queensland Bay Snapper Fishing May 20th

[Cobiaaddict]

Hi All,

Hopefully you all had great weekend with the fantastic weather ,

Headed out Sunday after lunch to chase a few more bay snapper on the run out tide,  We left the ramp about 1pm  to go and get some live baits and do a little bit of searching before having a crack at a few snapper on the gravel patches & ledges in the northern part of the bay.

We did some exploring and found a few tiny isolated bumps to no avail,  we loaded up on yakka in a matter of minutes getting full strings of solid snapper lollipops,

We started off with some drifts and we managed to put a 40cm grass sweet lip, a 55cm & 60cm squire in the esky.  Moving around  and drifting different areas after each fish,

We lined up for the 4th drift and I left the 15lb overhead In free spool with ratchet on whilst ill sorted a few thing outs on boat,  heard the overheard give away 2 ticks on the ratchet and thought that was a little strange , picked up the overhead & felt a little bit weight but nothing happening,  So I free spooled a couple of meters of line back,  locked up and struck and was slammed hard with the fish running hard back to the east looking for the ledge (silly fish as ledge was back west) after a few moments of umming and arrghing ( me thinking it was possible a shark) I managed to get some line back and felt the head shakes of a solid snapper going 82cm and about 6ish KG, 

 

Moved again and started another drift, and this time we had a few small fish but we had the wind coming from the NE and out going tide which made our drift nice and slow and we seem to head through this area perfect along the SE-NE section of the area .  Floating another bait down and letting a lot of line of our to entice something I was then hit again , but very timidly ,  So I struck hard again and got a about 3-4 winds on the little shimano TR200g overhead and this thing lit up and took off harder than the 1st,  bit of a struggle and back and forth I finally started gaining line,  and managed to get it up to the net for the decky to do his part, fish netted and another solid bay fish hits the deck, this one being solid again & going 86cm and similar in weight to other,

After this it went a little quiet with my decky getting another squire about 50cm  for the box,

Buy this time it was getting dark and cold and the wind was increasing from the NE So we made the run for the ramp,

 

Good arvo out with some quality fish and great conditions

Look forward to seeing everybody's reports from the weekend,

 

Cheers

Josh <><

 

 

 

[Nog]

Quality fish there mate, especially while the sun is up. Do you add any weight to your livies. We tried at the shallow northern reef Sat morning with another 50 boats for one squid and a cuttlefish.....on the livies

 

[Cobiaaddict]

44 minutes ago, Nog said:

Quality fish there mate, especially while the sun is up. Do you add any weight to your livies. We tried at the shallow northern reef Sat morning with another 50 boats for one squid and a cuttlefish.....on the livies

 

We mixed it up mate,  those fish fell for dead yakka's with a 3-ball,  sinker on 15lb mono,  Generally sinker size ranges from 0-1 ball right up to a 5Ball sinker depending on wind/current speed and drift speed,  we had wind against current ( NE with a run out tide ) and we experimented with a few sinker sizes till we got a fish,  

[Guest]

Great post dude

[Old Scaley]

A couple of crackers there @Cobiaaddict. It was a brilliant day on the water. I wasn’t going to go out because I knew the ramps would be busy and the solunar calendar said it was a poor day, but made a late call to go because the conditions were just too tempting. I managed a couple of undersized squire and about a thousand bream on the front rock wall at the mouth of the river. They were ravenous. I went through 2 packets of Pillies in about an hour.  Bait fish everywhere but I didn’t have the net onboard.

Anyway, back to you. 

[Cobiaaddict]

1 hour ago, Old Scaley said:

A couple of crackers there @Cobiaaddict. It was a brilliant day on the water. I wasn’t going to go out because I knew the ramps would be busy and the solunar calendar said it was a poor day, but made a late call to go because the conditions were just too tempting. I managed a couple of undersized squire and about a thousand bream on the front rock wall at the mouth of the river. They were ravenous. I went through 2 packets of Phillies in about an hour.  Bait fish everywhere but I didn’t have the net onboard.

Anyway, back to you. 

Well done mate. At least u had a crack. 

[kmcrosby78]

Couple of cracking bay snaps there Josh, well done!  Hard to tell in the photos - do those two hooks still have the line attached?

