Fishing for snapper in Port Phillip Bay and beyond for many years. He shares some of his well-earned knowledge with us.
Last November, Graeme Bucknall called to tell me the snapper were running in the shipping channel near the Wilson Spit, off Clifton Springs. We had the same GPS mark. Found separately, it was an old channel marker support pole, broken off a few years ago when the port authority installed new navigation lights. Now overgrown with weed and molluscs, the broken pole sits on the channel edge, shown on the sounder as a large, overgrown lump: a reef system, albeit a small one, but enough to hold snapper.
We left the boat ramp about 7 a.m. the following day. Gentelmen’s hours to be sure, but this was about being on the mark with baits in the water an hour or so before the tide changed. Bag limits were reached within an hour and a half, and the snapper ranged from 1.5 to 5 kilograms. Graeme used salted pilchards, a bait I disavowed more than 30 years ago; to my surprise, salted pilchards outfished fresh bait. I was a willing convert.
Balanced tackle makes fighting snapper so much easier.
Later that week I rang fishing buddy Bob Hart, and asked if he would like some fresh snapper? Bob came down for the afternoon tide change, bagged out 30 minutes and then went into catch and release mode.
The sequence of events that orchestrated that exceptional week of non-stop snapper action began months earlier: sometime during spring, the snapper left their wintering grounds off western Victoria and South Australia, and started to make their way east to Port Phillip Bay. Brilliantly coloured, in peak condition, and drawn by an urge to breed, the snapper grouped into vast shoals and flowed through Bass Strait like a crimson tide.
Scientists are not sure how fish navigate. One suggestion is the fish sense unique chemical elements in the water through olfactation (smell); other suggestions are that fish may navigate through a sense of depth, light or contour. However this navigation occurs, the progress of this mass migration of snapper is marked by catch reports along the coast.
Snapper season in Port Phillip fires in October and peaks in November. Historically, Melbourne Cup weekend, when the Tea Tree Snapper competition runs, is a highlight. Still, there are no guarantees, so don’t go marking up your calender sick days in advance. Snapper migration times based on previous seasons are like train timetables: useful, but not always reliable.
Small numbers of fresh-run snapper are often caught a month or so before the main shoals arrive. There have been seasons when the run started in late September, and other years when the snapper were late, the best fishing from mid-November.
One factor that influences the entrance of snapper into the bay is heavy rain in the Otway Ranges, which in turn causes the Barwon River west of Port Phillip Heads to flood. The ensuing muddy water run off spills eastwards along the coast with the tide, eventually entering Port Phillip. The dirty water offers cover and is a trigger for a mass entrance of fish that, in some wet years, has lead to an early run of reds in Lonsdale Bay and off Queenscliff.
The bright crimson colouring on this snapper was a trick of morning light.
On bays, flat windless days are often the least productive, but some chop on the water and a dramatic change can occur. Snapper feed best when the water temperature is 12 degrees or better; the optimum temperature is a degree or so either side of 16 degrees Celsius.
The big question is: are you ready to do battle? Seasoned anglers know what they need. What follows is a guide for inexperienced hands.
Tackle
An all-round snapper outfit is balanced and suited to lines between 7 and 9 kg; you don’t need to go any heavier for snapper, and downsizing to 5 kg is fine, provided you are not fishing deep water in strong current, or on heavy ground. Anglers working soft plastics often drop back to 3 and 4 kg outfits; those using heavier lures like Lucanus jigs do better with heavier tackle.
Rods
Fishing rods used in boats are different to those that suit shore-based angling. It seems an obvious point, nevertheless it is one worth making. Boat rods are typically 1.8 to 2.1 m long. Since Shakespeare introduced its Ugly Stik range in the 1980s, solid tip rods have been a popular choice for bait anglers: solid tips offer a slower recovery action that translates into a more forgiving rod; this helps when casting soft, lightly weighted bait such as pilchard.
