what do you use for targeting snapper?
Printed From: The Fishing Website
Category: Saltwater Fishing
Forum Name: Heavy Metal - Jig fishing
Forum Description: Anything related to jig fishing here
URL: https://www.fishing.net.nz/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=23290
Printed Date: 02 Feb 2026 at 2:11am
Topic: what do you use for targeting snapper?
Posted By: Plow
Subject: what do you use for targeting snapper?
Date Posted: 22 Sep 2007 at 12:11am
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I admit I'm a snapper slut.
Kings are fun to catch but really never loved eating them as much as snapper or Dory, so when i go fishing its after a feed normally, snapps first and dories if they are around.
So whats ya technique you use for snapper? Long jigs drifting over foul, or just keeping eyes peeled for gannets and then whats ya tackle?
im very interested in this jiggy jiggy stuff... and I wanna land some snaps doing it. Would be keen to hear what you use.
------------- Legasea Legend, the rest of you should be too, $10 a month.  |
Replies:
Posted By: mozz
Date Posted: 22 Sep 2007 at 9:05am
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Jigging out on the sand under gannets I use a speedy12 with 6kg mono on a 7' Daiwa IM6 rod with a 80-220gm jig normally pink or a pilly imitation.
Cast ahead of the drift and wait for the jig to hit the bottom and then just work it along the bottom until the line angle is too much then do a lift/wind motion back to the boat.
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Posted By: Phecda
Date Posted: 22 Sep 2007 at 11:19am
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I know I'm a bit slow, but I've just got into "straylining" (as against flasher rigs), with great success. 8/0 circle hook and a whole side of a Jack Mackerel (or anything really). I used to use only pilchards, but now think almost any bait will do.
Thing is, I'm a lazy beetard. I like to drift-fish in 30~100m and laze around. Jigging requires constant action.
But for "jigging", I'm currently hot on Lumo Grubs, or others in the Bozos range. Just a few weeks ago, I caught a John Dory on a 12" Thumper Grub, the grub being nearly as long as the Dory!
My theory is that fish have big mouths, and even bigger ideas!
The other way that I'm strange, and jigging frustrates me a bit, is that I might drift-fish for hours with NOTHING on the fish-finder. I have caught some of my largest fish with nothin' on the fishfinder!
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Posted By: gimp
Date Posted: 22 Sep 2007 at 11:21am
| Trinidad 12 ,jigwrex 100gm rod |
Posted By: Lethal
Date Posted: 22 Sep 2007 at 7:52pm
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Phecda.... i dont want to put you off mate but first i would learn the ins and outs of strayling it sounds more like you.... true strayling is casting very lightly weighted big baits back down a burley trail that is heading into foul or a reef system.... mastering this would suit your type of fishing as once the cast has been made you just keep an eye on the line with thumb very close to the spool, now normally you would retrieve the bait once it has hit the bottom and do it all over again, but in your case maybe leave it there ... the idea is to work out the speed of the current and direction of the wind, then work out if your boat is going to hang in the right direction, now if everything is sweet you need to anchor just far enough away so when it all comes up tight your sitting far enough away from the reef or what ever you have lined up, once you cast out its going to hit the bottom about 20-30mts out from the reef.... why so far? well if anything over 6-9kgs takes your bait it is more than likely to head out to sea rather than into the bricks...... so you see its truly a art this fishing not too laid back, as you would like it.... the truth be know the more your likely to put into it the more your going to catch.... im 61years old and believe me im still picking up new tips.... but what i would like to say, if your really interested in this jigging do it right, you must keep thinking about how, where and why, it worked when you hooked up a fish or the bottom.... im willing to lay it all out for you but im not going to unless you willing to totally commit yourself...... that fair?????? |
Posted By: Lethal
Date Posted: 22 Sep 2007 at 8:25pm
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Plow if your just fishing the inner gulf and using nylon a 7ft rod makes it easy... you can shorten the rod length by about a foot if your into using braid... the rod action for nylon needs to be firm due to the stretch otherwise the jig will hardly move and this will make it hard work..... braid has very little stretch so you need something quite soft to add what i call a hesitation in the up stroke, this can also be done by adding 4-6mts of nylon as a trace of similar weight or slightly heaver to the braid your using.... reels can be as slow as 5-1 or as fast as you like, which ever you use light weight is best due to the amount of lifting your doing.... i know it never matters when you landing fish the pain is never felt till you go to bed that night....... my rod is a one off built 11years ago by the Butterworth factory in Malaysia it is 7ft long..... but i like to use nylon of about 6kg.... even the reel is old as... haven't needed to buy another as i do look after them its a Ryobi free spool reel with a auto clutch.... but there are some excellent set-ups out there if you look around....... |
Posted By: Plow
Date Posted: 23 Sep 2007 at 6:09am
generous with your info lethal.. top man. 
Do you have two different set ups for snapper and Kings? ie one for speed jigging and one for bouncing? I understand people like narrow overhead reels for speed jigging but if you are just generally jigging for snaps, what is stopping you using a normal stray lining rig with standard overhead reel and medium stiffness 7 foot straylining rod?
