antonywardle Posted February 13, 2018 Share Posted February 13, 2018 (edited) Hi all I got the chance to head outside with a mate from the fishing club to target snapper. I'd not managed a keeper before (in Aus),although I'd not really targeted them. So an early start and we headed off to a broken bay reef to see what we could find. I decided that I needed to test out my new travel rod. So I rigged up a paternoster and dropped it over. Something big picked it up, bent the rod and then it snapped. The little reel was struggling, the rod tip went over and the fish was still on. Then it broke off, so I figured I'd been bitten off and the rod tip had fallen off. I wound up and my rig was still there, along with my rod end and a very surprised Sargent baker that seemed to have lost it scales. We were thinking that I'd hooked the Sargent baker, that was then picked up by a shark, and when the rod tip ran down the line it surprised it, and it spat the baker out. Annoyed that I'd broken my rod on its first trip. We carried on fishing and I used my other rod. We got on to a couple of bonnys, and then I noticed that my rod tip had a bend in it, sure enough, a few minutes later, it broke off as well. No idea why this happened. The fish went quiet so we moved. Next place we started fishing again, and I was able to use my broken rod, with the tip missing. I got on to my first red, and it went 1kg clean, then I started picking up some morwongs, and my day was looking better, until the rod snapped again.On to rod number three and I stayed with that for the rest of the day. After that we came back in and picked up some more snapper and morwongs before calling it a day. Ended up with a good bag that I added to the next day with some mullet at the entrance. Sorry for the late notice @MainframeJames, the entrance was good, but there was a bit of a storm half way through. So I add three new keepers to my list,snapper, morwong and trevs. I used a paternoster rig, exactly the same as I would use for flathead drifting, the only difference being I had a smaller (snapper) lead. I also put on a soft plastic, as @zmk1962, taught me a while back. The blue and white (pilchard) one worked best, a plain white was was ok, but nothing else did any good. Morwongs were only picked up on a cut pilly and you were more likely to get a snapper on a whole pilly. My Navionics says that I went 88km and I filled up with 38.4 litres and used between 340-700 mls of oil. The navionics turned off for a while when the tablet over heated and also reported that the ETEC managed to get the boat to a max speed of 142 km/h! I think that for most of the time, I wasn't going any fast than 30km/h. It was a bit bumpy but I didn't get sick. I changed four things from that last vomit trip I did. I had company, I only had one beer on Friday night, I took my blue compound pill when I got up and I had a 1 1/2 litre bottle of ginger beer to drink during the day. I think that these combined with being quite busy for the 12 hours meant that I didn't have a chance to think about anything else. After that, I had to decide how to cook the snapper, and ended up going for a simple smoked paprika, lemon pepper seasoning and lightly floured pan fried in coconut oil, butter and a little olive oil, and I think they turned out pretty well and served with a salad. Thanks for reading! Edited February 13, 2018 by antonywardle formatting and new picture 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter Nelson Posted February 13, 2018 Share Posted February 13, 2018 Nice catch, shame about the rods Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zmk1962 Posted February 13, 2018 Share Posted February 13, 2018 Great report @antonywardle! You'll have to teach me the snapper spots mate - I have been struggling with that species. The final feed looks delish! Regarding rods....man you lucked out... not sure how that happens in one trip - must be a manufacturing problem for sure! Warranty??? BTW, I have used Silstar crystal tips (like ugly sticks) and Penn crystal tip rods... some I have owned since 1990's and they are still going strong... the hypalon rubber grips are starting to harden but the rods and guides solid as.... may not be the fanciest rods around but they get the job done day in day out. Cheers Zoran Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scratchie Posted February 14, 2018 Share Posted February 14, 2018 Great work Anthony!! I always love a report-plate story! It also makes me hungry! Well done mate cheers scratchie!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rickmarlin62 Posted February 14, 2018 Share Posted February 14, 2018 Nice first now a 5kg model next...rick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Berleyguts Posted February 14, 2018 Share Posted February 14, 2018 Well done, Anthony! After the first one, the rest are supposed to come easy! Right @Scratchie @rickmarlin62 ? ?? Was supposed to fish today but have had to finish a landscaping job I started yesterday. Gotta earn those brownie points. Maybe Friday but depends on the swell. 1.9m easterly pushing against light to moderate W - SW winds... although, according to WW there is about a 2 hour window of glassy conditions on Friday morning! ???? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
