Snapper metro

[FushLups 0]

Bagged out last night, great fun!The best went 63, here is half of the catch

[FushLups 0]

One of the bigger boys

[urhookedfish 12]

Hey Nice one New Zealander (Joke)....I love it when you look at the recent posts and see a quality thread only minutes old. Unlike the 63cm red which would be god knows how old.well done Fishlips (fushlups) Oh yeah, what did the damage in the way of bait?

[FushLups 0]

thanks bud.Pretty much anything was getting hammered from OLD (and I mean OLD) Tommy heads /whiting heads to cuttlefish and sauries / pilliesps Apparently legal snapper reach 38cm at approx 6 years of age

[Breamer Boy 0]

Did you try plastics Kev?

[brenton 637]

well done Lups,sounds like a bit of metro fun was had. cheers brenton

[FushLups 0]

Yeah Brent, was great. How'd you fare with your snapper outing the other week mate?Alex, I tried plastics prior to them being on the chew, when they were on the chew I didn't have a change to grab my other rod as as soon as a fresh bait hit the water it was hammered!Insane stuff

[jagger 24]

Sweet action champ. Southern area I'm guessing.Interesting the whole bait debate... get it....Old stinky stuff versus fresh. You hear of the old pros.old boys that use stink rotten crap and smash em. On the other hand, guys will go out and catch the fresh for use straight away.Both work and both have their merits.What sort of depth were you fishing. Thinking of taking the boat out Friday night to chase some

[FushLups 0]

Yeah mate, was Southern area.I hear you, I thought it was a joke but my mate guaranteed me that when they "come on" it wont matter what is on the hook, sure enough, frozen heads of old tommy's and whiting, insane! Pieces of cuttle fish that have been in the sun all day, crazy!Plenty of berley, pillies and sauries, and tuna pellets worked a treat for us.I couldn't believe it!As for the depth Jags, we were only in about 24 foot

[jagger 24]

FushLups wrote:

Yeah mate, was Southern area.I hear you, I thought it was a joke but my mate guaranteed me that when they "come on" it wont matter what is on the hook, sure enough, frozen heads of old tommy's and whiting, insane! Pieces of cuttle fish that have been in the sun all day, crazy!Plenty of berley, pillies and sauries, and tuna pellets worked a treat for us.I couldn't believe it!As for the depth Jags, we were only in about 24 foot

24ft Ok, youv'e got my attention

[rocknev 2]

top day out,.... nice fish as well. as for the bait, i like it stinky... but have also caught them on fresh...my pro snapper fisher mate, takes his bait out in winter, and leaves it on the grass for 4 days before using it...must be something in it if a proguy does it.got one of my best fish, after accidntly leaving a squid body in my bucket for 3 days in the middle of summer... christ the bloody thing was nearly glowing... bro said out it on a hook, so i did, slung it out and BANG... got nailed in less than a minute, while the bor using fresh squid never got a touch all night.

[Tyke 0]

Top stuff Fush,So it was a calm night out there ?,it was was blowing here on the hills.I personally think you have to try a mixture of baits.I took the big Snap out with a Snook head.Sometimes it can be stinky squid heads.Just keep trying until one hits.

[yorke_angler 0]

nice one Kev, some good looking fish there! good to see your doing some fishing during your holidays I also find stinky bait works well for other species too, have caught KGW on old squid and cockles before

[hoopsy 697]

good stuff m8 gd to see some quality local snaps still about

[Breamer Boy 0]

FushLups wrote:

Yeah Brent, was great. How'd you fare with your snapper outing the other week mate?Alex, I tried plastics prior to them being on the chew, when they were on the chew I didn't have a change to grab my other rod as as soon as a fresh bait hit the water it was hammered!Insane stuff

Fair enough! Top effort by the way

[afishyfish 4]

Jagger, Its amazing how shallow these boys will feed in :ohmy: I've heard of them being in meter deep water, but I'd say that would only be in ideal conditions, and have caught them before in similar water depths to FL's fish, no problems

[FushLups 0]

Indeed :PI've caught them between Aldinga and Sellicks where it is very shallow when going for squid and whiting!

