Luke5600

Afternoon everyone, its about that time I went and gave some land based snapper a decent try once more, While I'm no stranger to land based snapper and know the ideal conditions and locations to maximize success its been a good 3 years since I've gone out targetting them so I've got a few questions, I used to use just a plain old running sinker rig with the sinker attached via 12-15lb with a small sinker moving freely on the main line before the hook trace, while good it does tend to get snagged fairly often resulting in lost tackle.

I've seen a bit of information about pulley rigs for snapper but never used them myself, I did some googling last night but could only find information about using it with an impact shield. My question about the pulley rig is I'd still like to use the breakaway sinker trace, that way I've thought about it was using 40lb line connected to the hook with a bead to stop the sinker from the mainline running up to the hook trace/knot so it doesn't get trapped in there or anything and then using a small sinker with maybe about 2-3cm of 20lb line connected to the sinker, I'm just worried about possible entanglement while casting such as the bait twisting around the hook trace while casting

I've also recently been catching quite a few rock crabs in my nets while crab netting off the jetty so I've kept a few to try as some snapper bait as this time of year the pickers are really out in force as the local snapper grounds get invaded by pickers. thinking this may be a way to get around that although this may increase catches of dog sharks being that they specifically feed on benthic invertebrates.

Has anyone here used rock crabs for snapper before? also would using something such as say the claw or a bunch of legs grouped together work on a single hook rig? I've read in some of the information I saw that sometimes a snapper may come in and have a go at the legs/claws before taking the body itself, While this may not be the case with the bigger ones there is a few pannies that get around at this spot so taking the legs/claws off and fishing them as a separate bait to the carapace may be a way for me to get around this but as I've said I've never tried using them as bait before so its all new ground to me

I've looked up some info about using the rock crabs as bait but only really seen information about it from NZ based sites or the occasional result from victoria but I've never heard much about it down here in SA. The way I see it when the snapper do come to feed in off the rocks along the shore line this will be the food source they are after as the big blows wash the crabs off the rock and into the breakers making an easy meal for the snapper.

As a side note I'm aiming to beat my current PB off the rocks of a fish maybe about 50cm (Caught it when I was a young lad of about 14 or so, cant remember the exact size it went)
Heres a photo of that one and I've also added a photo of some snapper on the same side of the sink, The photo with the 3 snapper from memory ranged from 38-42cm


 

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Hot-Sea-Fishing-LED-Rod-Tip-Night-Light-Strike-Alert-Glow-Stick-Bite-Alert-Alarm-/331657393343?hash=item4d385234bf:g:m9cAAOSwsB9V-N0A

This is what I use, these ones are from china but extremely cheap. You can get them local from memory but they are at a higher price, you can change the batteries yourself and from memory they're meant to last about 100 hours of being on before needing to be changed

Flashes green every 2-3 seconds when no bites, when you do get a bite it flashes red constantly. It works off what I'm assuming to be some kind of shock absorber, It detects vibration through the rod blank when a fish bites. I've found them to be pretty good when discerning between wave/wind action and a fish bite, The wind/wave action will tend to put a slow long draw on the rod as opposed to the quick sharp pull that a fish bite will do, This all depends on whether or not you are using enough weight to hold the bottom though, if the conditions are windy and the wind manages to dislodge the sinker from the seafloor it will be able to set the flash off although it doesn't last long and you'll be able to tell the difference soon enough

The light is fairly visible from a distance as well, I put one down at the rocks one day on my rod and climbed roughly 80-100m up the cliff face back to the car and I was still able to see the rod, While not exactly practical being that far away from the rod unless using circle hooks it is nice to know you are able to fish a decent spread of rods while still being able to see bites on them all.

If you go for the option of getting one from china it may take 2-3 weeks to arrive but definitely worth it, the ones that are sold in australia are just ones bought from the suppliers in china so its all the same product at $1.89 its definitely worth a try to see if its for you, won't help much as far as being able to doze off while fishing but pair this with an alvey as softy suggested and you should have all bases covered for detecting bites at night even if you do have a quick sleep

Luke,

 

Those marks are'nt made by worms but from a small type of cockle by memory.

