Winter Snapper Tactics: Nigel Webster

As the whales begin to pass my backdoor on their’ migration route north, the days get cool and short, and the wetsuit comes out of hiding for those early morning cold surfing sessions. This time of year always brings with it plenty of anticipation because I know those big, beautiful bumpy headed critters are starting to get testy!

Water temperatures around 18 to 20 degrees seem to correspond with great snapper fishing wherever you choose to target them in Australia, and this has a lot to do with the spawning urges these temperatures foster. It seems that the only thing that varies is the type and depth of structure that the snapper most like to call home during this period of optimal water temperature. In my home waters of the Sunshine Coast in SE Queensland, there are certain types of structure that will always hold good snapper at this time of year. As with any fish, the snapper will favour certain structures during their school/spawn behaviour. I predominantly find them over two key types of ground at this time of the seasons.

Gravelly and broken reef structure in the 25 to 60 metre depth ranges will nearly always hold concentrations of fish. If there are good shows of bait also holding on this ground, there is more potential for there being some good snapper about. Mates of mine will often look only for this type of ground when searching for fish. The fact that they don’t necessarily see fish on the sounder, does not deter them from fishing a location. And they typically catch fish more often than not! My colour Humminbird is priceless at this time of year, and I use it to find darker/harder bottom and scattered reef and fish shows.

Shallow reef, is also a favoured structure of mine to fish during the cool months, however I have not experienced as consistent a success on this ground as when fishing the slightly deeper gravel beds. The weather will often dictate wether I stay in close and peruse the shallow reef, or head out wide to the depths.

I fish three soft baits predominantly during the winter months. These consist of the 7 inch Gulp jerkshad, 6 inch Gulp grubs and the 4 inch Gulp Pogy. These baits cover the majority of options I will need to satisfy when fishing different areas and variations of snapper feeding activity (i.e. aggressive to timid fish). I have a variety of jigheads to match hook size with the plastic I am fishing, and weights to suit the different water depths being fished. Hook size should give you a good gape protruding from the plastic so as to hook fish that mouth the bait. The weight of jighead should be selected on the basis of developing a presentation that will subtly get to bottom.

For example, snapper love a gently sinking bait. If your jighead is plummeting to bottom, you wont fool midwater fish – and this is often where the active ones are feeding! So a good rule of thumb is start lightly weighted and increase your jighead weight until you just get to bottom. I fish a plastic size that matches the aggressive quality of the bite on any given day. If the fish are aggressive, fish bigger plastics and heavier line class leaders (20 to 40 lbs). If the bite is timid, fish smaller plastics on light leader classes (i.e. 10 to 15lb).

I typically fish with natural coloured plastics like new penny and peppered prawn, unless I know the moon phase is producing phosphorescent activity – in which case my go to colour is nuclear chicken. There is something special about that glowing green – and don’t forget that the phosphorus glows down deep during the day as well!

My snapper outfits consist of Dropshot Pro rods in 6’10 – 6to 8kg and 6’6 – 8 to 10kg. These rods are matched with Abu Soron stx60’s and loaded with braided lines ranging from 15lb Code Red braid to 30lb Stren Sonic Braid.

 My preferred method of targeting fish is undoubtedly drifting for them. Having found fish holding in deep water, I like to drift back across them while dropping a soft plastic down to their depth range. By dropping a plastic to the depth of the fish, and then slowly drifting it out of their domain, as the boat moves, a lot of quality fish can be taken.

The key is making sure you get down to the fish, and watching that line and controlling the lure throughout. Bites register as sharp bumps to savage rushes of the line from the reel. A very important tip is that this differs little from bait fishing. You cannot strike at a fish until there is solid weight registered. This is a form of advanced bait fishing, and those snapper will hold on to a Gulp for a very long time. I have now caught several single fish on two rods. Yes that is right – they will eat one plastic on a particular rod, and then move on to another plastic within range and eat it as well!

Fishing shallow reef is a similar process when drifting, however, to do this, I am careful to keep the boat away from the zone I am targeting. In shallow water, the fish will spook easily and as such the approach needs to be considered. A standard retrieve involves casting the plastic across the zone being targeted, and letting the plastics sink to bottom. When on the bottom, jig the plastic up a few feet, and then with the line tight, let it sink back to bottom. Watch for bites and keep persisting until you experience some success.

If the weather makes for tough drifting, you will be required to anchor. At anchor I like to fish a couple of rods. One rod is cast behind the boat, and with the reel engaged, the plastic is left to slowly sink. The first inkling you will often have of a fish is when the drag starts to scream. The other rod I like to keep in hand and drop plastics behind the boat, and work through the water column. I feed plastics to bottom, watching for bites registering through the line, and then jig them off the bottom, so as to tempt fish from top to bottom!

If fishing a berley trail behind the boat, you will often bring fish to you. However keep in mind, that an important skill is to fish your plastics through the berley trail – so watch where the trail is sinking to, and target the area with suitably weighted jigheads. Winter snapper fishing with soft plastics is undoubtedly one of my favourite forms of fishing. It is intriguing, very effective, and prone to catch you some thumping fish. It takes a bit of getting the hang of it – so stick with it. Follow some simple principles of fishing with bait, apply them to plastics and persist until you catch your first few fish. I promise you wont look back! That being said, I can hear the call of a big pink bumpy headed thing calling me – so I might just go and hook that boat up right now.

See you on the water!