Simple Snapper Sessions

[Scope]

G’day all,

Myself and some of the family headed over to the Coromandel peninsular in New Zealand for my cousins 21st on the weekend. In between drinking beer and carrying on like a buffoon I managed to sneak in a few quick sessions chasing snapper. But I’ll get to the fishing soon. First of all I’ll have to show everyone the horrible conditions my brothers and I had to endure whilst staying there.

The view from my uncle’s place is what one could only describe as breathtaking. The water is unbelievably clear, and on a calm day, you could paddle for miles in your kayak or dingy sometimes without seeing another soul. I’m told the winter is a little fearsome, but you can see why people tough it out with summer days like this.

[Scope]

Day one saw us heading out on my uncle’s old Glassply. It’s a great old machine with an reliable 1980’s Mercury 90 on the back, the perfect craft for this part of the world. It took a little while to get going, everyone in this part of the world runs on what we like to call ‘coro time’ but the long summer days (9.00 sunset) seem to allow for such a laid back lifestyle.

As we pulled out from the boat ramp, I asked the skipper if he wanted me to turn on the sounder. I was horrified when he casually remarked that it wasn’t plugged in, and ‘no he didn’t have any GPS marks.’ Instead he vaguely informed me we would head out ‘somewhere between the islands’ and ‘line up a couple of landmarks.’

[Scope]

My fears were soon laid to rest at our first spot, when after five minutes of drifting, my brother’s bait started going off, and the first snapper was boated.

It wasn’t long until it was my turn, when a decent legal sized snapper took a liking to my five inch Gulp.

[Scope]

The fish continued to come in thick and fast, with many double, and even triple hook-ups.

After a short while my Damiki Armour shad in motor oil colour was hammered by a substantial hit. My little daiwa exceller was bent over double and my stradic was begging for mercy. This bloke had a decent amount of ticker about him, and he wasn’t impressed about a 3/0 jighead hanging out of his gob! He really put the six lb line to the test

[Scope]

It took a few runs and some added drag pressure, but the knots held, and a short time later I had my p.b snapper and the best for the day at 58cm.

Not long after we decided to head back with the sun setting in the background.

[Scope]

It was at this point that it was discovered the cable steering had given up, and the motor wouldn’t turn left. A little bit of on the spot tinkering, and it was decided that we would steer the beast manually on the way home. It took a bit of getting used to, but we got there in the end, with a decent bin of pan-sized snapper.

If anyone is familiar with the old ABC show 'bush mechanics,' this was one of those moments :laugh:

[Scope]

The rest of my fishing for the weekend was done in an absolute ripper of a little dingy, with a 5hp merc on the back. The weather was perfect and the fish were really on the bite, with the two of us grabbing about twelve keepers between us, not to mention countless throwbacks, and that was only one morning. We also boated a few Aussie salmon, and salmon trout as by-catch(natively known as kahawai) , which again, really tested our light gear.

[Scope]

It was great to really get back to some simple fishing. In a little dinghy, with no sounder, no anchor, no livewell, GPS or electric motor, I caught some of the best snapper of my life. I couldn’t help but imagine this was what moreton bay snapper fishing must have been like before the lions took their share.

[Scope]

It truly was a weekend to remember, and a great time was had by all. Like most trips away though, it wasn’t really long enough. Ahhh well, I’ll guess I’ll have to wait until February when my cousin gets married! :laugh:

Cheers for reading - Jono

[Doobsy]

Nice work on the PB Jono! Would've been great on the light gear.

Great read and pics. What a magic part of the world. Can I be your +1 for the wedding? I'll shave my legs!

Thanks for sharing.

[tugger]

Jono that is bloody awesome with scenery like that and fishing to match i'd love a holiday like that over there , thanks for sharing it was a great read.

Up until recently i did alot of my fishing like that with just having land marks we would get bearings off and no sounders that were reliable aaahhh those were the days and my first sounder was a paper 1 that you had to replace the paper roll on we thought it was flash:cheer:

mark

[rayke1938]

Thanks for a good interesting report.Sometimes it is good to get back to basics as we tend to get to rely on our electrionics too much. Only problem at my local there is so much new new development most of my marks have gone or are now obscured by new houses.

Cheers

Ray

[ellicat]

Sweet as report bro !

What part of the peninsular ?

[Angus]

Day one saw us heading out on my uncle’s old Glassply. It’s a great old machine with an reliable 1980’s Mercury 90 on the back, the perfect craft for this part of the world. It took a little while to get going, everyone in this part of the world runs on what we like to call ‘coro time’ but the long summer days (9.00 sunset) seem to allow for such a laid back lifestyle.

[attachment=27739]039_2010-12-02.JPG[/attachment]

As we pulled out from the boat ramp, I asked the skipper if he wanted me to turn on the sounder. I was horrified when he casually remarked that it wasn’t plugged in, and ‘no he didn’t have any GPS marks.’ Instead he vaguely informed me we would head out ‘somewhere between the islands’ and ‘line up a couple of landmarks.’

[attachment=27740]022.JPG[/attachment]

Hell yeah mate. What awesome scenary.

Thanks for the effort in that report.

Angus

[Zim man]

aweome stuff jono, fishing with such cool scenery as well, anyone for NZ next weekend:P ?

[Eug]

good fish jono, you've made us all want to go there now!

cheers

eug

[Angus]

Yeah but I am only going if the weather improves

Angus

[ryanyoung]

Great report mate, and congrats on the PB Snap.....looks like an awesome spot.

Cheers, and thanks for sharing,

Ryan.

[nadders]

thats awesome mate, looks like a sweet location

9pm sunsets would be a bit weird

cheers

Dan

[Davo_Dinkum]

It was at this point that it was discovered the cable steering had given up, and the motor wouldn’t turn left. A little bit of on the spot tinkering, and it was decided that we would steer the beast manually on the way home. It took a bit of getting used to, but we got there in the end, with a decent bin of pan-sized snapper.

[attachment=27750]106 AFO.jpg[/attachment]

If anyone is familiar with the old ABC show 'bush mechanics,' this was one of those moments :laugh:

bush mechanics

i know this well, if it get u home its all good

lovely looking area ,nice weather ,if i was there i wouldn't want to come home .

[sweresy]

doing it tuff mate.... nice fishing!

[crazywalrus]

wow I am so speechless. That looks like an amazing holiday. The place is incredible and the fishing is great to match. Is that on the top of the north island?

[eg_vtec]

very nice location. haha some solid snapper there

[Keen-as-fisho]

Gee that does look like tough conditions, a million times better then the crap we've had New Zealand is a great place, where were you north or south island? I remeber as a kid going to my grans house on the hill of st Helliers bay in Auckland and going for a swim at 8 oclock down the beach. The other thing is the eating quality of there snapper is better then ours IMO.

[Do$tylz]

Nice report Jonno.. good to see NZ is good for something other than Skiing, sheep and the All Blacks...

Looks like a ripper of a week.... surely there's more photos to drool over??

[fergie]

bloody oath jono, how awesome does that look.

when i went to nz, all i wanted to do was hunt down some snapper but didn't get the chance because of bad weather (oh well).

good to see ya had a good crack at it and come up trumps.

great pics and a great read mate.

[adambris]

awesome johno! notice the snapper have no signs of a bump on there head!