antonywardle Posted February 14, 2018 Author Share Posted February 14, 2018 thank for the encouragement guys. the travel rod broke in the middle and I have a spare one, the guy I was with said I was high sticking and graphite isn't so good for that, so it might have been operator error. Not sure about the other rod, although it was $80 reduced to $29 on sale, and then with my members card $22, so I'm not too upset, although I did like it. I'll look out for some of your rods Zoran. I guess my next step is to back up my catch and do it without my buddy. There is an art to finding a spot and then being able to anchor on it. If you start catching flower pots, then you are too close to the reef, and if you catch flathead, you are too far away. Ideally if you catch both of those while swinging, then you are in the right spot, well that's what I got told. Probably won't be out this weekend. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rozza_b Posted February 14, 2018 Share Posted February 14, 2018 4 hours ago, Berleyguts said: Well done, Anthony! After the first one, the rest are supposed to come easy! Right @Scratchie @rickmarlin62 ? ?? Was supposed to fish today but have had to finish a landscaping job I started yesterday. Gotta earn those brownie points. Maybe Friday but depends on the swell. 1.9m easterly pushing against light to moderate W - SW winds... although, according to WW there is about a 2 hour window of glassy conditions on Friday morning! ???? 1.9m of swell with a westerly to me that just says glassy conditions especially with a period that long 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rozza_b Posted February 14, 2018 Share Posted February 14, 2018 Great work on the fish mate In regards to the rods, how high have you got your drag set ? sounds very unusual to snap 2 rods in 1 trip...and to break one in the middle well that could well be a bit of operator error or might not be, generally i rarely lift my rod over horizontal that way the whole rod is doing the work, anyways unlucky on the rods Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Berleyguts Posted February 14, 2018 Share Posted February 14, 2018 (edited) 32 minutes ago, rozza_b said: 1.9m of swell with a westerly to me that just says glassy conditions especially with a period that long Might just give it a bash then. Gonna be a lot of boats out with the Shootout on this weekend. Edited February 14, 2018 by Berleyguts Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Berleyguts Posted February 14, 2018 Share Posted February 14, 2018 24 minutes ago, rozza_b said: Great work on the fish mate In regards to the rods, how high have you got your drag set ? sounds very unusual to snap 2 rods in 1 trip...and to break one in the middle well that could well be a bit of operator error or might not be, generally i rarely lift my rod over horizontal that way the whole rod is doing the work, anyways unlucky on the rods I snapped my first rod ever on a fish a few months back. It was an Ugly Stik. Yes, I high sticked it but the old Ugly Stiks used to be able to take a beating. Not so the new versions. I’m much more careful now. Although Shakespeare wouldn’t honour the warranty, the retailer replaced it out of goodwill. And their goodwill means I’ll shop there again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Basil D Posted February 14, 2018 Share Posted February 14, 2018 Love reds but dont like mowies much, how do you like them Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter Nelson Posted February 14, 2018 Share Posted February 14, 2018 2 hours ago, Basil D said: Love reds but dont like mowies much, how do you like them I don't mind mowies, as long as you fillet and take out the black gut lining 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sam bros Posted February 18, 2018 Share Posted February 18, 2018 Nice work mate 142km/h?? what boat and engine do you have? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MainframeJames Posted February 18, 2018 Share Posted February 18, 2018 @antonywardle I just picked up a new Snapper rod I'd be happy to endanger. No worries on the late notice, there's always another day for fishing. Trips sound fantastic, congrats in all your new catches. ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
antonywardle Posted February 18, 2018 Author Share Posted February 18, 2018 (edited) Outboard is an Etec 90. Fastest I seen is around 60km/hr. I think that the GPS over heated for a bit, turned off and then when it cooled down, I'd moved so it did a quick calc and came up with the speed. @MainframeJames, come down to the club on Thursday night and we will try and tee you with someone to go fishing with. I''m going out somewhere next weekend, I'm just not sure. I guess wait and see about the weather. What snapper rod did you end up buying? cheers Edited February 18, 2018 by antonywardle Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MainframeJames Posted February 18, 2018 Share Posted February 18, 2018 Shimano Snapper Special 761 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Welster Posted February 18, 2018 Share Posted February 18, 2018 A couple of good fish there. It’s pretty easy to break a graphite rod especially if you high stick it or have the drag wound up tight. Id be stoked having found a snapper spot Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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