# SA - metro marauders



## solatree (May 30, 2008)

The Adelaide metro snook are about and Skorgard and I decided on an early sunday morning raid. A 6 am launch and sure enough, before sun up - plenty of strikes just 100m-200m off the beach and I had 3 caught and released before Skorgard had launched ! But these were not the 80cm plus specimans of a couple of weeks back - still fun though. Then a lull before we hit a patch, this time with biguns mixed in - and some really good runs and aerial displays. We lost quite a few fish (I was bitten off 3 times) but also landed stacks - a fun action packed morning. I kept 6 for the smoker plus family and friends. The rest were released to play another day.
















Towards then end of the morning, as I was coming in, I noticed a passenger on the front of the kayak.








We have a locust plague running through SA at the mo - and this one was about 400m offshore when it found the front of my Kayak !


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## OldDood (Nov 6, 2008)

Glad you and Paul had a good time.
Smoked snook yum.
Not sure if it is legal to rescue locusts at the moment. I think you can expect a visit from the Ag. Dept. :lol: 
Mark


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## suehobieadventure (Feb 17, 2009)

I hope the locust was drowned in the best interests of the rest of the world :lol: Locusts have not reached total disaster levels of what we feared they are however really thick in pockets. The ongoing rain has helped but our unirrigated lucerne is almost ready to be cut and I bet they find it the day before :lol: There I go again sounding like a farmer still, time to go fishing :shock:


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## OldDood (Nov 6, 2008)

suehobieadventure said:


> ---they are however really thick in pockets.


You riverlanders are weird! :shock: Why the hell do you keep locusts in your pockets and how do you know they are particularly stupid? :?


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## Samboman (Sep 6, 2010)

Some nice snook there mate..... 8)

*****


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## TheFishinMusician (Feb 5, 2007)

Don't let Mingle see that first pic! 
He'll be over there before you can say " four horsemen of the apocalypse"


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## skorgard (Oct 6, 2007)

It was a great morning session. It gave me a chance to test my belief that snook are not fussy. I had left my lure arsenal elsewhere so not wonting to buy more of the usual, I went chap and bought a $4 K-mart Mag minnow type but not of the same quality. Andrew was getting 3 fish to every one of mine, although he was getting a few smaller ones on the SPs and as he said kept getting bitten off. However the choice of lure really does matter.

The lure took quite a beating - not much paint left and the hooks are all a bit mashed. But a good $4 worth of entertainment.

The only downside of the trip was keeping our eyes peeled to avoid getting run over - I had to wave my paddle in the air to get the attention from one floating wedding cake and a number of boaties went far too close to us.


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## OldDood (Nov 6, 2008)

skorgard said:


> It was a great morning session. It gave me a chance to test my belief that snook are not fussy. I had left my lure arsenal elsewhere so not wonting to buy more of the usual, I went chap and bought a $4 K-mart Mag minnow type but not of the same quality. Andrew was getting 3 fish to every one of mine, although he was getting a few smaller ones on the SPs and as he said kept getting bitten off. However the choice of lure really does matter.
> 
> The lure took quite a beating - not much paint left and the hooks are all a bit mashed. But a good $4 worth of entertainment.
> 
> The only downside of the trip was keeping our eyes peeled to avoid getting run over - I had to wave my paddle in the air to get the attention from one floating wedding cake and a number of boaties went far too close to us.


I get all my biggest snook on SP's, 1/0 jig head held on with a non slip loop knot so it can swing, 20lb mono leader and a mullet coloured 3" minnow. They seem to be deadly.


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## skorgard (Oct 6, 2007)

OldDood said:


> I get all my biggest snook on SP's, 1/0 jig head held on with a non slip loop knot so it can swing, 20lb mono leader and a mullet coloured 3" minnow. They seem to be deadly.


Troll or cast and retrieve?


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## solatree (May 30, 2008)

OldDood said:


> 1/0 jig head held on with a non slip loop knot so it can swing, 20lb mono leader and a mullet coloured 3" minnow.


I was using 4" gulp minnow (Nuc chook and smelt) on a 3/0 TT 1/8 oz jig head on a 10lb flouro leader. The theory was that the bigger hook and larger size gulp would help prevent the bite offs - didn't work :lol: . Got my biggest on the Gulp - second largest was on a 70mm mag minnow which I used once I ran out of jig heads ! ;-) .


