Snapper..........do's and don'ts??

[Reel Nauti]

Most of my life has been spent around CQ and I have fished for 30years. I've never ever caught a snapper, and now that we are permanent residents at Petrie my wife and I are determined to hook this beautiful fish.

For whatever reason I always associated snapper with deep, blue water offshore. I have learnt since being here that is not necessarily the case. But can you tell me what this fish likes? Structure ie: reef, rock, pylons etc or do they also like a sandy rather featureless bottom. Baits/rigs?? Tides?........I mostly prefer to fish the incoming at night or early morn, but is this correct for Snapper?

We have a 4.4 tinnie. Can anyone give me a rough direction on where to try please?

Many thanks

Dave

[Roo]

in the brissie river seems popular for them, then the bay islands are just out from there if you have the appropriate safety gear. I don't know what tide...i just go when i can.

[revs57]

Dave, welcome to the big smoke!

Swano has a lot of success on the coffee rock reefs of Scarby...I'll get him to shoot ya a pm or sumpink about what he does, not rocket science mind you - he is only a chippie but he has regular success...it seems the snappery things love structure, very rarely have i caught them on flat barren country

Best success is the morning or evening bite but sometimes they will chew all day...can hit like frieght trains or be as finnicky as ya like... sometimes like their bait presented, other time they couldn't give a rip. Best baits, live slimie, pillie, mullett, big squid.

They love 7" jerk shad gulps in nuke chook, blue neon pepper, chartrues and black, pearl.

Yep a worthy fish to chase and catch

Cheers

Rhys

[scoota]

Rhys is right on the mark!

Just to throw a few more ideas to work on, I have often found that snapper will school up on sand, mud, weedy bottom around structure inshore and offshore and 99% of the time in front of what ever structure it may be!

Good luck..

Scoota...

[Seahorse]

Dave,
Have a go out front from woody point to scarb reef, which is very accessable.
I have caught a few there in last few weeks.

Cheers
Greg

[Leighton]

Just about all the bay islands with reef structure, either solid bommies, reef ledge or rubble bottoms and deep channels hold Snapper. I have pulled them out of 8 feet of water.
Most of my succes has come with a good tidal flow, they seem to like a bit of run in the water.
Around the Bay islands and also the river its important to find the bait using your sounder, the snaps are never to far behind.

[TheRealAndy]

I am in the same boat, so to speak, so if there are any experienced snapper fishos who are keen to give up a few tips on the water, I am happy to fund a training excercise. Your boat or mine, Reel Nauti your are invited of course

[Vindicator]

Gday Dave,

Get this months edition of bush and beach. A lot of the editorials focus on catching snaps, best ways, how to-s etc. After all tis the season.

Cheers
Kezza

[Horse]

I have only fished Scarby Reef a few times but have done quite well. It certainly holds some good fish.

I work at Lawnton so PM me if you want some drop by sometime and go over some details. I have some charts on hand usually. If not I am sure we can organise a trip to put it in practice

Cheers

Neil

[SummerTrance]

Also try researching through past threads on this site. There's a goldmine of info on here.

[Reel Nauti]

Gee it's great to get these replies. Thanks to all of you. I'm looking at Google Earth now and I can see rocks out from the tip of Scarborough. Would that be the coffee rocks??

Greg thanks for your tips I will look at that area too mate!

Rhys, thanks for your detailed info. I was getting the exitement jitters just reading it!

Neil, thanks heaps mate. I will send you a pm with a view to dropping by and picking your brains!

Andy, your proposal sounds great.

To everyone who has responded with so much help, THANKS!! I wish I had have started this thread months ago!

Cheers

Dave

[Scalem]

Hi Dave,

The Snapper are easy to become your main quarry, as it has with me , because they are such a challenging fish to try and find. Sure, there are schools of smaller fish that hang around all the popular haunts around the bay, and it doesn't seem to matter whether there's dozens of boats racing around, the fish seem to come on the chew regardless, so East of Green, Wello, Harries are all good fun at times.

But the bigger fish schools upward of 50cm are very flighty, and can move in and out of where you are fishing at the blink of an eye. EVERY time I wittnessed someone dropping loud chain anchor over the side, bigger fish go off the chew, and I don't expect anything to happen for at least 30 mins after they have been disturbed. But the number of times I have hung around a popular fishing area, the tide changes, most boaties up anchor and go somewhere else, is usually when the fish come back to play - and it can be in the middle of the day when the wind kicks up. Try to use as much stealth as possible when looking for them.

I recently went to a seminar about catching Snapper in the Bay. There were three main things to look for.
1. Structure close by 2. a food source close by ( such as bait schools) and the 3rd was current line. If you have the 1st two, you are doing well, but if you also have the 3rd, you are on a winner!!

Scalem

[Reel Nauti]

Thanks Scalem. By current line do you mean a gutter/ deeper area that moves a lot of water during the tide?

Cheers

Dave

[Poodroo]

You definitely don't need much to go out catching snapper really. My best snapper to date was a 74cm specimen caught in my old faithful 3.7 metre tinny off Mud Island in 10 metres of water on a 4" Nuclear chicken jerk shad using a 1/16 jighead. All you need to do is make sure you pick the right day weather wise (less than 10 knot winds) and you can access most of Moreton Bay in your boat. Here is a photo of the old boat and the second photo is of the fish. I set the camera on timer and balanced it on one of the seats to take the shot.





Regards,

Poodroo

[Scalem]

Thanks Scalem. By current line do you mean a gutter/ deeper area that moves a lot of water during the tide?

Cheers

Dave

Hi Dave,

Current line is most easily seen particularly around the bay islands where you have two main bodies of water coming together sometimes from opposing directions ( tide changes) or eddies on the downside of structure. Things to watch for are where water suddenly becomes smooth where there is a distinct line of separation or different colours of water. Another tell tail is debris along the current line, such as leaves and weed. You will often see long lines of debris for miles, but where it floats over structure.......Bait fish often hang around the debris, which is one reason bigger fish congregate there, and why pelagic fishermen often troll lures along this line.

Scalem