Ah cheers lizard thats a shame, I've been hoping to find an area local to me to collect some words other than seaweed worms. I reckon I've seen the shells of the cockles you've mentioned, Tiny things about the size of a 5 cent piece the tide line was full with the little shells at certain points

The 3 uses you mentioned may be a bit too far of a stretch for just one outfit, If you go for the LB small shark and snapper set up I'd recommend a 650c5 alvey or possibly a 550, the 650 will actually handle sharks up to the 10 foot mark due to its thousand metre line capacity, You'd also most likely want a surf rod in the 10-12 foot range for LB snapper (This is based on my local area only, your local area may have spots that don't need the casting distance for snapper)

One other option would be a fin-nor lethal 100 which would handle all 3 but again depending on your local area for the snapper you would need the longer rod and a spinning reel like this may affect your range for ballooning for sharks

If you go the overhead route a tyrnos 50 may be a bit large for what you plan to use it for, Not sure on castable overheads as I use alveys/spinning reels for casting but the overhead I use for smaller sharks as well as kings (Although I haven't caught either of those yet) is a penn senator 4/0 matched up to a 15kg 6 foot game rod, a shimano TLD25 may also do the job but again I don't have as much experience in overheads as I do with spinning/alveys

Overall though I'd say you may have to knock one of those targets off the list in order to get one to do the job unless you get 1 reel and 2 different rods. One capable of launching a bait out for snapper land based will be too long for tuna from a boat and one short enough for tuna from a boat would be too short for land based snapper in my opinion

 

Not sure how tube worms would go but I recently tried salting down a seaweed worm that I had caught and managed to catch 3 shitties on one piece of the worm bait before needing to change it, also had a school of shitties and a single mullet and the mullet came in and smashed the worm before the shitties could get a look in so salted might be the way to go. Right now I'm trying to salt down some of the worms enough so that I can keep a few of them in the car in a ziplock bag with some dessicant, bit of back up bait

 

 

I gave up on that 1... Can preserve them well enough, but when it comes to yellowfin whiting, you're better off with frozen peeled prawns!

They turn their noses up at worms that aren't live in my experience. The small ones don't mind them sometimes, but mostly it's not eaven worth going fishing for them without live bait! Or very fresh frozen prawns/shrimps around the new moon especially.

Sorry mate would have to disagree with you this time. Years ago I used to use frozen and persevered worms with no change In catch rate compared to fresh. For the last fee years I've barely used bait on yfw, If they wont hit the popper I change to a gulp turtleback worm and they smash them harder than bait I recon.

Out of curiosity mate, what size jighead are you using? and are you using a stinger hook at all? i've given it a shot slightly with the plastic worms but hadn't found the hook up rate to be real good, might just be down to the size of the whiting that were around at the time though

 

Dessicant?

 

The stuff you get in packets of things like yiros wraps and stuff mate, its the little satchets that absorb moisture

Evening all, Just after some info on what kind of worms are making these marks on the beach and how to catch them. I've fished a few beaches with these kind of markings on them but never actually seen a worm itself while fishing

Cheers

Not sure how tube worms would go but I recently tried salting down a seaweed worm that I had caught and managed to catch 3 shitties on one piece of the worm bait before needing to change it, also had a school of shitties and a single mullet and the mullet came in and smashed the worm before the shitties could get a look in so salted might be the way to go. Right now I'm trying to salt down some of the worms enough so that I can keep a few of them in the car in a ziplock bag with some dessicant, bit of back up bait

 

 

I gave up on that 1... Can preserve them well enough, but when it comes to yellowfin whiting, you're better off with frozen peeled prawns!
They turn their noses up at worms that aren't live in my experience. The small ones don't mind them sometimes, but mostly it's not eaven worth going fishing for them without live bait! Or very fresh frozen prawns/shrimps around the new moon especially.

Sorry mate would have to disagree with you this time. Years ago I used to use frozen and persevered worms with no change In catch rate compared to fresh. For the last fee years I've barely used bait on yfw, If they wont hit the popper I change to a gulp turtleback worm and they smash them harder than bait I recon.