------------- Legasea Legend, the rest of you should be too, $10 a month. |
Posted By: Phecda
Date Posted: 23 Sep 2007 at 7:48am
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Thanks Lethal. Thing is, drift-fishing in relatively deep water/possibly deep foul with a strayline rig with minimum weight to get it down is, well, a type of straylining! What is it? I don't doubt you may have better success berleying and casting into rocks. I have been regularly catching 3~5kg snapper and occasionally up to 8kg. Well, "regularly" may mean different things to different people But I dont regard my results as anything particularly spectacular, no. And I appreciate your time to share advice.
I occasionally enter club competitions and they have one distinct advantage. Man they make me try hard!!! (even if it's all wrong hee-hee)
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Posted By: Lethal
Date Posted: 23 Sep 2007 at 3:10pm
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Hi Plow, i would run two different set-ups but in the inner gulf no.... if i was going to chase kings then yep i would run a set-up like Chris do's with long jigs... were as i dont have the luxury to tell when a king is likely to turn up and take my snapper jig, so im at a disadvantage when one decides to take me on.... but hey ive still managed some nice kings on 6kg using the softly softly approach when they did turn up...... biggest was 72lb.....so it can be done..... using your standed snapper rod is ok in most cases, but when it comes to the long haul and you leave the bait behind you will have wished a better set-up was in your hands......very much like S/P fishing the right gear makes easy work...... |
Posted By: Lethal
Date Posted: 23 Sep 2007 at 3:55pm
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hey sorry Phecda sort of got the wrong impression from your first post..... its just people using the word strayling have got carried away and now it has been used for lots of different types of fishing and its sort of lost its true mean hence the reply.... your really doing what i like doing as well which is deep water drifting a light weighted bait..... think about this, the reason a light weighted bait is used to imitate a dying bait or wounded fish is, as it drops to the sea floor it sends out vibrations that fish pick up and head towards it and it has smell that hopefully they like, so they eat it...... now if you were a wild animal, the one thing regardless of its size is anything acting wounded is a easy meal, so here is why they will hit a jig.... the slight difference is its moving a lot faster than your bait and it dosent smell, so the action is what makes the difference, just remember fish are killing machine its how they live and survive, so by acting on this instinct you start heading in the right direction....... by keeping the jig moving you entice it to have a go, now and how you move the jig can make all the difference, slow fast or otherwise but it must be kept moving to make the fish think its going to lose the opportune to eat..... as you progress and have some success, slowly things will come together different condition on different days give varying results ..... by this i mean some days the wind is blowing with the tide and others against..... this is what makes the 10% that catch most of the fish working out the conditions, knowing were to fish on different winds and which tide at a drop of a hat, you know from experience which areas are out of the wind and you will be hanging with the tide or traveling with the wind whatever your looking for you will know where your likely to find it..... |
Posted By: LEVCAT
Date Posted: 23 Sep 2007 at 4:00pm
| shimano torium 20, penn powerstick pro 7' 10-12kg, 8-10kg line, blue fox 120g pink and pearl jig... |
Posted By: Lethal
Date Posted: 23 Sep 2007 at 4:14pm
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hi LEVCAT..... should work ok mate..... if you rub the Blue fox lure hard enough with your thumb slowly adding more and more force to its side you can put a slight bend in it, do this on one side near the top and again on the other side near the bottom... and what you will have now is a slight "S" shape which will make it work even better..... its a very slight S shape your looking to produce dont over do it...... i would love to see you come done to 6kg as well mate, smaller diameter line means less weight to lift as it causes less drag in the water but still use the same outfit....... |
Posted By: Phecda
Date Posted: 23 Sep 2007 at 5:10pm
I again appreciate your time to comment Lethal, which I will need to read several times.
I am certainly a serious fisho, if nearly full-time is a measure. If I denigrate myself, it is because I do NOT believe I have any innate fishing sense, I just do it by hard work and luck.
I also read a lot. Perhaps so much that I forget half of it! In other threads, you will find me asking "hard" questions or apparently facetious comments. Apart from interspersed humour, I can only learn by asking things like "how do you know that?" "what difference does THAT make?" things like that.
As it happens, I currently hold 4 club records (one for snapper), and am thinking of targeting some NZ records (World Records are so huge that any of them would need the catch-of-a-lifetime). All on light-line.
If I appear to impart advice, I am just imparting my own experiences. Believe me, I am listening to all other advice, which is why I am here.
In fact, the reason I went to "strayline rigs" was nothing to do with whether they work better (I was happy enough with flasher rigs). It was because, in going down to 2kg and 1kg IGFA line, it was obvious I was going to suffer a lot of bust-offs. A strayline rig with a small sinker is about a dollar. I would have had perhaps 20 bustoffs to get a 4.5kg snapper on 1kg line. The best part of 1kg line, is that it improves my confidence on slightly heavier line (like 2kg or 4kg) which after a while of 1kg feels like hawser-rope!
This might also help you understand why I dont necessarily follow your "fishing near rocks" the same way you might. I'm a yachtie!
A yachtie is ingrained to AVOID rocks.
A fisho is ingrained to FIND them!!
Therefore...I have a split personality!
(A joke, but with some truth. My 6-ton yacht is not very big, but hitting a rock on a swell will stuff it, unlike -possibly- a runabout or such-like. And though I increase my local knowledge of some areas, much of the coastline between Tauranga and North Cape is not actually that well charted. When it comes to cuddling-up to rocks.)
Please keep your advice and experiences coming. And everyone else here.
Chris
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Lethal wrote: