Snapper Fishing - using baits

Although pillies are effective as well as relatively clean, there are other baits that work just as well but which involve a bit more blood and guts. In particular, we're talking skipjack tuna (commonly called bonito), kahawai and the various members of the mackerel family, including yellowtail, slimies and koheru.

Skipjack Tuna

The skippie is a magical beast that strangely becomes more attractive as it gets older and deteriorates. Although the skin is nice and tough when freshly caught, the skippie is a totally different animal when dredged up from the local bait stockist, with the frozen corpse typically battered, bloodied and sometimes skinless. One would have every right to be peeved with the product - if it didn't work so well! It seems likely that this may be a result of the flesh breaking down and being so as to release fishy juices and oils more readily. Although this also means that it is soft and easily removed from the hook, when it's gobbled down as hungrily as it is, more often than not the hook is in position for a hook-up anyway.

Skippie Fish Fingers

The most important aspects of presenting a skipjack bait is that is that it must be slim and streamlined, as we want to make it as easy as possible for snapper to swallow and ensure that each piece has some skin to hold it all together. The rigs used for tuna strip baits are identical to those used with pilchards: two hook rigs for school snapper and a choice of either a single or two big hooks for larger snapper in rugged territory. Also similar is the way the leading hook is sewed two or three times (depending on relative bait and hook size) through the bait from the tapered end down to the thick end and positioned 10 to 20mm from the bottom. In order to keep the gape relatively unchoked and to enable the hook to rip out easily, note the direction of the hook's kirb and place the hook in the bait so that the point and barb are near the bait's edge and pointing away from the main bulk of the bait.

The sinker placement and size is also similar to a typical pilchard rig, with up to two one-ounce sliding ball sinkers held in position hard against the bait by a couple of half hitches around the bait's topmost portion. Because the terminal tackle and bait act as a single unit, snags are less likely. Baits rigged this way look more natural to the fish and provide greater sensitivity to the angler because he has direct contact.

The best cut-baits are found in the rear quarter of the fish. By cutting the last quarter off and then slicing the triangular slab lengthwise, two superb baits are made. Not only do they taper down perfectly for ideal rigging, they are also form a very tough part of the fish, staying together well when cast or savaged.

Although these are the best baits, several more reasonable baits are made from the rest of the fillet. Again, the baits are long, slim and tapering, but this time they are cut vertically rather than horizontally. You will find that near the skippie's head, the skin does not hold to the flesh as securely and that some trimming is necessary to make the bait riggable and castable.

Me Old Favourite

The head of a skippie is used by those who are serious big snapper catchers, either whole or split in half, depending on both the size of the skippie and the size of the snapper you hope to catch.

Most times it's half a skippie head, mainly because splitting it exposes all the internal juices, scents and bits inside the head (the blood-soaked gills being important), and looks to be a manageable size for a reasonable snapper to eat.

A lot of times, that head is cast out and nothing happens, except a few tiddler bites and the occasional snag. The next time there's a few hard thumps and then a steaming run. If you suspect there's a big fish in the vicinity and smaller fish or kahawai are a problem, whack on a skippie head and see what happens. The only real disadvantage is that in order to get the head swallowed, the snapper has to really crunch up the head and this can lead to a rather poor hook-up ratio. Most times I sew a 10/0 hook through the skippie's nose and then position it in the middle of the gill flap, the kirb of the hook pointing the point and barb of the hook away from the bulk of the head.

Yummy Gills in Blood and Oil Marinade

Some big snapper aficionados advocate the use of the skippie gills only and I can see why when that big lump hits the water in a great explosion of bloody water - but, I don't know how to hook it in an effective manner. Suffice to say, it does get eaten on occasion but hook placement appears to be even more uncertain than when using in a skippie head. I only use the gills if there's nothing else left.

Simple Mackerel Baits (Yellowtail, Slimy and Koheru)

Mackerel will generally show up in the snapper berley trail at some stage and this is fortunate as they make excellent fresh baits. Although mackerel are generally visible when fishing shallow areas, they are not as obvious in deeper spots. Sometimes a 'cloud' of fish on the sounder will give them away, and at other times it will be an army of soft bites on your baits. To catch these fish, it's simply a matter of dropping a set of bait flies (preferably baited) down to the mackerel's feeding level and leaving the rod in the holder 'til it starts jiggling around. True koheru are better targeted with a tiny chrome jig (7 to 10gr) with the treble replaced by a single hook - or you'll find they keep falling off.

While snapper will eat a live mackerel, most people prefer to use them dead, either whole, butterflied, or filleted and cut into strip baits.