 

Out of curiosity mate, what size jighead are you using? and are you using a stinger hook at all? i've given it a shot slightly with the plastic worms but hadn't found the hook up rate to be real good, might just be down to the size of the whiting that were around at the time though 

Can't comment on the specific rod that you have but I will say that I've heard alot of good things about len butterworth rods, I think they were a prominent rod maker back in the 1970-1990's (Dates could be wrong) but I haven't heard anything recent about the company

I use a custom len butterworth alvey rod for beach sharking and its definitely made very well, a quick clean up of the rod you have and it will no doubt be a solid performer as long as the blank is in good condition

Normally the leader will tend to be slightly heavier than the main line, I run 15lb braid on one of my reels and typically topshot with 20lb mono or fluorocarbon (Topshotting is putting roughly 10-100m of line onto a reel using braid, This can also be called a shock leader or just a leader, although the term leader can often get confused with a regular leader such as the one running from your swivel down to the hook or lure)

As far as the line strengths you've listed I find some of them to be a bit heavy for my liking, For salmon you could drop down as low as 10lb as long as you're fishing in a relatively snag free area although off the jetty you may want to up this to around 20lb depending on the size of the salmon you're targetting, Not sure what part of the state you're from but typically the salmon encountered around jetties in the spencer and st vincent gulfs will be around the 1-2kg range with some larger specimens about, if you went to the west coast where 5-6kg salmon are common though the 30lb mainline would be the go off a jetty.

Gar and tommies you don't need to go overly heavy or overly light in my opinion, the lighter line will help you get longer distances with the light weights that you get from pencil floats and the like but I typically fish using a berley float so I have the float loaded up with berley so its more like casting a sinker for me, My typical go to reel is spooled with 15lb braid and 20lb mono and find this is ample for almost every bread and butter species ranging from gar and tommies through to squid, whiting, salmon and even small rays. I've landed a roughly 15kg ray using this line set up

Fluorocarbon is the better leader line by far but its not entirely necessary, From memory in an email I read about the differences of mono vs fluorocarbon fluorocarbon has a few advantages over mono

Fluorocarbon lets more uv spectrum go through the line compared to mono which does make it near invisible under water, this isn't a very huge advantage as its made out to be as regular mono itself is still quite hard to see underwater and typically fish will be able to see your hook anyway. In saying that though it does make a difference for when the fish are quite shy and skittish but if the fish are in a feeding mode they won't bother as much as long as you use the correct lb line for what you're targeting. (What I mean by this is the suppleness and diametre of the line you're using, For example using 50lb line to make a whiting rig compared to using something like 10-15lb)

Fluorocarbon has a much higher abrasion resistance over mono, Don't get me wrong mono is still quite resistant to abrasion but fluorocarbon has a definite advantage over mono in this aspect. You'll want either of the two lines to use a topshot on braided lines when fishing around structure as braid has near zero abrasion resistance and its possible to snap something as tough as 50lb braid if it hits something like a rock when under pressure.

Mono line can actually absorb water whereas fluorocarbon typically doesn't, The more water the mono absorbs the less force it will require to break it, Don't be disheartened by that though as most people still use mono mainline with no troubles.

I'll find a few links for you that can explain the difference between the two better for you, I'll also dig up that email

http://www.berkley-fishing.com/Berkley-ae-monofilament-vs-fluorocarbon-infographic.html

Heres the link the email gave me
http://teachmesurffishing.com/product-review/fluorocarbon-surf-fishing-leaders-vs-monofilament/

All in all as far as mono vs fluorocarbon goes
Yes - There is a definite advantage between the two
No - It is not entirely necessary I've gotten away just using mono leaders more times than I can count but I can feel the advantages when using fluorocarbon

Just wondering if anyone has used one of these before, I purchased one a while ago because I always had a fascination to see just how far cheap gear can really take you for those just starting in fishing, I purchased the reel a few years back for about $25 and it came fully spooled with 20 or 25lb line and from the markings on the spool its got about 300-400m of line on it, I know its not gonna be anything spectacular just curious to see if anyone has used one before couldn't find any detailed reviews off google.

