Snapper fishing - using soft plastics

Elevator rigs with heavier heads make targeting the depths more effective. Ivan Penno with a nice snapper taken from 50 metres of water on a soft-bait.

Targeting snapper over deepwater foul and sand with soft-plastics can be a particularly productive way of catching big fish at times. It’s a method favoured by Editor Grant Dixon and has produced some spectacular results over the years…

There are a number of advantages to fishing for snapper over the deep foul – 50 metres plus – and several techniques that will increase the chances of success.

Over the years I have sussed out some great spots to deploy this method, and to be fair, my success rate was always about the same as my mates fishing baits alongside me. In more recent times though, using big soft-baits has kept me ahead in the game.

Bream Bay is one of my favourite haunts, and you will find me either anchored close-in and berleying up, or out deep and drifting. When fishing deep, the techniques are basically the same as fishing softies over the shallower sand to schooling fish, except that everything is up-sized: the amount of line out, the weight of the jig head, and the size of the lure itself.

One of the most important factors is being able to control your drift. At certain times the fish will be holding tightly over a pin, requiring short drifts, where you need to slow the boat as much as possible to maximise your time in the strike zone. At other times the fish are more spread out and holding on the flats, allowing longer drifts. Use your sounder to suss out where they are and target them accordingly.

Remember, finding the fish is only the start – the next trick is to put your lure in front of their noses. Don’t be disheartened if the bite does not come on immediately. Do the drift several times before trying new grounds – your patience will often be rewarded.

On the NZFN Extreme 7.5m we have a large John Hewinson Canvas #5 drogue set up to be run either short off the stern or long off the bow. I am happy to drift in 20-25 knots of breeze with the drogue off the bow, pointing the boat’s prow into the blow and swells, creating less windage and ensuring a slower, safer drift. There is also no risk of taking one over the back – always a possibility when the drogue is run off the stern quarter in rougher conditions, especially in smaller boats.

With the drift sorted, it is time to go fishing. I favour the long cast forward so that by the time the terminal tackle gets near the bottom, it is almost directly opposite or below the angler, maximising contact with the lure.

You will find the fish are not always hugging the bottom, so be ready to engage the reel and strike at any time. Cast to where you can see the line as it descends and keep some control as it comes off the spool. If the line’s behavior suddenly changes – strike and wind like hell to set the hook.

Otherwise, once the lure reaches the bottom, start lifting and dropping it with the rod to give it action in the normal manner. Then, as it slowly works behind, away from the boat, keep letting out some line to let it drop back, before engaging and jiggling forward again, until it ends up well past the 45-degree line angle. It is quite an uncomplicated technique, but as always, the angler who pays attention and is in contact with the lure will have better success. Polarised sunglasses are a big advantage, especially in the initial stages after the cast as the soft-bait sinks, helping you see the line better in glary conditions.

Once the line is past the 45-degree mark, start retrieving with a slow mechanical-jigging style motion for the first 20 or so winds; quite often this will induce a bite from any fish following at the time.

If the winds are light and the drift is slow, there is no reason why you cannot use an overhead reel on a ‘slow-jig’ rod to fish a big soft-bait.

I use two different types of jig-heads – the conventional lead-headed hook and the Elevator Rig style, which sees a separate weighted head attached via a split-ring to a hook.

If you don’t have a heavy enough jig-head available, place a free-sliding ball sinker on the trace. While it’s not the perfect solution, it will get the job done.

My preferred hook size for soft-baiting is 3/0, but quite often I am forced to go up to 5/0 if wanting to utilise the heavier lead-head weights offered by some brands. If it is a trophy or a tournament winner you are after, this is not an issue, but when just chasing a feed, 3/0s tend to provide a better result. (Some anglers I have fished with tie their own assist hooks to enable added hook coverage near the back of the soft-bait tail without unduly affecting its action.)

The smaller lures have the advantage of sinking faster. However, there is a saying ‘big bait, big fish’ when using natural baits, and the same applies to soft-baiting in the deep. I have nailed plenty of nice snapper on 5-inch shad tails and the like, but the bigger the tail the better when it comes to deepwater drifting.

While I like Z-Man tails for their durability – they withstand the attention of some of the smaller reef dwellers better – those available on the New Zealand market come no bigger than 5-inch. Therefore the Gulp! Nemesis and 6-inch Grub Tails are my ‘go-to’ lures for deep water drifting, tending to sort the big boys from the pickers. (Also, there is a new soft-bait on the market, the Savage AR ‘Real Eels’, which are said to do the business, but I have yet to try them personally – see the tackle test last issue.)

The Aussie-sourced Squidgies Pro Range Flick Baits used to be available through Douglas Johnson and Co. Ltd, and when doused with a bit of additive were always good performers. Look out for them in the depths of your local tackle store’s bargain bin – I found my last lot in FCO’s Hamilton store.

There has been some debate in our office as to the best rod/reel combos to use for this style of soft-baiting. For a number of years I fished a Shimano Twin Power 4000 on a Shimano T-Curve 5-10kg two-metre spin stick. It isn’t as good for casting as a longer rod, but man does it have some stopping and lifting power! I have caught a number of big snapper and moderate kingfish on it – one particularly memorable one was 19 kilos caught on a Lucanus jig – and for a long time it was my go-to outfit.

More recently, sticking with the Shimano Twin Power reel, I have gone to the Abu Garcia Veritas 4-8kg 2.13m model – a longer rod with a softer action. This rod possesses plenty of low-down grunt and has done the business for me on many occasions.

For the deep water stuff, I prefer the bigger 4000-sized spin reels (as opposed to the 2500 and 3000 sizes) for their extra capacity. For anglers who want to cast out with an overhead reel instead, some good options include the Shimano Curado 200I (which featured in last issue’s Shimano tackle test trip) and Daiwa Lexa, but there are plenty of other good ones, too.

Regarding line weight, 8-10kg (PE 1.5-2) lets me put plenty of hurt on a fish, coupled with two-metres-plus of 20lb fluorocarbon leader. While this is not heavy tackle, the angler has an advantage in deep water, as staying on top of the fish is easier than in shallower areas, making bust-offs in the foul ground less likely.

However, because we are fishing deep, the chances of releasing fish successfully are diminished, even where you bring the fish up to the surface slowly. The issue with this is, among schooling fish in particularly, there are likely to be predators. On many occasions I have been ‘sharked’ while fighting a good fish because I didn’t get it in quickly enough. It’s a real problem when the area at the Hen and Chicks ‘war zone’ goes off – there is always a heap of makos and threshers rounding up the snapper aggregations here, so you’re simply providing them with an easy meal!

So the next time you’re out deep and the baits are not doing the business, grab your soft-bait rod, a decent-sized jig head and tail, and drop it down – you might be very surprised, and pleased, that you did!