North East Snapper — Damon Sherriff

Benjamin Sherriff with a beautiful North East male snapper.

NORTH EAST REDS

SNAPPER aficianado Damon Sherriff shares some thoughts on favourite fish

Since 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 www.tasfish.com - Get the knowledge - Get the fish.

The author with a trophy coming in at 8.3kg.

to 5 kg and was around 70 cm. I was really happy to see this as I was having fun with the pinkies but that was not what I was there for.

Knowing there was bigger fish about I upscaled my bait and cast back in. As soon as it hit the bottom, Whack!! My reel let out a short howl. After a dogged fight I landed a beautiful crimson 6 kg male . I was stoked to see the bigger fish had moved in. I baited two rods and cast them in at the same time. They both hit the bottom, by the time I put the rods in the rod holders. Then they both buckled and where howling off. I picked up the one closest to me. It felt like another good red. I turned the video on my phone to film the crazy action. The fish I had on had stopped running but the other fish on the rod I left in the rod holder was still howling off. I had a feeling this was a big fish, this was the fish I wanted, so I put the fish I was fighting back in the rod holder and swapped rods. When I picked up the other rod I could feel the extra weight of the fish straight up. I knew it was bigger than the one I put down. The fish was really really dogged. I would get two winds he would take two winds. This happened for nearly 10 mins. I had a feeling the fish was a male. Males had the tendency to really use their heads in the fight and do these continuous short dogged runs. They definitely fight a lot harder than female fish. I finally got colour on the fish and could see the pearlescent white belly down deep. It is a beautiful sight I will never get sick off. Then he gave up and a beautiful 86 cm male popped up and floated in front of me. I was totally stoked. I got my trusty homemade rangoon cane gaff out and gaffed the big red under the chin and lifted him aboard.

My season was made. I had caught a red close to the old fashioned 20lb mark! After all this I forgot about the other fish still hooked up in the rod holder. I wound that fish in and it was a near 6kg female. Still a lovely fish in anyone’s language. I had been filming most of the action thought out the day so I thought I would put a YouTube clip together which I did. The story does not stop there, I landed another 8 fish that day, all around 6 to 8 kg. The tally ended at 25 for the morning. I kept my bag limit of 5 and donated the frames to IMAS for Snapper research. What a crazy day that will never be forgotten.

Snapper are opportunistic feeders and will eat a wide variety of foods. They also adapt to the surroundings they are found. I have found so many different foods in their stomach, it is ridiculous. Here is a few to give you an idea; Square back crabs, spider crabs, sea horses, starfish, cunji, octopus, toadfish, cod, leatherjackets, flathead, crayfish, scollops and pipis. Snapper are a very similar fish to bream. Fish are not a big part of their diet but bigger snapper will occasionally catch slow moving fish. They prefer to eat crustaceans and shellfish. Their jaws are designed for crushing the food, not so much catching the prey. Probably my favourite bait is fresh calamari or cuttlefish. The snapper really love it. It’s also a good tuff bait and stays on the hook well. For the best results make sure it is fresh. It does make a difference. Not so much on piranha pinkies but for big snapper it makes a huge difference. Snapper will have go at most fish flesh baits as well, such as a piece of salmon. Once again if you are after bigger fish fresh bait is always best!

Berley or Not?

A lot of people can’t believe I don’t berley at all for Snapper. Back in the 90s while fishing in the Tamar, I caught fish using berley and caught fish without using berley. One thing I noticed in the fast water in the Tamar, was that the fish would swim through an area rather than hang around. Sometimes they would move through very quickly. I found that their bite, most of the time was activated by the time of the tide, not the berley. I found berley in the fish I caught when I was Snapper legend Christopher Ganar with a good fish on.

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using berley, but the catch rate seemed to be the same whether berley was in the water or not. Once the fish came on the bite they bit. Once the fish had finished the bite, it was over! If you do decide to berley, be sure to use a shell or crustacean based one. It’s what they naturally eat. Over the years I have had some success on crushed oysters, mussels, prawn shells, calamari and crayfish shells. It does work and will hold fish in and area for a longer period. But because of the rubbish fish it attracts and the effort it takes to organise it. I prefer to spend my time catching fresher bait and using that to maximise my results.

Snapper Rigs

These days we are very lucky to have so many different tackle manufacturers around making quality terminal tackle. 30 years back we did not have anywhere near the quality brand choices as we do today. I am not going to go into brands in this article. Most of them are more than good enough to catch big snapper. Hooks are by far the most important part of the rig. If you buy cheap hooks you increase the risk of losing that trophy big red quite dramatically. Big Snapper don’t have a lot of fleshy bits around or inside their mouths so hook sharpness is extremely important. Blind hooks are a recipe for disaster and losing that big one. Hook strength is very important. If a big red gets your hook in his mouth the wrong way he will break it like plastic. They have extremely strong jaws. You can even have a quality hook broken this way. Your monofilament leader line should be between 20-32kg for big fish. They don’t care about leader diameter. You can choose between a running sinker rig or a paternoster rig. Both rigs work on big fish. Sinker size depends on where you are fishing, you need a sinker that gets your bait to the bottom. I use Snapper and bomb sinker most of the time. Only because they cast far better than others.

Rods and Reels

You have the choice of an overhead or threadline reel, with my preference being an overhead. They all work for snapper fishing. Most importantly the drag on the reel must be smooth. You do not need to have much drag pressure on a snapper reel but it has to be smooth. Big snapper are often very lightly hooked and too heavier a drag will pull hooks and you will loose fish. I like to play fish very gently. The reel needs to hold a couple of hundred meters of 6 to 10 kg monofilament. I have learnt the hard way with braid and find it pulls the hooks often because it has zero stretch. This is particularly true in shallow water situations. I like rods between 2.1-2.4 metres in length with a reasonably soft action to take the shock out of a lightly hooked big red. The rod still should have a strong butt section to handle the bycatch and cope with casting the larger sinkers if you are fishing deep. Another tip I can suggest is to have rods in a flatter rod holder not an up right rod holder. This gets you line away from your outboard and transducer or anything else on the boat that could catch your line.

I could go on forever about Snapper fishing. It’s been a huge part of my life for many years. It’s really great to see the species is breeding up and the excellent fishery we now have. Big snapper are not just a by catch like they were many years ago! Good luck with it all and stay safe. Hope by the time this article gets published we can all get out and enjoy Australia’s number 1 sport fish again.

Damon Sherriff