Snapper Fishing - Big tips for BIG fish

These days I make my home in Auckland, a situation that has its pluses and minuses. One of the pluses is (despite the large population) the still excellent boating and fishing of the Hauraki Gulf. You can catch snapper all year round in the gulf, and the complexity of the coast is such that, if you really-gotta, you can always find somewhere to fish safely. However, catching mid-winter snapper can rely as much on the ‘how’ as the ‘where’.            Whangarei angler Warwick Drake with a couple of  ‘three-mile’ snapper that preferred strayline to ledger rigs.

Cold-water snapper

In the cold winter months, many northern region snapper move out of the shallower waters of inshore harbours, bays and channels. This is because, in shallow water, more of the overall water mass is exposed to the surface, and it cools down more. Although some larger fish remain (their bigger bodies have more thermal mass, and cope with colder water better), most spread out in the deeper, slightly warmer water of the inner continental shelf and out to about 150m depths. 

In the colder months, with lower water temperatures, the metabolism of snapper slows down. They are much less active and require less food. Consequently, they feed less often and bite times can be brief, with fish being picky and tentative in the way they take a bait. In such situations, small things can make the difference between bringing home a feed, or just spending a day washing your hooks. 

Where and when

Deeper water structures in the Hauraki Gulf often hold good numbers of snapper during winter and are efficiently worked with a ledger or dropper rig. ‘Snapper snatchers’ sweetened with a strip of bait, are particularly effective. When possible, however, I like to fish shallower, 30 to 40m spots, as I enjoy the subtleties of straylining.

Pick fishing times with care — the usual rules for snapper apply: avoid the full moon, fish the low light early and late in the day, having some tide run is important, and check the predicted bite times. It is a regular occurrence to see a heap of snapper sign on the sounder, but to have great difficulty getting a decent bite out of them. This is when the fine points of fishing can make a difference.

Perseverance can be important. Often the fish are there; you just have to wait until they come on the feed. This can be motivated by the change of light (and this happens early during the winter, allowing you to get home at a reasonable hour), a change of tide, or a forecast ‘bite time’.

Sometimes neutral fish can be encouraged to feed by liberal application of berley, but regularly in winter this can create severe problems by attracting the dreaded Cook Strait sailfish — barracouta. If things are a bit ‘snaky’ in the area where you are fishing, it can pay to skip the berley. Certainly it is a good idea to release the berley on or near the bottom to avoid laying a trail right through the water column. 

Presentation

Like a salesman trying to convince a difficult client to buy a product, a subtle presentation of the goods can be vital when snapper are picky. Here, the strayline with a running sinker is usually the best rig to use, although it starts to become inefficient in water deeper than about 40m, depending on current.

Most snapper fishermen are familiar with the now-standard techniques of straylining with an unweighted or lightly weighted rig with a running ball sinker, but this can be further refined.

On a number of occasions, the use of very light line and smaller baits with minimal terminal tackle has produced a catch for me when standard techniques have failed.  One winter session at Little Barrier Island saw the fish bin empty by mid-afternoon. In desperation I tried a little three-kilo spin rig, with a short double line for a leader, and a fine wire hook buried right inside a pilchard cube. Straylined back with no sinker, this produced five snapper — the only ones of the day — plus a couple of fish I could not keep out of the kelp with the limited firepower I had.

Terminal tackle

One important factor in making a subtle presentation is to use the minimum amount of lead you can get away with, while still getting the bait down through the water column to the bottom in a reasonable fashion. The amount of lead required will vary with depth, current speed, line thickness and bait size. Current speed may often vary over a tide and if you suddenly find that you are not getting bites, changing to a larger sinker will sometimes restore your fortunes.

It is pointless, of course, to use nice light tackle with a stiff heavy trace. I regularly use a double tied in the end of the main line for snapper — this is usually adequate for ‘schoolies’. If I suspect there will be larger fish around, or I start getting cleaned up, I will go to a 15kg or even a 24kg trace.

With light tackle it can become harder to set the hook into a hard-mouthed fish like a snapper, but you are also unlikely to bend even a light hook. Strong, fine-wire hooks are preferred in this situation. 

Longreach

A final part of the strayline equation is the rod. Having the right tool for the job can make a lot of difference. Often when striking you will just start to come up tight on a fish when you run out of reach. The hook point pricks it, but you do not set the hook properly and by the time you wind the tip back down, the fish has gone. A year ago I built myself a snapper rod that has proved to be perfect for this sort of work.

It is a two piece, 8’6” pure graphite rod suited to four and six kilo line. The blank is a Graphcast 1 from CD rods, and was designed for up-river salmon work in the South Island. The extra length allows me sufficient strike distance to pull all the belly out of the line and still set the hook. It is also great when jigging for similar reasons. It is a lovely rod to play fish on, sensitive with a medium-fast action, and the length makes it easy to work around the outboard. Being a two-piece rod, transportation and stowage are easy. Fellow staff member, Mark Kitteridge favours a Daiwa of similar dimensions for the same tasks. 

Best baits

Because of the picky way snapper feed at this time of year, and the numbers of undersized fish forced out of the shallows, baits need to be tough enough to stay on the hook through a considerable amount of nibbling. Squid or mullet can be good, but my favourite is skipjack, which I fillet, cut down to bait size pieces, salt (to preserve and toughen), then freeze for later use. Pilchards will get the bites, but come off the hook too easily. They are best left for warmer times when the fish are taking the bait more freely.

The predatory instincts of big snapper are awakened by small whole fish, both alive and dead. Whole jack mackerel, especially if freshly killed and still with a quiver or two left, are great, tough baits. Most of the best snapper I have caught in recent years have taken whole jack mackerel. 

Zen snapper fishing 

Cast the bait back away from the boat, unless a strong current will do this for you. As the rig sinks, the sinker will run back up the line, away from the bait, allowing it to waft gently down behind and present more naturally. Snapper’s eyes are set high in their head – they are particularly aware of things happening above them, and will often move up off the bottom to intercept a bait as it sinks down. If the bait makes it down unmolested, leave the reel out of gear, and if you are using an overhead-type reel, slowly tease the bait back towards you by walking the spool around with your fingers.

A bite or take from a winter snapper can be a very subtle thing, and may give no indication of the size of the fish. Sensing it depends on the angler being well in tune with their gear, being able to detect anything unnatural, and being able to tell the difference between ‘live’ and ‘dead’ line movements.  Light-tipped graphite rods are best at transmitting sensation, which may be a grab and run, a light tug, or even just and absence of weight as a fish picks up the bait and moves towards you. If fish are biting especially lightly, I let a small belly of line form between the rod-tip and the water surface. Watching this curve of line for twitches will allow you to see bites that you sometimes can’t feel, and reduce the chances of very shy fish feeling anything untoward.

When snapper are in this moribund sort of mood, they can play with a bait for some time before taking it properly. It is important not to strike too soon, or there will be few hook ups. Leave the reel out of gear and let them take the bait, while very gently feathering the spool with your fingertips. When they start to move off with more purpose, you can strike. A technique that works for me at this point is to swing the rod tip away from the fish, still free spooling off line, then bring the rod-tip back to the point where the line enters the water, dropping a puddle of slack line on the water surface. Put the reel in gear, wait until the slack line whips away and the weight just starts to come on the rod tip, then strike.

Winter snapper can sometimes be difficult to catch, but outwitting them and putting a feed in the bin can be pretty satisfying — a good reason to leave a warm bed.