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Broughton Snapper 10-04-22


Brendan Monks

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With the numerous reports of Snapper and Cobia steadily coming in through the week me and a mate got keen to give Broughton Island a crack seeing we’ve had a cracker game fishing season so far (Report still to come! 🤪). It’s been way too long since I had fished up there, but my mate has fished it a bit, and had a good idea after a sesh with @Scratchie a while ago.🤙

I made the early drive up with my boat picking him up at the end of the freeway at 3am, and we finally got on the water just after 4am. We didn’t bother stopping for baits as we wanted to fish a certain location on first light! There wasn’t much current at that spot, and we quickly moved on after hitting the area hard with plastics for nothing.

We tried another zone, and my rod in the holder soon came up tight to a nice little pannie that gave a good account for itself in the shallow water! Ricky was quickly into another until the bite stopped completely and we moved to another location. I picked out a nice spot with the whitewash channeling between a few rocks and positioned the boat a distance out to drift in. Ricky quickly came tight, and just as quickly got reefed by a good fish popping the leader! 🤣

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It seemed the Snapper weren’t taking to the plastics as much as we thought and now with it pushing 10/11 o’clock we decided to go for a sound around to find some bait before marking a lot on a reef edge. Working the plastics fast across the surface I soon came tight to some small Bonito that went straight back out as strip bait. Yeewww. That seemed to do the trick, and Ricky was onto a nicer fish that came in at 55cm.

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Unfortunately we couldn’t tempt any more sizeable Snapper but had a bit of fun catching more Bonnies and the plague of small rat Kings that seemed to pop up everywhere. I decided to keep 1 Bonito to BBQ up as I’ve heard they aren’t too bad on the chew…I thought they were only great bait!

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With time getting on from us, and having only planned to fish half a day there was 1 spot I wanted to try in the deeper water before heading back in. After a short ride out we quickly had some fresh baits out to tempt a snapper…or something else that is brown and breaks a lot of hearts. 😑 After a visit by Maritime checking our gear etc. (Which I don’t mind at all!) we had the baits back out before mine was screaming off in free spool.

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I quickly clicked the bail arm over and came up tight. At first I thought I had snagged the reef and drifted over the line as it went under the boat! I managed to get it over the bow before I felt some MASSIVE head shakes. “I’m definitely on” I yelled to Ricky as it came straight up from 40m to the surface – The next thing the line popped in the middle (Not even on a guide or the reel roller) without even taking any drag (And I had used the exact rod all day going hard on Bonnies and Kings). I’ll never forget the size of this Cobia on the surface, made worse watching the line cruise across the top with not a single thing we could do! 😭

In all, another cracker day on the water with a few nice feeds of the target species throughout the week. Now for a trip to Crowdy Head with every man and his dog this weekend to see what we can tempt. Fingers crossed a 20/30kg Cobe has my name on it. 🤙🍻

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Cheers, Brendo

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You managed a nice feed of reds.

A bugger about the line parting with a good fish. I find sometimes that toothy critters - bonnies, tailor - will swim into the line while they are chasing bait and the teeth are chopping away onto your line, but you do not see the nicks in the line which are way above the hook, hence the line unexpectantly parting from the hooked fish.

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Thanks for the report and commiserations on your loss. Keep your expectations for Crowdy in check - the young fulla & our mate fished today for 1 snapper on a livie. They dished shallow. Water 23 but still dirty. Sloppy conditions. Sounds like you should try wider. Keep us posted. Hoods

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1 hour ago, Yowie said:

You managed a nice feed of reds.

A bugger about the line parting with a good fish. I find sometimes that toothy critters - bonnies, tailor - will swim into the line while they are chasing bait and the teeth are chopping away onto your line, but you do not see the nicks in the line which are way above the hook, hence the line unexpectantly parting from the hooked fish.

Cheers Yowie.

That may explain it thanks! I thought maybe a Snapper run me through kelp slightly may have also done it, but I rather your theory 😄

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1 hour ago, big Neil said:

What a great report Brendo. An ideal day on the water with some wins and a few losses. You obviously had a fantastic time and were well rewarded with plenty of fish for Easter. Love the photos too. bn

Thanks Big Neil! 🤙

35 minutes ago, Larkin said:

That snapper dish looks delish!

Nice catch👍

Cheers mate.

Thought I'd try a Thai Chilli Snapper recipe (Just found online) over coconut rice. Tasted amazing! 🤤

10 minutes ago, Hoods said:

Thanks for the report and commiserations on your loss. Keep your expectations for Crowdy in check - the young fulla & our mate fished today for 1 snapper on a livie. They dished shallow. Water 23 but still dirty. Sloppy conditions. Sounds like you should try wider. Keep us posted. Hoods

Thanks for the heads up Hoods. Plans have changed slightly now and I'll be only fishing Sunday and Monday...Hopefully a few reports come through and I'll see if it's worth the trip up...Otherwise Broughton again! 🤙 

Yep, the water was crazy dirty at the heads, but plenty of fish busting up through it.

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40 minutes ago, Brendan Monks said:

Cheers Yowie.

That may explain it thanks! I thought maybe a Snapper run me through kelp slightly may have also done it, but I rather your theory 😄

A few times over the years, I have been anchored up in the Hacking and watched a tailor jumping near the boat but not too far out of the water. Then realised that the tailor had something it it's mouth, my bloody line. Pull the line in and find teeth marks in the line, way up above the hook. Pull the line between the hands and snapped with only minimal pressure because of the chew marks, which I would not have noticed otherwise.

Other times I have had a run on a line, no hookup, then find a fray up the line and the bait not touched. Mongrel tailor swimming into the line.

Have lost a few nice fish over the years, line parted with not a lot of pressure, then find teeth marks where the line had parted, way up above the hook.

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5 minutes ago, Yowie said:

A few times over the years, I have been anchored up in the Hacking and watched a tailor jumping near the boat but not too far out of the water. Then realised that the tailor had something it it's mouth, my bloody line. Pull the line in and find teeth marks in the line, way up above the hook. Pull the line between the hands and snapped with only minimal pressure because of the chew marks, which I would not have noticed otherwise.

Other times I have had a run on a line, no hookup, then find a fray up the line and the bait not touched. Mongrel tailor swimming into the line.

Have lost a few nice fish over the years, line parted with not a lot of pressure, then find teeth marks where the line had parted, way up above the hook.

The bonito were in plague proportions which may explain it!

Still, I have a score to settle with a big cobia...if anyone finds one with hook, leader, and line... 🤣

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Always a great day out of Port Stephens! You and Ricky did well considering there was no bait anywhere! Good luck up crowdy. Sorry I can’t join you but pretty excited for my first paid trip to WA! 
 

cheers scratchie!!! 

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On 4/15/2022 at 8:09 AM, Scratchie said:

Always a great day out of Port Stephens! You and Ricky did well considering there was no bait anywhere! Good luck up crowdy. Sorry I can’t join you but pretty excited for my first paid trip to WA! 

No problem at all mate! I had a change of plans anyway and only fished Sunday arvo and Monday morning for pretty much just Mac Tunas 🤣

Edited by Brendan Monks
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