A solid tip is not a necessity. What is important is the rod is balanced to the reel and suits the breaking strain of line employed. Rod technology has developed to a point where an angler can choose a medium taper rod that loads through the mid-section and butt, yet has a soft, or sensitive, tip response. Based on experience, rods that fit this criteria include Penn Sports, Fin-Nor Ahab and Shimano T-Curve Revolution Inshore. In strong current and deep water, say about 15 to 20 m depths, look for a rod with more grunt than tip response: rods to suit this scenario are the Penn Sports, Rovex Carbon Tec XRC-48, Rovex Aureus and Shimano T-Curve Lucanus jig and spin.
Rods for land-based snapper should be about three metres long, fast tapered and have a longer butt than used for boat rods. The longer butt is about casting performance: distance can be critical factor. To cast farther the angler needs leverage. A longer butt length gives extra leverage in the cast, which translates into power and tip speed; the faster the tip speed the further you can cast your bait.
Butt lengths should be a minimum 50 cm on a threadline rod, and 60 cm minimum for overheads. To prove this, take some conuit tubing and tape it over the butt of a boat rod and cast. Don’t be surprised if your casting distance increases by a third.
Graeme Bucknall shows off an early morning snapper showing the pinky marks you would expect to see on smaller fish.
Reels
Threadlines are the most popular reels used for snapper, and regardless of make, there are two requirements a reel must have: a smooth drag system and a spool capacity of about 200 m of line. You’ll never need this length of line to stop a snapper, it’s more a matter of having a line reserve to compensate for line attrition due to break offs or damage.
The main contributing causes of a jerky drag are maintenance related: failure to replace drag washers after heavy usage, and a reel left for long periods with the drag screwed up tight. This latter can cause the soft drag washers to stick to the hard metal plates so that they don’t slip smoothly resulting in an erratic, inconsistent performance.
Reels are a matter of choice. There are so many good models available that it can be difficult making a decision. I can only write about reels I have experience with. Penn Slammers and Shimano Baitrunners were my preferred threadlines. Nowadays there are so many quality offerings available that it is unfair to separate them. What I would recommend though, for normal bay fishing, is that you use a reel between 3000 and 5000; bigger reels are bulky and unnecessary in most areas. I used to swear by the ABU 6500 overhead reel, and later the Penn International 975 and Shimano Calcutta 400.
Because of the way I fish for snapper, reel in gear on a drag setting of about 1.5 kg, I don’t use a freespool threadline. However, that isn’t to say that there isn’t a place for them when the snapper are finicky, particularly in shallow water up to about 10 metres.
A neat way to present salmon is in cube form, and frozen. As the bait thaws the stomach releases. Note the luminous bead, it does make a difference.
Squid head ready to be presented for a snapper. Big baits are best when chasing bigger fish.
Line
Line choice is between braid and or monofilament, both types have advantages and disadvantages. Braid line is expensive and fashionable, and is useful when working lures or fishing strong current in deep water regions, such as those experienced at the southern end of the bay. The value of braid line is sensitivity and diameter. Increased sensitivity comes due to minimal stretch: monofilament line can stretch up to 25 per cent; most braid lines stretch less than 5 per cent. Lack of stretch enables easy detection of a subtle bite or, if working a lure on the seabed, enables the angler to feel when a lure is bouncing across a rock or snag.
As braids are thinner than monofilament of similar breaking strain, there is less water drag, which in turn means you can use lighter sinkers when fishing strong currents. The stronger breaking strain for a finer diameter means you can get about three times more line of the same breaking strain on your reel.
On the debit side, the lack of stretch in braid makes it less forgiving of jerky drag systems, so you may experience more break offs or pulled hooks. To counter this, employ a lighter drag setting. Another problem is that braid floats: if the boat swings and the line goes slack, chances are it will hook up on the boat – usually on the sender of the sounder unit or the outboard leg. I fished snapper with braid for several years, but reverted to monofilament; I prefer it that way.
Terminal Tackle
Leader is important, and before going into technicalities here is a tip: always run a small luminous bead on the leader between the sinker and hooks; it makes a difference. If you don’t use a heavy leader, there is a good chance of being bitten off. Most anglers work leader material from 15 to 24 kg breaking strain and my preference is a wind on leader as this suits my preferred running sinker rig.
My favourite snapper lead is a pea sized ball sinker. If I can get away without a sinker I will do so, but there are occasions, even in calm water where a small sinker is a necessity to sink the bait down fast, even if it is just to get away from a hungry gull.