Finally got my boat wet (will do the report soon) but was a bit delayed and also took the family so didn't do the searching I had planned/hoped for. Still good fun though  

[Cobiaaddict]

10 hours ago, kmcrosby78 said:

Couple of cracking bay snaps there Josh, well done!  Hard to tell in the photos - do those two hooks still have the line attached?

Finally got my boat wet (will do the report soon) but was a bit delayed and also took the family so didn't do the searching I had planned/hoped for. Still good fun though  

No mate,  I cut the line as soon as the fish is in the boat,  I put a new hook/s  on after catching a decent fish,  I have lost way too many good fish due to hook failures after catching a good snapper.

[kmcrosby78]

Glad I asked - just learnt another good tip from you, you are one switched on fisho  

[Drop Bear]

21 hours ago, Cobiaaddict said:

No mate,  I cut the line as soon as the fish is in the boat,  I put a new hook/s  on after catching a decent fish,  I have lost way too many good fish due to hook failures after catching a good snapper.

Pro tip! 

I love those truturn gangs. They look even better hanging out of a solid snappers gob

Mate that is a cracker of a report. On the weekend, during the day you are the king! I am trying to learn as much as I can from your reports. 

Awesome work.

[Cobiaaddict]

2 hours ago, Drop Bear said:

Pro tip! 

I love those truturn gangs. They look even better hanging out of a solid snappers gob

Mate that is a cracker of a report. On the weekend, during the day you are the king! I am trying to learn as much as I can from your reports. 

Awesome work.

Thanks @Drop Bear   They do look good hanging out of a good snapper don't they,   I try to be as informative in my reports as much as possible,  As you could understand I don't want to give too much away,  but being on the water and having a bait out gives you a 50% chance straight up,  You can have all the tide/moon/day/night/ time of year theories but unless your putting them into practice it really means nothing,  Feel free to pm me if you want to ask any questions & ill let you know what I can, but the rest is up to you putting in the hours for the results .

 

[Cobiaaddict]

11 hours ago, kmcrosby78 said:

Glad I asked - just learnt another good tip from you, you are one switched on fisho  

Haha I don't think Im that Im that switched on mate. ,  I have learnt from a lot of well known bay snapper fisherman over the years and had the privilege of fishing with them through the  freezing cold winters at all hours of the night and day ,  Id be happy to put you on board for run over winter if you like mate,  cant guarantee you that we will catch a fish but I might be able to help put a few practical things into perspective,  I will  attached a photo of what snapper can do to 10/0 Gamakatsu Octopus hooks , this is a photo from a mate of mine   

[tugger]

Awesome arvo session I have had the hooks like in your last photo happen to me big snapper have powerfull jaws and you are so gutted when they crush the hooks and get off like that

[kmcrosby78]

Yes they can certainly crush a hook the bu99ers!!!  I'd love that Josh if our stars can align sometime, always looking to learn (and have a yarn .... ).

[Cobiaaddict]

7 hours ago, tugger said:

Awesome arvo session I have had the hooks like in your last photo happen to me big snapper have powerfull jaws and you are so gutted when they crush the hooks and get off like that

It just makes me think how big those snapper are that do that,   You ever tried bending one of the hooks in a bench vice mate It aint easy.   ?

 

[tugger]

15 hours ago, Cobiaaddict said:

It just makes me think how big those snapper are that do that,   You ever tried bending one of the hooks in a bench vice mate It aint easy.   ?

 

I once just caught a snapper that was 93cm long then the next bait I floated out got hit and I could feel it was a bigger snapper with a lot harder fight and headshakes and halfway up it felt like I pulled the hooks but when I wound in the hooks were crushed like that I thought that could have been a metre+ I lost

[Drop Bear]

@Cobiaaddict do you spend much time in the southern end of Moreton Island around the mouth of the Rouse? 

[Cobiaaddict]

2 hours ago, Drop Bear said:

@Cobiaaddict do you spend much time in the southern end of Moreton Island around the mouth of the Rouse? 

I have a couple of spots down that way mate.  Dont spend a whole lot of time down there as the sharks are really bad. 

[natang]

Awesome fish!!!!