Headland Winter Snapper

There is a lot to love about winter in SE Queensland. Cool dry days, westerly winds and plenty of fish on the chew! One aspect of the winter fishing that I enjoy, is the fact the snapper tend to sneak closer and closer to the rocky headlands that abound our coastline. What this means for anglers that are prepared to fish those wash zones around the rocks is that you could be in for some knee rattling action! Any angler that has targeted snapper close to the stones will attest to the fact that they know how to find their’ way to safety in record breaking time!
My ideal tackle for this type of fishing includes a 6’6 – 8 to 10kg Dropshot Rod matched with the 806 Abu Cardinal. My reels are loaded with 20lb Stren Superbraid or Stren Microfuse and combined with leaders of 20 to 30lb Berkley Vanish. I use Nitro jigheads in ¼ to ½ Oz size for most of my headland exploits.
My plastics of choice at present include the 6 inch Gulp grubs in New penny, Nuclear Chicken or Camo. The 7inch jerkshads are also a great bait in these areas, but there is something about the fluttering action of the grubs in wash zones that I believe snapper find irresistible!
To start your fishing – first establish that you can safely get a boat near enough to the headlands to fish effectively. If you cant – DON’T be tempted, just find somewhere else to fish! My approach to fishing the headlands includes targeting the points of the bays along a headland. You will often find that the sections of rock that run out into the sea as part of a point will typically include an extension of the structure at depth. By this I mean there is a fair chance there are more rocks running out into the sea beneath the water you can see off a point. What this means to me is that snapper may be feeding anywhere from 100 metres off a rocky point to right up in the wash zone around it. To begin your fishing – simply start a 100 metres or so off the chosen point and start casting your plastic along the line of the structure. Having cast out, keep your line tight and allow the plastic to slowly flutter to bottom. If the lure isn’t slammed on the way to the bottom, allow it to hit bottom and then hop the lure off the bottom before retrieving any slack and then allowing the lure to sink back to bottom. Repeat this process back to the rod tip. By working the water in this fashion – gradually work your way into the rocks to the point at which you can cast into the wash zones around the rock.

This style of fishing is not for the faint hearted. It requires some team work in that one angler is often required to operate the boat while the other fishes tight against the rocks. When fish are hooked don’t try to muscle them – it nearly always ends in tears! Try instead, to lead hooked fish away from the rocks by driving the boat slowly out to sea. You might be pleasantly surprised by how many fish can be saved from the rocks in this manner.

Winter is upon us and the snapper are out there now – I can hear them calling, so go get amongst em!

Happy Fishing,Nige

Carried by the Missus!

I am fortunate to live close to a dynamic fishing store that is managed by some proactive and knowledgeable anglers. My local “Hooked on Angling” Store in Tewantin is always offering some great new experience for keen anglers. One of the activities the store has been promoting of late is the organising of local lure fishing tournaments. Last weekend a group of local anglers went toe to toe in a grandslam type event. These tournaments allow angling teams to accumulate a score including total centimetres of fish caught which can be further bolstered by bonus points for a diverse range of species landed. The event is a catch and release type tournament where fish are caught, measured, photographed and then released. Scores are tallied at the end of a five hour session to establish winner’s rights.

Having missed the past two tournaments due to commitments, I was eager to fish this one. My only catch was in finding a crew to fish with me. At last notice my wife put her hand up to fish in Team “Family Berkley”. My wife is 9 months pregnant and I know she is a very competent angler – however the fact the 2 year old would be required to tag along became a handicap that I am not that familiar with in the tournament arena. To top it off, the family weren’t that keen on the cool 6am start so we settled to fish the last half of the tournament session.

We hit the water around 8ish and started fishing a bit after, with our chosen location a stretch of water that holds shallow coffee rock structure. The water was dirty following recent rains and the tide was a run out to make life more difficult. We opted to fish with 2 inch Gulp shrimp rigged on 4lb stren leaders and 1/30th Oz Finesse Jigheads. By drifting with the tide, waiting for the plastic to get to bottom and then hopping the lure over the rocky substrate we soon started to get a few bites.

Steph was quickly on the scoreboard with a 26cm fish and went on to lose two more good fish soon after. I realised I had to get cracking and scraped on to the board soon after with a Qld legal 23cm fish. Steph then cracked on with a couple more fish up to 28cm which took my last two fish of the session by several centimetres. We got destroyed by a couple of really good fish which could have been late season jacks that wanted our shrimp a lot more than us!

Although we weighed only one species for the event, we realised at the weigh in that it had been a tough day for all. We snuck into the top three (thanks to being carried in there by the missus!) and thoroughly enjoyed our little session on the water. A key to our success was not so much the dynamite New Penny and Banana Prawn Gulp Shrimp, but the huge pack of Allen’s Snakes that kept the 2 year old subdued for long enough for us to catch some fish. That was until the sugar rush kicked in!!!

The other teams had spent most of their time down the lower end of the system due to the dirty waters. Fishing in deeper sections of the river with vibration baits and soft plastics had scored a variety of species including trevally, whiting tailor and bream.

The top eight included:
Champion Team – Jeff Adams and Nick Abbott
Runners Up – Brett Stiles and Chris Bland
3rd – Stephanie and Nigel Webster (and Lachlan)

4th – Mick Geary and “Banger”
5th – Justin McMahon and Russ Shanks
6th – Matt Cockram and Jamie Anderson
7th – Andrew and Jason Eagle
8th – Trev Davies and Glenn Duncan

I am looking forward to the next tournament very much as I will be hearing about my wife’s fishing abilities until I am able to pip her catch in the next one!

