Benjamin Sherriff with a beautiful North East male snapper.
NORTH EAST REDS SNAPPER aficianado Damon Sherriff shares some thoughts on favourite fish
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ince moving to beautiful sea side village of Bridport, it has really given me a chance to target my favourite fish in a different location. I am no stranger to snapper at Bridport though, I have been fishing it since the mid 1990s. I have experienced some very good snapper fishing here over the decades and have caught half a dozen fish over the old fashioned 20 pound mark. The last few seasons I have been trying to locate new areas where big snapper live. The 2019/20 Snapper Season has been an absolute cracker. Experiencing some of the best snapper fishing imaginable. Many of the fish have been over the 7kg mark and quite a few reaching 8.5 kg.
A Day I’ll Never Forget This was a very memorable day just after Christmas where the fish went crazy. I headed to the boat ramp very early in the morning before daylight to collect bait . I was on the water at approximately 3.30 am. It was a cold, calm morning with a light southerly cool wind blowing. I called into my calamari mark to try to catch some fresh bait before the tide change which was right on day light. The calamari where very cooperative that morning and it did not take long to catch enough for a good snapper session. Fully loaded with baits, I could now head out to my mark in my 4 meter tinny. Confidence was high because in recent weeks my sons and I had landed more than 30 fish, the biggest at 8 kg which my youngest son Sam caught.
I anchored up and proceeded to bait up my rods with the fresh calamari. Sitting in around 22 meters of water, it took a few moments for the baits to reach the bottom once the cast was made. After five minutes, I noticed a small sharp familiar bite. The rod buckled over and I was tight to a fish. A short fight ensued, and quickly I had a pinky in the boat weighing about 2.5kg. A good start to the day. I spiked the Snappers air bladder and revived him and released him. After this a big school of pinky’s up to 3kg moved in. They where like piranhas attacking every bait that hit the bottom. Most of the time I only had one rod in the water due to the instant hook ups I was getting. After pinky number 13, I hooked a better fish. Which gave me a bit more curry. I got colour on a fish that would’ve weighed 4.5
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