Winter Snapper Masterclass

We get a great run of them when the water temps drop, as they come in closer to shore to spawn. This means that those of us with smaller boats have a shot at these beautiful fish. Sometimes, coming in as close as 8m of water depth!

Ask any seasoned Snapper fisherman and they will have their own tried and true methods…but as a general rule there are two schools of thought – bait fishing or plastics fishing.

Watch as Scotty and BCF Kawana’s Andy Gunn run through both sides of the coin.

Here’s a shortlist of what they discuss in the story

Using bait

–         Fish light! Light line and light leader will entice more bites

–         A 3-ganged rig with a pilchard or squid will be deadly

–         Weight your bait so it slowly wafts through the water column. Depending on the depth and run in the tide, you can go as light as pea sinkers!

–         A Baitrunner will make float lining your baits really easy! Check out a video below

Using plastics

–         Rule #1 – match your jighead weight and hook size appropriately to the size of your plastic

–         Like bait fishing, don’t overweight your plastic. You want the plastic slowly to look natural as it floats down

–         Colour actually matters! Andy Gunn loves the Opening Night colour from ZMan, and Scotty loves the Nuclear Chicken from Berkley

Check out any of the gear you’ve seen the boys talking about at your local BCF.