Surfcasting for big snapper

You can’t hate the wind in Hawkes Bay, though. It is the catalyst for the real start of summer. Strong west and nor’west winds flatten the sea and draw the baitfish – whitebait, anchovies and pilchards – inshore. These are followed by the schools of yelloweyed mullet, kahawai, barracouta and, lastly, snapper.

Sooner or later the weather does settle, and the snapper come in to the shallows to feed on paddle crabs. These snapper can be huge; almost all are over 7kg and some over 13kg. Most seem to be males and are putting on weight and condition so they’re ready for spawning. These fish might be aged, but most are in their prime.

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The smaller females stay out in the deeper water, where they gather in spawning areas such as the ‘Wairoa Hard’ out from Waikare and Mohaka Beaches. There they have some protection from the commercial fishers who hound them up and down Hawkes Bay at this time of the year, as it is designated a closed area for commercial operations.

The big snapper that come into the beaches are targeted by boaties and surfcasters alike. You will see boats anchored 100 or 200 metres off the Esk River mouth, north of Napier. They are berleying and line fishing for the same fish the surfcasters are after. For some reason – and it could be that there are not a lot of these big snapper – the boaties tend to move on when there is no action, while surfcasters hang in there, ever hopeful.

When you have a few years of this scenario under your belt, you start to understand that a blank fishing session means nothing and that big snapper could still turn up at any time. Remember too that there is only an eight-week window, so you need to be out there with a bait in the water as much as possible during that time.

One thing an angler targeting a big snapper needs to come to grips with is the need for perseverance, with a fish every two years being a good result.

There are exceptions though, such as the morning Chris Geddis decided to fish North Shore Rd before work, and had a hectic hour just after daylight, landing three lovely snapper all over 7kg. Meantime, I was 300 metres away up the beach and didn’t get a snapper bite all morning, just a couple of kahawai.

One of the beauties of this period is that you don’t need to drive kilometres out of town to experience the catch of a lifetime. North of Napier the fishing spots are legendary: North Shore Road, Gill Road, Le Quesne Road, Whirinaki and Tangoio. These are traditional fishing spots where snapper are caught annually.

To the south there are similarly famous spots, such as Awatoto, East Clive, Haumoana, Te Awanga and Clifton. Any, or all, of these could give up a 10kg snapper at any time during the pre-spawn gathering. Fishermen are out on all the beaches and are quick to move north or south as the fishing suggests. The best fishing results seem to come from the change of light periods morning and evening. Try fishing through the night, though, as you just never know.

Unfortunately, the beaches are also inundated with torpedo fishermen. These guys are all along Napier/Hastings beaches these days, and they do catch a large number of big snapper – far more than the surfcasters or boaties are able to.

A local sports dealer runs a kontiki/torpedo (long-line) competition for them at the height of the big snapper season during the Labour Weekend holidays. Most of the kontiki/torpedo practitioners grab their own space, but a few push in amongst the surfcasters. As they then send their long-lines (25 hooks) out up to 2km from shore, they cover a lot more water than the 60-100 metres the surfcasters can with their rods and bait.

It could be a coincidence, but before torpedos became popular, members of the Pania Surfcasting Club in Napier used to catch a lot more big snapper than they do these days. I suspect that there is only a finite number of fish that come in each year, and that long-liners are harvesting many before they get to the surfcasters’ baits. However, there are still enough to make it worthwhile going hard out with the rods for a few weeks each year in the hope of catching a big one.

You need decent gear for this exercise, too. Distance-casting rods may help, but a lot of these fish are hooked just behind the surf break, where the bottom is stirred by wave action. On flatter beaches the increased casting distance becomes more important.

Reels need good drag systems. When hooked, big snapper often run out 100m and come to the surface – I’ve even seen them jump right out of the water! Drags need to be smooth so that lines are not broken when these fish accelerate away.

The Gamakatsu Octopus circle hook is my favourite hook – especially in sizes 4/0 to 6/0 – at this time of the year. These modest-sized hooks usually self-set before you get to the rod, and once in they tend to stay that way. To help set hooks when I’m not holding the rod (most of the time), I use break-away sinkers. The resistance provided by these sinkers’ grapnels dug in the sand is usually enough to slide the hook up into the corner of the snapper’s jaw and start the point sinking in. The extra pressure created when I pick up the rod finishes the hook setting. No big strike involved at all.

Line weights are up to you. The lighter the line the further you will cast, but remember that you are after the fish of a lifetime, so going up to 10kg line for this part of the year can be a good idea.

Don’t stress about what bait to use if chasing a big snapper on a Hawkes Bay beach. Over the years I have caught big Hawkes Bay snapper on many baits, including anchovies, pilchards, yelloweyed mullet, crayfish, paddle crabs, fresh kahawai fillet, crab and crayfish cocktail baits. The very first 20lb-plus fish I caught was at the Beacons back in 1966. He was 10kg (22lb) and took a slice of tinned trevally bait. The point of all this is that as long as you have a decent, fresh and well-presented bait in front of a big snapper, he will probably gobble it down.

   This article is reproduced with permission of   
New Zealand Fishing News

December 2014 - by Gary Kemsley
Re-publishing elsewhere is prohibited

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