. BN Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GoingFishing Posted May 23, 2017 Author Share Posted May 23, 2017 12 hours ago, rickmarlin62 said: if you get hassled by sweep I find if I burley heavy and keep them near the boat then cast out the back of the trail you can still get reds...if the sweep are ratting your baits go to bigger baits or use whole heads off yakkas or slimies..I sometimes cut the head of sweep with part of there body trimmed thinner and use that..rick Thanks for the feedback Rick. I was watching some snapper vids on youtube in melbourne and they use whole whiting there ! I wonder if the Sydney reds like whiting too. Has anyone tried it? Deep sea red spots possibly. 10 hours ago, Wellzy94 said: I saw that boat on Sunday, we joked it was advertising for the new Pirates movie! Lol. Good feed, well done! Cheers, Wellzy Thanks Wellzy. Did you manage to get into a few? 6 hours ago, leonardgid said: how many whales did you see on the day ? and did you get any close to your boat ? Unfortunately none though about 6 weeks back one surfaced for air about 4m away from me and scared the life out of me.... 6 hours ago, big Neil said: Very good session Sam even if not to plan. Great pictures too. Good job mate. BN Thanks Big Neil. still happy with the overall result. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wellzy94 Posted May 23, 2017 Share Posted May 23, 2017 Nah I didn't mate, the fish didn't play ball. Kings were nowhere to be found on Sunday. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rickmarlin62 Posted May 23, 2017 Share Posted May 23, 2017 small redspots will work..anything the rubbish cant pik apart is useable..rick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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