Happy Fishing,
Nige

Berkley Pro Team wins Dave Irvine Snapper Classic.

For the second year, Berkley Pro Staffer Michael Guest has again placed outright champion angler at the Dave Irvine Memorial snapper classic.

Guest and team members Mark 'The Captain" Phillips, Blake Hughs and Brian Perry were more than sucessfull in catching 16 of the total 56 snapper caught. "The Captain" placed runner up champion angler and the team placed as champion team in a field of 60 plus boats and over 160 anglers.

This tournament in memory of Dave Irvine of Environet fame was run over the Queens Birthday long weekend out of Coffs Harbour. The weather was against all and Saturday was cancelled in the face of 30 plus knot winds and three metre seas. Sunday was marginal but the boats fished one super session from 5.30am to 1pm and the Berkley boys were last home to take the coveted "snapper on a stick" trophy.

This tournament is unique in that every snapper is released, with anglers having to measure, digitally photograph and submit the memory card from the camera for points. The total length is deemed as the winning catch.

On the day Gulp 7" jerkshads were the baits of choice. The biggest snapper of the weekend went 86cm, with bigger fish smoking anglers in the rough and tumble seas.

The Berkley Pro Staff were on hand to "show and tell" and the public participation was excellent. Young Matt Mckewan had the misfortune to break his only snapper stick on the Saturday. The pro Staff were happy to give him a new IM 7 Snapper spin stick to continue with and we wish Macka pictured here with his busted rod but great fish, every success for the future.

All in all a great weekend even if the weather was not that flash. Plenty of return entrants for next year which is going to be bigger and better according to organisers, Paul Hayman and Scott Amon.

If you love snapper, this tournament is a "must do" and with thoughts of tying "Guesty" down for next year, maybe someone else may get a look in!

Brisbane River Bruisers

At this time of year, I love to get into a bit of saltwater action. The calm days that come during winter are ideal for fishing from small boats. This means that a lot more anglers can get out and enjoy the excellent winter fishing on offer.
Moreton Bay and the Brisbane River would have to be two of the best places to visit. They hold a range of species including bream, flathead, tailor, snapper, threadfin and tunas. All this great fishing can be experienced from a small tinnie only minutes from Queensland’s biggest city.
Here’s what happened on my last Brisbane River trip.
The tide was low around 7.00am and we weren’t expecting too much action until the flow picked up. After ten minutes of fishing alongside a loading dock, the unexpected happened and my lure was nailed. I had been hopping the plastic from the shallow water back into the deep but on this cast; the plastic was snatched on the drop after it had landed. The fish came easily to deeper water before tearing the 20lb Spiderwire Stealth from the spool. The fight went on for around 10 to 15 minutes. Then the beast lay beside the boat – a 120cm threadfin salmon. What a great start to the day.

We fished the same area hard but there were no more strikes. The plan was to head to the mouth of the river and look for some water starting to run back in. We had our sights set on snapper but as we arrived there were scattered birds diving into bait schools in the middle of the river. On closer inspection, we noticed the odd slash as bigger fish were tearing through the bait schools and pushing them to the surface. There was only the odd fish busting the surface and they were very hard to target especially with all the boat traffic using the river mouth.
When three fish broke the surface moving in our direction, I fired a long cast right in front of them. The lure was only a 15g chrome slice but the 14lb Fireline allowed it to fly the required distance. A few seconds let the lure to sink before the reel bought it up to warp speed. A dozen cranks and it was on. A big tuna was torturing the drag on the reel. It went on to fight deep below the boat before being persuaded to come to the surface. At around 8kg it would have to be one of the biggest mac tuna I have ever caught. All this had happened inside the mouth of the river.

The snapper proved to be tough and we gave up on them after a couple of hours fishing. There was still enough run in the making tide to chase some of the river’s big bream. We headed further upstream towards the Gateway Bridge fishing different spots on the way and catching a few bream. On our travels, we stumbled on a drop off that had current pushing against it and nervous bait skipping around on the surface. The first cast was chased by hungry bream until one finally took the bait. This continued each cast. After multiple double hookups, we’d racked up over twenty bream from the one spot. All of them were over legal size and some were crackers. The school must have been huge.
In a five hour session on the Brissie River I’d had a ball. There had been plenty of action and some big fish early on in the day that really topped it off. I can’t wait to get back and have another go.

If you’re going to the Brisbane River or Moreton Bay then here’s some tackle I’d recommend. You need to cover all bases as there’s such a wide range of fish species.

Outfit 1 – Berkley Dropshot 2-4kg 7’ spin rod matched with an 802 Abu Cardinal reel spooled with 4lb Fireline and fitted with an 8lb Vanish leader.
Uses – Casting light lures for bream, flathead and other smaller fish.

Outfit 2 – Berkley Dropshot 4-8kg 7’ spin rod matched with an 804 Abu Cardinal reel spooled with 20lb Spiderwire Stelth or Stren Braid and fitted with a 40lb Vanish leader (spare spool fitted with 10lb Stren Microfuse and 14lb leader).
Uses – Casting lures for snapper, threadfin salmon, tuna and other bigger species.

Outfit 3 – Berkley Dropshot 8-12kg 6’10” spin rod matched with an 806 Abu Cardinal reel spooled with 14lb Fireline and 17lb Vanish leader.
Uses – Casting metal slugs and high speed spinning for pelagic fish.