# Snapper ? shy with CUTTLEFISH



## grinner (May 15, 2008)

think ive worked out how to catch a legal snapper or two but i have a question for the brains trust.

from about 8 trips to a patch of reef that is probably about 10 foot deep at low going to maybe 16 at high,
have only completely missed out once
fishing for about 3 hrs 
with just completely unweighted whole pillies with the hook completely buried.
(i thread the hook up inside the pillie and half hitch the leader. free spooled, might get a bait runner soon)

thats always been my preferred , to fish the shallows , not really the drop off.(i suppose it drops off the reef to about 24 feet).

but heres the question, i generally only get 1 or 2 fish and usually in the first hour of the 3 hour session and often in the first 30 minutes. the only time i got 4 was in 20 knots, rain and swell.

why are they disappearing for the second half of the session.

is it

A. there's only 1 or 2 legals down there (unlikely)
B. they see one of their mates screaming for help as he comes up and they scram
C. the process of releasing smaller fish and lots of bream spooks the bigger fish
D. the smell of bait scraps in the water attracts the smallies and the bigger ones go.
E. do snapper hang out in mixed schools or are bigs and littles intermixed.
or any other possibilities, i am intrigued.

do people like to stay on the move and would this help (possibly).

a few pics of the size fish that seem to only come as singles (lol). all only around 40 biggest probably only high 40"s


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## ArWeTherYet (Mar 25, 2007)

Its all in the way you hold your tongue.
Actually you dont look like you need any help, but with the choices you have (b) would be my preference. Even with the sounder on a school of small bay Squire they'll move around constantly.

If I were to target Snapper of any size, I would prefer to sound out a decent reef, preferably one that runs north/south and has a decent depression on the south eastern end. Then set up long drifts (usually takes a couple of goes to get it right), so your drifting with the current (always fish with the current), so your drifting as close to the reef as you can without going onto it and you end up at the southern end. You can run a unweighted bait out the back and one that has just enough lead to drag the bottom. The first of the run in is my preference. Sometimes they'll hit right on the very edge of the reef, sometimes a 100mtrs after it. I cant remember ever catching a Snapper bigger than 3 kg in the bay ontop of a reef. If you catch one, mark the location with a GPS and record the date. They seem to like certain locations at different times of the year.


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## AlexHobie (Dec 12, 2011)

Drop a go/pro down to see what's really happening


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## BIGKEV (Aug 18, 2007)

They move around constantly grazing.

Different spots fire at different stages of the tide and different locations seem to fire during certain years. Why? I don't know.....this is just an observation. But if you can find that patch that is producing fish this year then stick with as it may not fish very well next year.

Kev


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## 4weightfanatic (May 19, 2011)

I've never caught a snapper up here but here's a couple of pointers I have picked up from the guys that fish the shallow inshore reefs on the sunny coast using fly rods. Very early morning is best before other boat activity,set up a drift "test" parallel to the reef to get the direction right.try to avoid any shadow being cast by the yak/boat over the area fished and lastly but probably the most important keep all noise to nothing. No hooting (if you catch one) no pliers,rods,nets,gaffs or anything hitting your hull in the area being fished. 16 feet of water is pretty shallow so you'd even want to raise a cheek to let a quiet one go too !!!! :? Cheers Pat.


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## grinner (May 15, 2008)

thanks very much guys

good to get feedback from you paul and kev as i know you both know your stuff.
i mite try the drifting technique paul.
maybe even towing one of those mega mullett lively lures behind in the colours you like so much.
i think youre right, the bigger guys are probably not going to be in the shallows , epecially in daylight hours.
interesting you say the first of the run in , ive always liked as much run as possible so usually try to fish the middle 3 hours of the run in and the fish coming very early may well be the ones caught earlier in the run in.

alex, that is actually an excellent idea. i would be interested to see whats down there.

kev, maybe i'm just boring but i do tend to go back to the same spots. eventually you can even tell where a bombie is to the point where you know when the fish is running towards the dreaded cut off point.

digger, agree, little fish are sweet, i got a recipe that is very simple, coat fish in french onion soup powder, place in oven bag. place in oven.

my idiotic son cooked a bream once , scaled but not gutted argghhhhhh

4 weight. too true, stealth is your friend hay. i have always thought absolute silence and not casting shadows is important.
interesting though that sometimes on a bright day, fish seem to get right under the boat in the shadows. amybe they are sun smart.

a great old fellow i fish with has given me his dynamite "pudding recipe" which i think will work in this area. going to mix it up and have a crack sometime this week. sworn to secrecy about the ingredients but if it catches nothing it should make a nice damper


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## ArWeTherYet (Mar 25, 2007)

Pete the usual method around here is to drift dragging your preferred SP along the bottom. Not that fussed in catching them with trebles these days as it make a mess of there faces and they tend to freak out and dont fight as well. Lost too many blades to the rock monsters and dont find them viable. When you gut them, they are mostly full of bits of shell, occasionally jelly fish, found a half a baby shark once, old SP's, but mostly rubbish off the bottom. So if your going to use a bait I would put a little lead on it to get it to drag the bottom.
The fish up to 3kg definitely bite best in the fast running water in and around gravel patches, dawn and dusk, are best, but you can get them on the bite any old time. The bigger ones seem to like certain little spots at certain time of day and times of year (location, location, location). Definitely the tide change seems to bring them on the bite, my preference is the low, but sometimes it is high tide. You could also try letting a bit more line out when the small ones are on the bite and there could be bigger fish out a little further.


