Winter Snapper Tactics

Temperature and snapper distribution 

When our waters cool over the winter months, temperatures affect snapper in several ways. Firstly in distribution: shallower waters have more of their mass exposed to the surface, so they chill out (and warm up) more quickly. When the water cools down some fish will stay inshore, but the majority of snapper move from the shallows out to deeper waters, where the larger water mass holds the temperature up a bit better. This varies from north to south as the southern waters are colder. Generally, snapper in the north do not move so far, or for so long as in the colder southern parts of their range. 

The degree of movement seems to vary a bit depending on the severity of the given winter, too. We can remember some very cold winters in the Hauraki region when the water temperature dropped to around 11C (no laughing from our hardy southern readers, please). Then, the snapper seemed to be pretty much non-existent in inshore waters. Recent milder winters have seen better numbers of our red friends lingering in inshore grounds. It is probably fair to say that, with the right approach, a reasonable catch of snapper in winter is an achievable thing from East Cape, north.