Ready for the Taxidermist

[Scallywag]

This boy, who weighs in at 8.4kg, has been wrapped in plastic and placed in the freezer ready for the taxidermist. I know blokes have caught plenty of bigger snapper but I decided to have him ‘stuffed’ because I have only been fishing offshore since February and he is my first ‘old man snapper’.

I caught this bloke, along with a number of his smaller mates, at spot X off Moreton Island in about 50 metres, yesterday. Here’s how it happened.

I was out there fishing by myself, drifting and working two rods. On one rod I was floating down a soft plastic, on the other, half a pillie. All of a sudden the rod with the pillie explodes into action with the reel screaming. I knew I had something big on. The reel screamed for about three minutes. Once the screaming stopped I managed to get about three winds of the reel in before the reel started to howl again. At first I thought I had caught a big cobia, or amberjack, or some other leviathan, but then started to feel some serious head shaking. This got me pretty excited. After a number of strong runs I started to get more line off the fish then he was taking off me. About ten minutes later I finally had him to the side of the boat. With no gaff handy I had no option but to try and scoop him up in a net. It just fitted in…

The pleasure I feel in catching this fish is just enormous. I’m sure all the other members of the ‘old man snapper’ club know the feeling.

Cheers

[Scallywag]

Another Picture of "Old Man Snapper".

[agnes_jack]

Nice fish Scallywag!!!
Should look good over the bar mate, well done

Regards, Tony

[chanquetas]

Thats what I want to bring onboard the kayak next week....

[Scallywag]

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[krtazy]

nice fish mate you will have to post some pics whan its done