Dredging for Snapper

[flyfisho]

Took a run out this arvo with one of my mates for one thing only, chasing Snapper on fly . as this was the first time we have specificly targeted Snapper we didn't expect to much . Just as well because it wasn't super hot fishing we did however manage a few decent squire which I suppose is a start . I will be looking to improve on this over winter . I was wondering if any of you guys have had success with targeting snapper on fly ? if so please explain . here is one from this arvo hopefully we should be able to improve on this easily . I reckon that if you can traget them with plastics reguarly , you should be at least be able to take the fluke out of catching them on fly. should be just time on the water.
I am keen to hear others experiances.

[Maxg]

If you fish them at night, you should try phosphorescent, like glo in the dark flies. And if its in deepish water in daylight use fluorescent chartruse things.
They do eat flies and aren't hard to take. I'd use a rod with a bit of grunt, no 2 weights for example, More like a 12#.
MaxG.

[flyfisho]

Thanks for the info Max , we did originaly use Chartruse due to the visibility of that colour in deep water, however due to a lack of concentration the reef claimed them , this fish was on a yellow over white clouser , the next brightest one.
excuse my ignorance but by "phosphoresent" do you mean glow in the dark ?

[tiges]

Well done Chrispy. How deep were ya fishing? When am I going out in your shiny new boat? Oh, you probably can't tell me here.....can't be seen fraternising with oafs that use "conventional" gear.

[flyfisho]

You Idiot :grin:
Want to hit it next weekend ? I have always got room for you Mate
need someone to net my fish
Tim I was fishing from 30 - 12 ft

[tiges]

Can't go next wknd, going camping up DI. That's if I don't catch the flu off my wife, who caught it off your missus when they went out for dinner last wknd. The following wknd could be a goer.

[crazy charlie]

Gday FF,

1stly congrats on the capture, the fish in the photo is a great fish well done on a first up effort.

Ive been blessed with great success with big reds on fly, they are a schooling fish and super aggressive most of the time. It is far more important not to spook them approaching the ground than fly selection. If u can locate a decent school of fish or burley them up in a way where they are not disturbed u r as good as on! .

Locating the decent schools and keeping the info to yourself is the hard part

[NickCurrey]

Snapper on fly are not that hard. Main thing is to get the fly into the strike zone, and depending on depth of water you are fishing, may need some serious sinking heads or sink tips. I like the Teeny shooting heads - find a 200grain on a 9/10wt gets me down in 20-50 ft of water fast enough. Fish 8kg tippet straight through. Best flies are 3-5" clousers, yellow over white, fluoro orange over white or purple over white, all with flash tied in them work. Snapper suck them in really well. A short strip/draw/strip works well.

Good luck

Nick

[GHOST-147]

If you're fly fishing at night, albeit fluoro flies work, you don't need fluoro flies. Black, white, and flies with alot of movement work well and better on a lot of species at night. Why? Think for a moment. At night, the idea of fluro is for us to see. Fish havea far more actue eyesight than us and furthermore, they then also at night look towards using their lateral line senses to sense pulsations and movement from nearby injured prey.

Fly fishing for snapper is not "fluky" but a great skill to have in your arsenal. And yes, I find it more exhilerating than using plastics at times.

I am normally targetting snapper in shallow reef systems so I use intermediate fly lines, but if you're in say more than 6m chasing them I'd personally use sinking fly lines.

Fly wise, clousers as usual, the crustacae patterns (cos that's what is in the reefs where I am), polar sparkle baits work, etc.

[Maxg]

FlyFisho..... Yes Glo in the dark material.
For the well informed, fish, snapper etal, use grey scale vision at night, same as us, and at 30 feet in daylight red colour is gone and so is every otother colour, like orange, yellow, indigo and violet. Only blue/green remains.
And yes fish use their lateral line to pick up pressures and rarfractions , mostly used to detect things associated with schooling and sharks which feed at night in reef situations, where snapper live.
You could try berleying the things, and they do school up, and quite often feed off surface baifish, I got my only sb\napper on the surface in a schooling frienzy on little bait fish. Used a whte Deceiver.
If I was dong that, dredging, I'd be using a pretty hunky rod and a hefty lead core line and a big chartruse fluorescent fly in daylight, because its really very bright green, and at night a Glo fly because squid often light up and pinks eat thingslikke Squid.
For the record go down to the local tackle shop and have a look at a Shimano Starlo Surf Styx in 9", the blue one, its $109 ,and its easy to fit a winch mount in that space between the grips. Very tough fly rod, 40g is 617grains and the rod is about 13 weight. You can get 650gn heads, fast sink or stuff solder up a chunk of 20lb briaded mono to make a really fast sinking head.
For a 650gn 35' head you will need 18gns/ft lead core.
Look in the hardware shops or Dick Smiths and get a solder around .85mm diameter. Get a grain scale and weigh a 12 inch chunk.
Ends up very cheap, a spool of 20lb braided momo and a spool of solder. Makes a few heads.
Put splices at each end and glue the mono braid to the solder every few feet with Loctite 406 super glue.
Good luck...Max.