How To Catch Snapper
Today is all about snapper and in big parts of our coastline it’s one of our most popular species of fish to chase, today I’m going to show you three of my favorite methods for catching a few. When it comes to bay fishing for snapper there are many different ways of rigging up but one technique which has probably caught me more fish than any other and that is called float lining.
All you need are two outfits, the first one is a rigged sliding sinker down onto your hook, next one’s a slightly heavier, I’ll explain why in a minute but first let’s look at how we rigged our baits. Very simple rig the sliding sinker down onto a hook of your choice mustards, Gamakatsus there’s plenty of options on the market.
What I like to have is a solid sharp hook so it allows me gap once it’s in the bait, very simple when I’m doing this I like to start through the tail of the bait pull your hook right the way through and then rig in through the head eyes of the bait or the head of the bait and why I like to rig in that way is because they swim head down through the burley trail which makes them attractive and also aerodynamic in the water.
Having done that our first rod has a lighter sinker, so what I want to do is cast out to the right.
I’m going to rig up this other rod exactly the same way, it’s got a slightly heavier sinker. I’m going to throw that as far as I physically can behind the boat put it in the rod holder, engage it easing off the drag and the idea with that heavier sinker is it’s going to slowly let that bait drift down through the burley trail and let fish come along and eat it. The other bait is supposed to look like a piece of the burley, I’m going to feed it out and let it replicate stuff that the fish are seeing in my burley trial. All in all, a bit of a rounded approach to catching your fish, but very effective.
The key when your float lining is to continually feed that line out through your fingers, let it get to what you think is mid water column and then occasionally engage, let the bait sit there, if there’s no bites after a while continue letting it out to the point where you’ve let a lot of line out, if there’s no bites then wind it up and do it again.
Skirted Jigs are a great way to catch snapper that are schooled up and looking for a feed that comes drifting past them. These days plenty of brands on the market just look for weights to suit the depth of water you’re going to be fishing in and something nice and flashy with colour.
The way to fish them is incredibly easy, find your fish and then drop down to whatever depth those fish are. You can catch fish on skirted jigs in any depth from 20 meters 60, 70,
80 meters of water they’re a great option for fish that are looking for a little bit of movement in bait.
All you want to do is get down to the fish, having got down to where you think the fish are,
engage the rod and very slowly wind through them. If you don’t get any bites drop it back and keep repeating the process. You’ll find as the fish are coming you’ll have those little bumps and taps that gradually load up on the rod. It’s a game where you don’t want to strike at a fish, just let the rod do all the work, a lot of anglers get the lure down to where the fish are, put it in the rod holder adjust the drag and let the rocking of the boat do the rest of the work. If you want to go snapper fishing make sure you’ve got a few skirted jigs in the tackle box.
Today in 70 meters of water reasonably deep for chasing snapper but the technique I’m
using is easily applicable whether it’s in Bay waters, shallow offshore or out here
in 60 70 metres of water. Today I have a range of soft plastics of some different stables.
I’ve got some Gulps some Zeman’s on board, scented plastics out there will work very well when you’re using these. The trick is getting your jig head weight right and the size of plastic the Snapper want on any given day, so I’ve got six seven and four inch plastics at the moment and the fish are loving the four inch.
All I’m doing is selecting the right jig head weight to suit the current out here, I haven’t got
too much current today so I’m lightly just fluttering a 5/8 ounce jig head down there and putting it in front of Snapper that are coming through my Burleigh trail.
With strong days of current get heavier jig heads, just keep it down in amongst those fish and you’ll be catching them in no time .
There’s a change of seasons at the moment that’s a great time of year to chase snapper. Today I’m using a hybrid technique, I’m using soft plastics but I’m using them a lot how you would fish a bait.
