Snapper Roll Call

[Larkin]

Gday Raiders,

headed just outside Port Hacking for a fish this morning.

Plan was to try for some Snapper and Kingfish along the reefs, south of Port Hacking.

Caught some large slimies and yakkas and put out a live bait in hopes of a large king. Drifted, and then trolled it for no hits. It was a large bait, but figured I might get lucky.

While this bait was out, I worked the soft plastics rod.

It was a long hard slog, with a lot of casts - but I didn’t give up and at 10.30 hooked up on this nice Red! - it put up a really good fight - big line pulling runs and thumping head shakes!

After 5mins it surfaced and I landed it safely in the net.

A little while later I hooked up to a Slimie Mackerel and when I was bringing it in, it fought hard for a few seconds. Looks like it was grabbed by a large fish - bite mark looks about 10cm across - large kingy maybe? What does everyone think?

The Red came up spot on 70cm on the mat.

Also took home some slimies to make baits.

When I opened the stomach, inside was a 12cm one spot puller Chromis Hypsilpsis - same fish I asked about in the “Aquarium” section on here a few weeks back. It had two big bite marks where it had been chomped. Shows these larger snapper are actively chasing fish.

[campr]

Bite marks on slimey is typical squid attack.  Ron 

[fish-aholic]

A very well written report. What a cracking snapper. Well done mate.

[wazatherfisherman]

Another excellent fish! Jury's out on the bite on the slimy though

[Fab1]

What a nice fish mate.I might have to gear up to go outside as my snapper inside the hacking are right on 7cm not 70cm.Great read and top photos.Well done!!

[noelm]

No Kingfish will "bite" a Slimey like that, it was a Squid or Cuttlefish.

[Pickles]

Very nice snapper Chris. Well done 

Pretty sure Ron is on the money with squid. They usually bite and chew pieces from the back of the head of fish (the spine) to kill them. Next time this happens have a squid spike ready, cut the tail off the slimy (or Yakka or pilchard) and push through the mouth with spikes at the head end and cast it back out. Squid have a “parrot beak” and take bites out of the back of the head - this one looks like you had a squid on for quite a while (surprised you didn’t feel it “pulsing”).

[Yowie]

Another very nice reddie.

As you can see, the larger reds will eat most things when hungry. They even eat bristle worms, which are covered in silicone spikes. Cleaning the guts of larger reds that have eaten bristle worms results in yourself getting these spikes in your fingers, and they are hard to remove, and sting for some time. 

The bite marks on the mackerel are typical of a large squid or cuttle, as suggested by the others. They go for the brain first to kill the fish, then continue eating around that area.

[Little_Flatty]

Nice fish @Larkin! I think baked whole snapper is on the cards for you family this Christmas!

It really is a dog-eat-dog (or should I say squid-eat-fish) world down there under the water!

[Isaac Ct]

Great job Larkin, lovely snapper there. 

Well done. Keep at it.

[bessell1955]

Great Snapper, well done.

[Larkin]

8 hours ago, campr said:

Bite marks on slimey is typical squid attack.  Ron 

Thanks Ron, might have found a new deep water squidding spot!

8 hours ago, Reel’em said:

A very well written report. What a cracking snapper. Well done mate.

Thanks Reel’em! 
Could tell was going to be a really good one on the first run.

8 hours ago, wazatherfisherman said:

Another excellent fish! Jury's out on the bite on the slimy though

Thanks Waza! 
A lot of casts went into this one, was planning to head back in 30 mins and then it was all on!

7 hours ago, Fab1 said:

What a nice fish mate.I might have to gear up to go outside as my snapper inside the hacking are right on 7cm not 70cm.Great read and top photos.Well done!!

Thanks Fab! Worth a trip out as we have some good reefs not far from the entrance of the hacking.
These big fish seem to take plastics more readily than baits.

1 hour ago, noelm said:

No Kingfish will "bite" a Slimey like that, it was a Squid or Cuttlefish.