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## BIGKEV (Aug 18, 2007)

grinner said:


> kev, maybe i'm just boring but i do tend to go back to the same spots. eventually you can even tell where a bombie is to the point where you know when the fish is running towards the dreaded cut off point.


Nothing boring about that Pete, I too fish more or less the same spots each year, mostly drifiting and casting SP's. As I said, some years these spots have yeilded results on every trip with the occasional ridiculously good session and then some years we never catch a fish there. Discussions about the reasons have included speculation on a build up silt, or the weed growth isn't sufficient to hold the bait etc. But the fact remains that these are prominent rocky outcrops / bombies that are well away from the crowds that fish this particular area and you would expect them to hold fish. It should go into one of lifes great mysteries thread.

A friend told me of an episode of ET in New Zealand where they were looking at some of the research done on NZ snapper in green zones where no fishing was allowed. What they found was that although many people thought that the fish were transient and moving into the shallows at certain times of the year only, radio tracking data showed many of the fish inculding the big fellas to be resident fish occupying the same area all year round. They also noted that the populations continued to increase in the green zone (no fishing) area and seemed to spill out good numbers of fish into adjacent areas.

Food for thought.....


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## grinner (May 15, 2008)

quick go this avo using the techniques yielded 4 of these little buggers and would have got a lot more except they kept jumping off the line as i tried to net them.

dangerous little men, destroyed my work shirt.

safest place to store them was down the mirage drive


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## koich (Jul 25, 2007)

I fixed the photo for you Pete.


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## solatree (May 30, 2008)

Don't know if this will work up your way Pete - but I use a single 5/0 circle hook, either unweighted or lightly weighted with a small running ball sinker, baited with a half pilchard (half hitch around the tai) - hook well exposed. Can also use pieces of fresh fish - cutlets or fillets (I like cutlets, OldDood likes fillets - both work) or pieces of squid / cuttle fish - hook always well exposed and drag set. Works well in SA waters.


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## Squidley (May 8, 2010)

koich said:


> I fixed the photo for you Pete.


pfffffffffffhahaha


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## grinner (May 15, 2008)

thanks again fellas.

bertros thank you

paul, sounds like a very good plan, i agree they have some funny things in their guts. i was quite pleased to catch one with a length of very thick mono hanging from its anus and a swivel just about to come thru, proof they can process rubbish tucker. agree a fish that eats so much bits of sharp rubble would probably pass a hook.

agree, i like lots of run, (and rain and chop).

cav, pretty much my technique, free spool and wait til its coming off then bail arm over and strike. they seem to run out of steam fairly quickly.

theres always been a lot of debate about whether to strike early or late. who knows.

liam, sounds like you have some very interesting and technical techniques. ive never used a blade. they look like you could go thru a few in a session.

laim and kev, very interesting news on green zones and fish being resident. never knew that.

i think the rise from 30 to 35 has helped too, amazing how many 33 cm fish you catch

solatree, pretty much my technique though i use a 3/0.
i think plastic may be better as they dont spin and bait spin is very bad and almost impossible to stop if you put pressure on the line (which is why i free spool) but i lost 2 packets of gulp curl tails to pike and bream and little snappers who just love to bite their tails.
clarkey showed me some z mans which looked far more durable so mite give those a crack

had to look up what brazzers was
looks like a womens cosmetics site, think those ladies really need to rub that moisturiser into their face a little better if it is to be effective


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## ArWeTherYet (Mar 25, 2007)

Ha ha. I've only ever caught a Cuttle fish once and that was a huge one up at 1770. Surprised I dont ever get them around here as there are heaps of there bones floating around, always collect a few for the Buggies. You lob off the heads and float one out as bait. I've done that with Squid when the Snapper arent biting and it always gets a fish. So what exactly were you catching them with?

Liam I've tried singles on the Jackals with not much success. I think the trebs get them cause half the time theyre just being nosey and get hooked outside the mouth.


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## BIGKEV (Aug 18, 2007)

grinner said:


> had to look up what brazzers was
> looks like a womens cosmetics site, think those ladies really need to rub that moisturiser into their face a little better if it is to be effective


 :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:


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