SA Snapper

by Brad Corrie

A typical day snapper fishing for me starts off getting to our snapper drop before sun up, setting the burley bag and flicking out baits. On this particular occasion, it wasn’t long and the reels started screaming and the rods were bending in the rod holders. We must have been sitting on a big school of fish because every bait that hit the water got slammed within minutes.

When they’re on like this, its sometimes a little more fun to try something different, so after catching and releasing a few snapper on baits, it was time to bring out the lighter gear. My choice, a Samurai Inflict 7′ 1pc spin rod, 3-8lb, matched with a 2500 sized reel, loaded with light 6lb Unitika braid. On the business end was an Atomic semi-hardz vibe 60mm size which was smashed on the drop almost as soon as it hit the water and started dropping. I didn’t even get time to twitch it. The rod performed better than I ever expected, catching snapper to 8kg on a 3-8lb rod is amazing fun. After landing more than 5 fish on this gear we decided to check out a few other drops we had close by.

We never made it to the other drops we wanted to look at. As soon as we started heading off, my mate screamed, birds, birds! On closer inspection fish feeding on the surface. We motored over to where the birds were feeding, keeping a wide birth as we didn’t want to spook the fish, and greeted by flashes of pink slamming the surface. This could only be one fish!SNAPPER.

I had already had a Atomic Plazo 7′ Jerk Minnow tied on and flicked it into the boils of water created from snapper feeding. It got nailed immediately with this fish going harder than ones hooked closer to the bottom, grabbing the plastic and heading straight down for the depths. We ended up landing a few fish before the school went deep and disappeared. At certain times of the year this snapper on surface action can be found all over Australia. This was a first for me, and I hope its not the last.

That’s what I love about fishing… you never know whats going to happen next or what you might see. Tight lines. S

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