JonD Posted September 26, 2018 Share Posted September 26, 2018 Ok you lads getting among the snapper are doing my head in ?. I'm up to around 20 trips without even one, to rub salt in we are still blessed with lure steeling jackets and coota down here. Fished hard Saturday determined to break the curse and come home with at least one, first lure drop resulted in getting bitten off at one of the colour changes right near the surface just as my jig hit bottom ( 50m of braid instantly gone ). Moved to half dozen spots each loosing more gear on the drop before foul hooking a small leather jacket. Frustration turned to a silly kind of determination to just keep smacking everything we had over the side after a further move another 10km up the coast. Most people don't bother heading 40km chassing snapper but we were determined and with that over went the first of the $23 pirate jigs. This was instantly welcomed by the acres of coota, my daughter dropped 5 more over the side which were simply snipped off between 5-10m beneath the boat. Move after move resulted in the same. With 5 outfits onboard three now didn't have enough line to be used, so defeated again we decided to head for home. Rather than simply head back from our position I headed inshore to follow the back of the surf in hope of at least finding a couple of salmon for fishcakes. After 25 km we eventually found a patch that were almost on the beach. Luckily we were able to get the rib down a rip and cast straight into them before backing out to fight them in safer water. This was so adrenaline pumping not just because the salmon were in the jumbo class but the fact we had swell breaking either side of us. We soon had a little crowd watching from the beach, probably waiting to see an epic fail and a boat get rolled in the surf. I only got one chance on the fish as it was simply to risky to not stay in control of the boat constantly but that one fish really gave an amazing account for itself leaving me with an aching arm. After around eight fish a pod of dolphins moved in and we decided to leave it to them, after all this was probably about the best fun we've had in years ( beats marlin fishing hands down ). Loosing somewhere around $200 of plastics, micro's and pirates as well as now needing braid for three reels is making me more determined to persuade the wife it's time to move. We had a GoPro running for much of it so only did a couple of photos out in safe water, hopefully my daughter will put a video together soon. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
connico Posted September 26, 2018 Share Posted September 26, 2018 Damn the quest for snapper really doing your head in... Maybe its time to use bait till you're sorted yourself out? I've used strips of salmon like the kiwi's across the pond and it used to work wonders. Kept the jackets from the snipping the lines and hooks off... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Berleyguts Posted September 26, 2018 Share Posted September 26, 2018 They are some stud salmon, though, Jon! Well done! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JonD Posted September 26, 2018 Author Share Posted September 26, 2018 15 minutes ago, connico said: Damn the quest for snapper really doing your head in... Maybe its time to use bait till you're sorted yourself out? I've used strips of salmon like the kiwi's across the pond and it used to work wonders. Kept the jackets from the snipping the lines and hooks off... As a payback to the coota my daughter decided to drop a whole live one over the side. At around 5m the coota stopped falling to the bottom and my daughter thought maybe a shark had found it, it slowly moved off but when the reel went into gear it simply stopped. What came back after approx 30 seconds in the water was just a head without eyes or any skin. We did try different baits but none reached bottom, simply line goes slack during the fall only to find the line bitten off at knots or colour change. I hope to do a quick trip north of Sydney over the school hols so hopefully get my fix then. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scratchie Posted September 26, 2018 Share Posted September 26, 2018 Nice work on the salmon jon! Don’t think I’d be game to go surfing for a salmon. ? Are the jackets and couda your encountering in deep water? Or are you fishing shallow reefs? Sorry but the snapper are on the chew up here! ? cheers scratchie!!! 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blackfish Posted September 26, 2018 Share Posted September 26, 2018 Nice Salmon you lot, plus sounds like a great adventure getting the buggars. Lucky you fish for the enjoyment and you can't put a price on that ........ or maybe you can. ? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sam bros Posted September 26, 2018 Share Posted September 26, 2018 Unlucky on the snapper jon But those salmon are super fun to catch 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JonD Posted September 26, 2018 Author Share Posted September 26, 2018 5 hours ago, Scratchie said: Nice work on the salmon jon! Don’t think I’d be game to go surfing for a salmon. ? Are the jackets and couda your encountering in deep water? Or are you fishing shallow reefs? Sorry but the snapper are on the chew up here! ? cheers scratchie!!! They seem to be at most depths from 15m to 60m, I should of gone out deeper but didn't have enough line on the reels after trying the old areas. Its funny that species like wrasse and rock cod were once an embarrassment to bring home but these days because of lack of other species these are heavily targeted by the pro's ( or should I say were, as they to have become rare too). I wonder if these cleaners of the reefs effect what's happening with the abundance of these other tabor teeth species, did the wrasse keep spawn numbers down or pray on very small juvenile fish etc. One thing for certain is 10 years ago we had good numbers of snapper, gummies, mako, morwong etc and a handful of rec anglers. Five years ago we had 40-50 boats including charters, trappers and set line fishers. Now it's simply one or two boats bothering to try. I have dived some of the local sanctuaries and seen abundances in all marine life in comparison but still no snapper. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
masterfisho7 Posted September 26, 2018 Share Posted September 26, 2018 Nice report some nice fish love the photos 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Guest123456789 Posted September 26, 2018 Share Posted September 26, 2018 1 hour ago, JonD said: They seem to be at most depths from 15m to 60m, I should of gone out deeper but didn't have enough line on the reels after trying the old areas. Its funny that species like wrasse and rock cod were once an embarrassment to bring home but these days because of lack of other species these are heavily targeted by the pro's ( or should I say were, as they to have become rare too). I wonder if these cleaners of the reefs effect what's happening with the abundance of these other tabor teeth species, did the wrasse keep spawn numbers down or pray on very small juvenile fish etc. One thing for certain is 10 years ago we had good numbers of snapper, gummies, mako, morwong etc and a handful of rec anglers. Five years ago we had 40-50 boats including charters, trappers and set line fishers. Now it's simply one or two boats bothering to try. I have dived some of the local sanctuaries and seen abundances in all marine life in comparison but still no snapper. I checked a local fishmonger today that sells mostly locally caught seafood. on sale were wirrah cod, luderick, mullet and silver trevally. Absent was snapper, kingfish, mulloway and bream. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wizza Posted September 27, 2018 Share Posted September 27, 2018 Hard to believe an expert cant find one.They are there all year off Sydney tho sometimes mainly undersize.I fish 55 -70 metres.Was thinking of the trapping but there are plenty out here with traps going.Great work with the"reverse surf club rubber duckie " technique. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
big Neil Posted September 27, 2018 Share Posted September 27, 2018 17 hours ago, JonD said: They seem to be at most depths from 15m to 60m, I should of gone out deeper but didn't have enough line on the reels after trying the old areas. Its funny that species like wrasse and rock cod were once an embarrassment to bring home but these days because of lack of other species these are heavily targeted by the pro's ( or should I say were, as they to have become rare too). I wonder if these cleaners of the reefs effect what's happening with the abundance of these other tabor teeth species, did the wrasse keep spawn numbers down or pray on very small juvenile fish etc. One thing for certain is 10 years ago we had good numbers of snapper, gummies, mako, morwong etc and a handful of rec anglers. Five years ago we had 40-50 boats including charters, trappers and set line fishers. Now it's simply one or two boats bothering to try. I have dived some of the local sanctuaries and seen abundances in all marine life in comparison but still no snapper. The Snapper are all vacationing at the Entrance Jon. Hope you get some when you head north of Sydney. Maybe you should catch up with Scratchie. Nice report and some good sized Salmon anyway. Cheers, bn 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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