[Borryking 6]

Shallow at times for sure! I caught a 75cm fish in 12ft of water under a float

[afishyfish 4]

Borryking wrote:

Shallow at times for sure! I caught a 75cm fish in 12ft of water under a float

Dont tell me you were using Gents

[FushLups 0]

...or bread

[Borryking 6]

Nah, half a pillie

[brenton 637]

FushLups wrote:

Yeah Brent, was great. How'd you fare with your snapper outing the other week mate?

Only got 2 Kev 1 to 70+cm and 1 at 45cm,little fish ate all our bait. cheers brenton

[afishyfish 4]

Borryking wrote:

Nah, half a pillie

Dissapointing

[Cranka 0]

Hi GuysSome nice reds there, Interesting the few comments about snapper sizes and age.I have a bream hatchery we run a few months of the year to aid stocking a local river.The manual on bream also covers snapper.They grow quite fast in comparison to bream, 63 cm is prob at best 6-7years old.Also it is probably in its last years of spawning, snapper unlike bream start spawning from 4 years old and are finished by the time they are 10yrs old, although some continue to spawn the eggs are no longer viable and generally wont fertilise.Last year i went to the fremantle university and had a tour of there bream and snapper hatchery, and was quite interested to learn that they only spawned for 6-7 years unlike a bream which continues on till its death.Bream also become mature after 2-3 years and it is the maturing that stunts the grow rate , as all the spare energy goes into production of sperm/eggs.Where snapper mature a little later meaning they can grow faster until this time, so around 40cm in a few years, they then slow down for the next 6 years but still maintain a better growth rate then bream due to the fact they eat more fish then bream which is higher in protein.Bream spend most of there time eating mussels and cockle, oysters etc.Why???? because you are what you eat, shellfish are 70% roe (egg or sperm) so all the goodies are there for them to create there eggs.So it is really important to protect these fish in that period from 30cm to 70cm mark they are the breeders,But I also believe that the bigger fish involve themself in the spawning activity maybe from protection against predators that try and eat the eggs, or the smaller spawners.I am not expert on snapper, but from watching the bream in there breeding activity and as they are juveniles i have noticed one thing that had repeatedly suprised me, they larger older fish will swim with fish only 40mm in lenght, and never try and eat them, for some reason they know there own and leave them alone. Yet is a bait fish comes to close they will eat it.Anyway just some info i thought the snapper capital of oz might like to know.Some may not agree, but this information comes from a hatchery who have researched these guys alot.RegardsDan

[Goldys_Fishin 0]

Hey Dan, Thats some great info there mate. would have been good to go to the UNI and see there hatchery for sure. I always wonder about the age of fish that i catch...Cheers Goldy

[BarneyB 1,939]

Thanks Dan, some interesting reading there. As for your Bream hatchery, I am sure many on this forum would be interested in hearing about that if you get a chance.Regards,Barney.

[Cranka 0]

I am always happy to give out info on bream as i know a bit about them as i have had plenty of failures while learning to get it right, I have a mate that works with them in research and interesting things are always popping up.Like a 63cm bream caught in the Tamar river aged at 24yrs old, unfortunatley it was killed but that is life, it was mounted and it quite impressivehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoN2JYaHm3AThis is a link to some underwater video, of bream being fed inside a tank at the hatchery some years ago.I dont have the underwater video anymore as vandles broke in and smashed it up.Kids have a go at breaking in every school holidays, over the past 3 years we have had over 6 breakins. They should be out fishing instead of recking thingsRegardsDan

[BarneyB 1,939]

Thanks for sharing Dan, sorry to hear about your problems with vandals, I too would rather see the kids out fishing, they may learn to respect things then. Saddly most of them seem to be beyond hope.Regards,Barney.

[Guest matty_G]

Well done fl gotta be happy with that,nothing like fresh snapps

[FushLups 0]

Dan, some great information there, cheers for sharing! That research would have been great, and stocking the local river system is a good deed too so well done Cheers again for sharing

[vanders 0]

interesting reading, if that's true then shouldn't our quotas n size limits almost be switched to protect the breeders?? makes for interesting discussion. catch fewer smaller ones then we we will get more larger ones to catch, and Keep if we want! Also, Nice session FL, i would be stoked with a session like that!

[afishyfish 4]

vanders wrote:

shouldn't our quotas n size limits almost be switched to protect the breeders?? makes for interesting discussion. catch fewer smaller ones then we we will get more larger ones to catch, and Keep if we want!

here's the place to ask vanders http://www.strikehook.com/forum/74-pirsa-fisheries