If using a braid line then avoid running the lead on the line. In this case, use an Ezi Rig sinker slider. This consists of a barrel shaped plastic tube that has a snap coming off it. Sinkers with wire loops or swivels moulded in them, like bell sinkers, can be clipped off and on, and this makes it a simple task to change sinker weights to suit the tidal stream.
The rule of hook selection is that bait size controls hook size; do not use large hooks with small baits, or vice-versa. Sharp hooks are understood and in that regard, you can’t go past chemically sharpened types; and even these can be improved with a slight touch up with a stone. Deciding on a hook pattern is a lot more difficult than many people think; the range of hooks that are on the market can be mind blowing. Many chemically sharpened hooks are lighter than their standard counterparts, and have somewhat thinner wire for a given tensile strength due to improved heat treatment and wire consistency. Despite many years of trying out different hook patterns, it is difficult to go past the 4/0 suicide; circle hooks don’t work for me.
When using large baits, work two-hooks, preferably suicide pattern with a turned back eye in 4/0 on the leader. This configuration can be either a sliding second hook on the leader, or alternatively the second hook can be snelled (fixed). Both methods work in all waters. For smaller fish, use a single hook.
Rigs
The standard running sinker rig is most commonly used in bay waters where tidal influence is not strong. A simple running sinker consists of a small ball sinker, about the size of a pea, threaded to the leader and allowed to run to the bait. A second method is to thread a sinker on the main line. A swivel acts as a stopper and the leader is tied to the bottom eye of the swivel from which a leader between 150 cm to one metre long is tied. The swivel reduces line twist.
Finally there is the running paternoster, which is most effective when fishing tidal scours and channels. This rig works a treat at the southern end of Port Phillip Bay. Leader length in this scenario should be a minimum of two metres, and the leader length for the sinker at least one metre. The sinker is allowed to run along the main line by a swivel, and a swivel joining the bait leader to the main line is used to act as a stopper. Always use a swivel of similar size or smaller for the sinker leader. As the strong tidal surge runs the bait will stay about one metre off the bottom and out of reef and kelp often associated with this style of water. The longer you have the leader to the bait, the wider the arc it will swing in the current.
This rig comes into its own when berley is being put down. What happens is that the smaller snapper will home in on the berley, especially if you’re using one of those pots that you lower over the side and bounce on the bottom to trip open. Bigger snapper are attracted by the ongoing feed, but tend to hang back. To get at the bigger fish the first step is to put a large bait on the hooks. By large, I mean one that is excessively big for a pinky to gets its mouth over. Then drop the sinker over the side, put the bait in the water and feed out line and as the current takes the bait back. Small fish will pick at the bait as it is moves away from the berley, but if there is a big snapper lurking the chances are it will take the bait in one gulp.
Bait
Opportunistic is a kind way of describing what snapper feed on, which ranges from chewing gum and apple cores through to chops and chicken. Despite this, snapper prefer fresh bait and my favourites are squid, salmon and pilchard. Last season salted pilchard, a bait I disavowed more than 30 years ago, proved to be the hot bait where I fish.
Big snapper will take big baits and heads of species including barracouta, salmon and mullet. King George whiting is an excellent bait when fresh, and in November and December there are plenty of ‘just size’ whiting about that are the ideal size for whole baits. Cuttlefish is effective and like octopus, improves with age in the water. Over the past couple of years I have taken to freezing salmon then taking it out on the water still frozen where I cut it into cutlets. The internals of the salmon stay in for long enough to cast and I believe add to the attraction in the same way as chopping the tail off a pilchard allows oils to seep out.
Lures
Many anglers do no more with soft plastic lures or Lucanus jigs than drop them to the seabed, place the rod in the holder and with the reel in gear rely on the up and down motion of waves to do the rest. A lazy method to be sure, but it works.
Some friends have taken to trolling for snapper with 75 to 100 mm minnow lures. The rewards of snapper trolling are minimal compared to what is caught on bait. I understand the kayak anglers’ purity of intent in undertaking this technique; after all, it isn’t just about getting results, or is it?
