Seeing Red - Targeting East-Coast Snapper

Catching a big snapper is an obsession shared by most saltwater anglers. I often recall just how long it took me to finally catch one over the 10lb mark - and that was back when there were a hell of a lot more around than today.

As a kid I started fishing for snapper from the ocean rocks, and eventually caught one going 14lb off a ledge inside the aptly-named Snapper Point, between Merry Beach and Pretty Beach on the NSW south coast. Even when I started fishing from trailerboats, the good old snapper was right up there on my list of favourite species. And guess what - it still is today!

Snapper are caught around the entire southern coastline of Australia and right across the Tasman to the grounds around New Zealand. Although the snapper here on our east coast are the same species as the ones caught over in New Zealand and down around South Australia, there is a remarkable difference in the overall look of the fish between locations.

Our east-coast snapper often have strange-looking lumpy, bumpy heads, and sometimes unusually swollen, fleshy lips and nose. The old-school fishermen reckon these weird features come about from the snapper bumping and cracking crustaceans or other sea-life off the hard reef grounds - but most marine biologists disagree.

Although there's never been a detailed study into these east-coast knobby-headed creatures, most biologists believe it's some kind of parasite, bacteria or virus they pick up from the food they eat that affects their bones. Perhaps one day fisheries will do some further research into these creatures and find out what really causes the fascinating phenomenon.

ALLO, GUVNA!
As juveniles, our east-coast snapper are often referred to as "cockney bream", and begin their lives in rivers and bays and on the shallow inshore reefs. As these fish grow and mature, they start to feed further offshore, and sometimes can be caught out around 60 fathoms or so - but the favoured grounds seems to be from the coast out to around 35 fathoms.

These east-coast reds extend north to around Fraser Island in southern Queensland, where they are often found out in the deeper, more temperate water in summer, and on the inshore grounds during the winter months. They are a species that definitely prefers cooler waters - we've noticed while fishing the Gold Coast or around the Coffs Harbour region that they really begin to bite on the inshore grounds when the water cools to around the 20°C mark.

Snapper are a fairly slow-growing fish. Gary Henry from NSW Fisheries studied over a thousand snapper around Coffs Harbour back in the mid-'80s and, by counting the rings on the scales and otoliths, found that their growth-rate averaged about a pound a year.

When these snapper become quite large it's almost as if they start retracing their juvenile habitats - they like to stray into the real shallow inshore reefs and headlands again, particularly after a rough sea has abated. Nearly all the really big knobby snapper over 15lb or so are caught right up in the shallows, or on reef areas in less than 10 fathoms of water - and this is what makes the task of catching these big beasts even tougher!

SNAPPER SMARTS
Mature snapper become very intelligent and finicky with age, and they warrant some delicate techniques to fool them into taking the bait. You have to adopt as light an approach as possible in order to get a bite out of one, and fishing light line naturally gives you the added problem of trying to control the bugger once you've hooked up!

They are an extremely powerful fish over a relatively short distance and it's very hard to stop a big one running you over a reef or through the kelp beds. Problem is, if you fish any heavier than 8?10kg line, you're likely not even to get a bite - so basically it comes down to taking the gamble on a lighter line and hoping you get lucky. Choosing a tough-skinned line such as the pink Ande brand or green Tortue can help the situation a little here.

When pursuing these inshore reds it's best to set an anchor and always work the up-current edge behind a high reef section or around a hard, broken reef where there is sand or gravel. Inshore, you find most times the current is either slow or nonexistent - and quite often you have to fish without any lead at all.

The beauty of light line is that it allows the unweighted bait to look more natural in the water as it slowly sinks or drifts away. A small amount of berley is also essential, even in the shallows - and chopped up fish and chicken scraps or dry chicken pellets will help arouse any reds in the vicinity.

Another technique that's important on these shallow grounds is being able to get the bait well away from the boat - and if there's no current at all, the bait needs to be pelted out as far as possible.

To cast a bait a reasonable distance without any lead takes a bit of practice, and to help this situation we use a slightly longer-than-normal boat rod. My personal preference is something around 2.5m (9ft) with a nice light tip - and I combine a rod like this with a 650 Alvey sidecast reel. With this combination, it's possible to cast a whole unweighted pilchard or a strip bait 50m or so.

A good, rugged threadline like a Shimano Thunnus will also do the job, but I prefer the feel of the Alvey reel -particularly when I'm stripping off line to let the bait float away.

BAIT SELECTION
When it comes to bait, it's essential to use only the freshest. I find it hard to go past the blocks of whole, snap-frozen WA pilchards. Often in the shallows, however, you can encounter the problem of small, rubbish type fish - mados, sweep and the like - coming into the berley and stripping the soft pilchards. In these instances you'll have to go for something a little tougher.

Long strips cut from yellowtail, slimy mackerel or striped tuna are by far the best - or if you can lay your hands on some fresh cuttlefish, the legs or candles cut into long strips is also an excellent option.

Catching snapper can, at the best of times, be a very time-consuming affair - and waiting for that first big red might take quite a while, unless you're a tin-arsed angler like one particular mate of mine.

This character has only fished with me a few times and had never caught a red bigger than a kilo - but the other day he outclassed the rest of us on the boat when he pulled in a 7kg red on his 6kg threadline outfit!

Lady Luck can certainly play a big part in any sport - but when it comes to catching big reds up in the shallows among the obstacles, you'll often need more than just her intervention!