Whole and Dead

The 'whole and dead' option is usually reserved for the smaller yellowtail or slimy mackerel, especially as it's getting dark (when the bigger fish move in) or when pickers such as mackerel and maomao are proving a problem. They are fished the same way as a pilchard bait so refer to last month's article for rigging.

Self-Saucing Butterflied Mackerel

This is a personal favourite and a subject that I have dealt with many times before. At the risk of boring some of you, I guess it should be done once again.

Butterflying can be done to any type of mackerel up to about 750gr in weight. Start by killing the mackerel (the fresher the bait, the better this method works so start with live mackerel). Next, hold the mackerel by the tail and use a knife to cut up towards the head until you have exposed part of the gut cavity on both sides. Next, lift one of the fillet flaps and carefully cut through the exposed backbone section and remove it, along with the connected tail. Your mackerel is now butterflied.

Whether you use one hook or two is a personal choice, but I find a single 8/0 up between the gill covers and out the middle of the nose usually does the job. A small ball sinker on top of the hook takes the still nervously twitching bait down into danger territory and if there's a snapper within cooee, that bait's going to be slaughtered. Typically, you will feel several hard thumps followed by a steady run. It is now time to strike - hard!

For deeper, faster water, use a one metre trace tied to the mainline with an appropriately sized running sinker. Like the skippie heads and gills, baits of this size must be accompanied by tough trace material of at least 50 or 60lb breaking strain, or risk being chewed off.

Butterflied Mackerel with the Chef's Special Sauce

At the end of the day, you might well find yourself with a number of mackerel still on the boat. Instead of throwing them away, butterfly them and place them in icecream containers along with plenty of tuna oil. Freeze them until needed. They are awesome!

Fillet au Mackerel

Cutting a decent fillet off a mackerel can be worthwhile but hooking it up can be a problem. So many times I've seen big fish lost because the tough skin choked the hook gape so much that the point was unable to get enough grip on the fish and pulled free. Having said that, I once caught a snapper over 25lb on a big mackerel fillet and this is how it was done...Take a whole fillet off one side of the mackerel. Run the knife's edge lengthwise down the middle of the fillet, trying not to cut through the skin.

Fold the fillet in half so that skin faces skin and the flesh is exposed on both sides. Place a hook through the top of the mackerel wedge - just once. This also works when using strip baits of other tough skinned baits such as trevally, kahawai and kingfish, but for thick, tough fillets I have a much better way.

Skinless Kahawai Sausages

Cut a fillet off a kahawai and remove the skin. Next, slice the flesh into long slim baits appropriate to the size of fish you're trying to catch. Keep in mind that an average snapper can easily eat a whole pilchard, so a bait with that sort of volume is not a problem. (In fact, if kahawai are a nuisance, I cut whole fillets lengthwise into two - that slows them down a bit - especially combined with a heavier sinker to cut down on the vulnerable descent time).

These kahawai 'fingers' or 'sausages' are treated like whole pilchards, the hook(s) sewn down the flesh length and buried deeply, while at the other end the trace is half-hitched two or three times to hold the sinker in place and take the casting strain.

Whole Squid with Extra Wriggly Tentacles

There are times when fresh squid are just the ticket, but beware of cutting them in half: the tentacles are sometimes absolutely critical for success and as a result, squid body 'tubes' remain unmolested while tentacle sections get slammed immediately. I like to use the squid whole, again threading my hook down through the body until I can firmly place it into the tentacle clump, ensuring that the point and barb remain well exposed and the shank covered. This is yet another bait that suits a two hook rig, the top of the squid hood holding the half hitches surprisingly well.

Mock Wriggly Squid

Should you find yourself in a position where there are only squid hoods remaining, there is a way they can be made much more effective. Take a knife and slice the lower half of the hood into strips so they look like tentacles, then place on a single hook rig as usual. As I said before, it's often the tentacles that make all the difference.

Squid with Pilchard Stuffing

For those who like to cover their bets both ways, try stuffing a pilchard up into a squid hood. Try to sew the main hook down through both baits for extra security and it should end up firmly in the tentacle clump. The keeper is positioned normally and the trace half hitched.

Piper and Sprats

You will notice that piper and sprats are missing from the list. While there are rare times when a snapper wants to eat nothing else, these occasions are so rare that I don't bother with them any more. Be that as it may, for those who want to give themselves a reasonable chance at kingfish at the same time as a snapper, piper are still a good option. I will leave sprats for my friends with bait nets who swear by them - or with young families and those with access to wharves. While I've seen sprats work (on two occasions), pilchards are generally better and you don't have to jump into the tide and get wet and cold to catch them.