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## OldDood (Nov 6, 2008)

skorgard said:


> OldDood said:
> 
> 
> > I get all my biggest snook on SP's, 1/0 jig head held on with a non slip loop knot so it can swing, 20lb mono leader and a mullet coloured 3" minnow. They seem to be deadly.
> ...


Trolling with regular long fast twitches with pauses in between to let it sink towards the bottom, 1/8th to 1/4 jig heads. I am trying to emulate a wounded fish. Snook seem to catch larger fish by chopping of there tail first. Very unsporting but extremely effective. :lol:


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## skorgard (Oct 6, 2007)

Andrew was getting equal results of a lurid nuc chook and a more conventional minnow colour. Any preferences?


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## OldDood (Nov 6, 2008)

skorgard said:


> Andrew was getting equal results of a lurid nuc chook and a more conventional minnow colour. Any preferences?


Yep, mullet coloured, black or grey on top and white on the bottom.


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## skorgard (Oct 6, 2007)

Thanks Mark will give it a try.

Paul.


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## Drewboy (Mar 18, 2008)

Well done fellas... good you are giving that Outback a dip a little more often Paul.


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## skorgard (Oct 6, 2007)

The Outback is so quick to get set up with out all that AI stuff - I am eyeing Andrew's Sport with a keen eye....

Small can be beautiful


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## kanganoe (Apr 30, 2008)

Some nice fish there.Young Frank has asked me to pass on something.Please ensure that the nose of the fish is touching the front of the measure.He is quite hard on that sort of thing,


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## RobC (Jun 13, 2010)

Great effort guys! Sounds like you had some fun. Mmm, Hobie Outback Sport :twisted:


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## solatree (May 30, 2008)

RobC said:


> Great effort guys! Sounds like you had some fun.


Cheers Rob - fun is what its all about  


kanganoe said:


> Please ensure that the nose of the fish is touching the front of the measure.He is quite hard on that sort of thing,


  Goodness me - with that eye for detail, young Frank would make a good touch referee ! ;-) He's right though - I'm almost as careless a photographer as I am careless a fisherman (I catch and release far too many fish I don't mean to - mainly when measuring - just ask OldDood ! ) and I should be more particular when taking snaps. 
Here's a close up of the offending snook noses for him - if you look closely, 2 of the 5 don't quite make the grade.  








Please reassure him however that when placed on the mat, the protruding lower jaws were touching ! Rigour has some explaining to do :shock: 
and some additional mms at the tail end of the big'un should provide forgiveness for this sin ! 8)


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## solatree (May 30, 2008)

Out again this morning for a quick 2 hr session. Was a bit of swell running and got wet pedalling out through the waves. Was worth it - ended up catching and releasing 20 snook between 60 and 80 cm - not so many of the big'uns this time but still entertaining. Kept 1 @ 75cm. Tried a piece of lumo tube on the SPs to try and prevent bite offs - worked ok on the first 3 casts (and three fish !) but the fourth still managed to abrade the leader so I had to re-tie. Ended up switching to a mag minnow - lost a couple with the trebles but at least I didn't get bitten off.
















































Sorry about the tail only shot - pretty hard to photograph 80cm of flapping snook against the measure let alone get them all in the frame ;-). Some small surf practice on the way back in. A fun way to send a couple of hours on a sunday morning.


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## OldDood (Nov 6, 2008)

Good bunch of snook Andy.
Looks like it is going to be a good season.
Might try to put in an arvo session after work this week.
Did you try for any squid or were you too busy fighting the toothy critters?
Mark.


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## solatree (May 30, 2008)

OldDood said:


> Good bunch of snook Andy.
> Looks like it is going to be a good season.


Cheers Dunny - yep there have been some big ones around this November 


OldDood said:


> Did you try for any squid


Spent the last half hour drifting for squid but could only manage one small one. I seem to do better on squid out from seacliff. Nevertheless, we did enjoy an entree of calamari and yellow fin whiting tonight - am keen to get more of those


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## skorgard (Oct 6, 2007)

Another great session Andrew wish I had been there.


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## Drewboy (Mar 18, 2008)

Good work there Andrew.
Clever idea with the lumotube too.
With all those snook around, though, I wonder if the population of other species is somewhat reduced, given they are pretty vicious.


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