Thanks Noel!

must of been grabbed as soon as the slimie took the plastic

48 minutes ago, Pickles said:

Very nice snapper Chris. Well done 

Pretty sure Ron is on the money with squid. They usually bite and chew pieces from the back of the head of fish (the spine) to kill them. Next time this happens have a squid spike ready, cut the tail off the slimy (or Yakka or pilchard) and push through the mouth with spikes at the head end and cast it back out. Squid have a “parrot beak” and take bites out of the back of the head - this one looks like you had a squid on for quite a while (surprised you didn’t feel it “pulsing”).

Thanks Bob!

I felt what I thought was a fish on, then something big only for a few seconds, and up came the slimie like that. 
Might try some deep water squid jigs there next time - and I’ll have to purchase a squid spike.

 

1 hour ago, Yowie said:

Another very nice reddie.

As you can see, the larger reds will eat most things when hungry. They even eat bristle worms, which are covered in silicone spikes. Cleaning the guts of larger reds that have eaten bristle worms results in yourself getting these spikes in your fingers, and they are hard to remove, and sting for some time. 

The bite marks on the mackerel are typical of a large squid or cuttle, as suggested by the others. They go for the brain first to kill the fish, then continue eating around that area.

Thanks Yowie - was about to give up and call it a day.

Always good to know what they’re feeding on - thanks for the tip on the bristleworms. I always find grit in their stomachs too. Not sure if this is from something they’re eating or if they eat coral/gravel for digestion.

35 minutes ago, Little_Flatty said:

Nice fish @Larkin! I think baked whole snapper is on the cards for you family this Christmas!

It really is a dog-eat-dog (or should I say squid-eat-fish) world down there under the water!

Thanks little Flatty! 
My oven might not be big enough 😂

maybe on the bbq! 
 

This one I’m filleting and going to donate the frame and internal organs to fisheries - guy at the tackle shop said to donate the carcasses on these large snapper for research. I’m curious to know how old she was (they let you know) - she had roe.

27 minutes ago, Isaac Ct said:

Great job Larkin, lovely snapper there. 

Well done. Keep at it.

Thanks Isaac! this snapper season has been quite good outside - not many inside this year though.

14 minutes ago, bessell1955 said:

Great Snapper, well done.

Thanks Bessel,

was happy to get a good one at the end of the day.

[Yowie]

1 hour ago, Larkin said:

 

Thanks Yowie - was about to give up and call it a day.

Always good to know what they’re feeding on - thanks for the tip on the bristleworms. I always find grit in their stomachs too. Not sure if this is from something they’re eating or if they eat coral/gravel for digestion.

 

Reddies will eat just about anything, crunching up critters in shells or other rocky places, to extract the food inside. I have found shell/grit pieces in the legal reddies up river, so they must be doing it as part of their feeding habits from a young age.

[jenno64]

Great fish Larkin, you are Mr Consistency😁

As the others say I think squid or cuttle got your bait!

[Bluebenbomb]

That's a fat snapper, well done. I'm surprised the slimy got mauled so badly - didn't expect it to be a squid!

[Rebel]

Top haul.

Super photos.

Well done.

[Larkin]

9 hours ago, jenno64 said:

Great fish Larkin, you are Mr Consistency😁

As the others say I think squid or cuttle got your bait!

Thanks Rob, been refining the technique. I had said to myself at the start of the season that I was going to prove up the local area for decent sized snapper. Kept reading reports from other areas up and down the coast, but never a local report. Could see large fish on the sounder under baitfish, but they wouldn’t take a bait. The plastics are what changed my results.

8 hours ago, Bluebenbomb said:

That's a fat snapper, well done. I'm surprised the slimy got mauled so badly - didn't expect it to be a squid!

Thanks blueben, I’ve had my poddies grabbed and mauled by squid in the past - but I could of sworn that the slimie got grabbed only as I was bringing it up…although I may have been distracted by my other rod. Didn’t feel like a squid at the time.

4 hours ago, Obsessed Fisherman said:

Nice snapper - another fish that I haven't managed to get a legal size of.

Thanks OF! 
land based off the stones is your best bet for a good fish.

3 hours ago, Rebel said:

Top haul.

Super photos.

Well done.

Thanks Rebel! 
 

[Fishingwazza2019]

Good report, and very nice snapper. Bites on slimy, interesting ... well done

[Ryanbbbb]

Can I ask where you got yakkas/slimies? Struggling in the hacking of late