Light Tackle Snapper on GC

[Colorado]

Headed out for my first Snapper session for the season on Sunday morning. Loaded up the tinnie and headed for a patch of reef I found whilst trolling for little blacks on Colorado during the summer. I hit the spot at about 6 am and with no sounder on board I set the pic on my GPS mark and hoped it would find the reef. It held straight away and I settled down and started the burley trail. I loaded my Calcutta 700 with a big Slimy (caught on the bait reef on the way out) and set it under a Balloon. Then started to drift baits out on 8lb and 12lb light spin outfits.

As I drifted back my second bait the slimy got smashed but didn't stay connected. By the size of the splash and boil near the balloon I’m guessing it was a little black or a big Cobia. As I wound it in my 12lb outfit started to loose line and I connected to the first fish of the morning. After about 10min I landed the first snapper of the session, a good fish around 7-8kg. As I unhooked the Snapper I floated out another bait on the 8lb outfit and went about getting the hooks out of the first fish. Only to see it take off about 15m down. It felt like a big Red and it dusted me on the bottom after about 4 min without getting a turn back on the reel.

Next bait down was also smashed again on the 8lb and this time did not make it to the reef. After a good fight on the light line a 4kg Snapper came to the surface.

Things went quite for about 5 min before a little Kingy took the next bait and was released after a short fight. The next 30min resulted in a number of nice Squire in the 35-45cm range come over the side which were all released.

The next good fish hit the 12lb outfit and was no Squire. When it came to the surface after a good 10 min fight, my 3rd Snapper for the morning was in the esky. The fish was a nice one around the 6kg mark. By 8.30 I had 3 good fish in the boat, more than enough for a few great feeds for the family and called it a day.

[Colorado]

The three Snapper.

[Colorado]

The First and Best fish of the morning.

[gcbfc]

Super fish there Leigh !

Well done.

Cheers

Wayne

p.s. You on a canal there ? I seem to recognise the background.

[Cloud_9]

how far out did ya go .
guessin only close for small tinnie??
top fish though still to get 1 this season.

Cheers Cloud 9

[JB]

Mate some great eating there! Good to see some top fish on light line, which i assume was braid?
What was the current like out there?

Jas

[Colorado]

Wayne, thats my canal at Paradise Point.

It was Fireline and there was very little current would have been even better if it had of been flowing a bit more.

I fish out of a 4.1m tinnie with a 30hp. My range is anywhere from the seaway out to about the 36's off the Pin or south to the Brumbies.

[nhoj]

Nice fish there Leigh. I have been outside the seaway on many occassions, have own boat, and have never caught a snapper yet. Where approximately are the bait grounds you refer to? It appears to me that the majority of posts that talk about catching fish off the seaway are anchored up. Maybe this is the trick as I always drift. I thought that I would go on a charter and learn the tricks but I am afraid the day I went out with them we caught nothing either. Any suggestions would be much appreciated. John.

[Jeremy]

If you want to learn something from a charter, pick one of the smaller operations like Ross McCubbin or Bill Corten.

Even better join a local fishing club!

IMHO you are much better to be anchored up on some good structure or a bait school and burleying than you are drifting.

BTW, nice fish Colorado, but would have been even more impressive on IGFA rated line ;D

Cheers,

Jeremy

[PAT01]

Good fish leigh.

Mate you did well to find some slimies, they are definately alot better bait than the old yakka's. Have you been getting many fish on the big boat lately.

Cheers,
Patrick

[Colorado]

Pat, have not been out on the big boat for a while. To busy with footy finals and training etc.

John, Lucky Strike in my opinion is the one of the best charter operation on the coast and 99.9% of the time Ross put you on some great fish. He will also give you some tips on how you can do it on your own boat.

[nhoj]

Thanks for that Leigh. The charter I went on was booked with a well known operator for a day trip but when we were able to get out he had sold the business to someone else. There were only three fisherman on board and we all had vochures with the previous owner and I don't know if this had any influence but i am afraid the operator just was not that interested in going out or chasing around. About 1130 he decided that as there was not much about we should go in and he would credit us with another half day at a later stage. After ringing three times to get on another trip and they were always full I gave it up as a bad joke.
I have done a lot of fishing off the Tweed in younger days and we never used a pick and always drifted. It was no problem then to get a bag in a couple of hours. Regards, John.

[TOLGA]

Bastard ::)

[Heath]

Sounds like H@@ker.

My mate won a double pass for an outing at the Sanctuary Boat show a few years back. For some reason he was always booked solid whenever we tried to get on ( which was at least twice a month while the voucher was valid ), funny that the same operator always advertised for people for his charters..... ::) ::) ::)