My plan is to hook as many eagle rays as I can as they'll be sure to give the reel a quite decent work out

As a side note this is the reel in question
http://www.anglerswarehouse.com.au/product_detail.asp?productnospaces=jarvis_walker_mirage_en950_7798

As the title suggests, just purchased a 15kg overhead roller tip rod for tuna and sharks, looking to get a reliable reel at a budget price if there is such a thing

 

I have my eye on the fin nor biscayne in the 20 size, or the penn squall,

 

I think I'm going to go with 50lb braid for line with a topshot of mono

 

Any further suggestions from more experienced game fishos? Also coild be open to looking at second hand reels too, cheers

Could probably pick up a penn senator around the 4/0 range for around the $100 mark, should match up quite nicely with the rod you have and you can't knock the trusty old senators

Heres two links I found on ebay, I don't know either of the sellers so can't really comment on the condition of the reels themselves but look to be in fairly good nick

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Penn-Senator-6-0-Big-Game-Reel-/172002184276?hash=item280c210c54:g:MRoAAOSwkZhWS5Y5

This one needs a few parts re added onto it but you should be able to source them, fairly cheap for a 6/0 senator as well

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Penn-Senator-Size-4-0-Never-Used-/381427762067?hash=item58ceddc393:g:HawAAOSwdvpWEeRD

I remember back when I was a young lad my parents used to buy me those really cheap squid jigs that were flat white and I used to paint them with nail polish, I've had them for a good 15 years or so and they still hold their colours amazingly well.
If you leave them in the sun for a day after you paint them the smell of the polish pretty much disappears and you can get ones that are clear with gold/silver reflective glitter in them.
Just make sure you send the missus to the shop or buy them online though, I'm not sure the excuse "It's for fishing" would work   

Could be easier then spray painting them mate apart from that they look good

Evening all wondering if anyone else does this, When I'm whiting fishing I typically use a paternoster rig with two hooks, on one hook I'll use squid tentacle while on the other I put on a soft plastic worm or yabby, I've typically found that the soft plastic will get absoloutely smashed before the squid gets touched


When I fish it I don't put any action into the rod as you would when fishing a plastic I prefer to just fish it as a bait and let the current put the action into the plastic. I thread it onto a long shank hook the same as I'd thread the worm onto a regular jighead and find it works great

At the moment I'm putting on the berkley gulp range of soft plastics for using but wondering if anyone else knew of a cheaper brand that would work roughly the same?

With the worms I've been buying the 6 inch berkley gulp worms and cutting them down to 2 inch worms so I get 3 baits per worm but its still quite expensive compared to the squid that I use. Would using a lesser known brand and applying some scent inside the container with them work just as well or is it better to stick with the berkleys?

Shimano mexican fire raider II snapper 762
5-8kg line rating, 15-45g cast weight 7'6 long
Plenty of strength in the rod to handle any double headers of large fish, lovely light tip to feel even the smallest of bites decent cast weight range for casting, amazing distance casting and only $99.
At the moment is my go to rod for a wide range of activities including squidding, float fishing for tommies and gar, flicking plastics for salmon and flathead as well as bait fishing for most of the medium sized beach species.

Largest fish I've tackled on mine is a 10kg eagle ray

http://www.motackle.com.au/fishing/rods/raider-ii-mexican-fire-3109116.html

I would use the overheads if I was fishing off the boats but I only fish for snapper once the wind kicks up quite alot, over running the overhead would happen quite often as I have to cast extremely aggressively to make distance to reach the spots I need too.
Never used the bait runner option in the past but while fishing out in the boat I tend to do so to allow the snapper to pick up the bait and mouth it a bit more, I find snapper tend to pick up a bait and move with it while eating as opposed to remaining fairly stationary. if the fish are skittish as soon as they feel the resistance they'll just drop the bait so I'm leaning towards a bait runner at the moment

@underpants I'll check those out, The weight won't really bother me as I'll be fishing 2 rods, one set up with circle hooks so I can leave it in the holder and then one that I'll fish a little more actively but using the rod holder with regular suicide hooks with the bait runner turned on.

 

How much $$$ you got to spend?

Enough for most reels, Maybe cut off point would be around 200?

Evening all, I'm currently looking for a second reel to use while fishing land based for snapper. At the moment I've got 1 rod set up with a pflueger salt 60 reel but looking to get a different reel for a second set up, I've been thinking about possibly trying a bait runner out to see how well it will perform off the rocks. Anyone got some insights into this?

Anyone built their own fish cleaning station out in the garden?

On the bottom of the photo is the knife holder and plastic bag holder

I'm about to head back to a favourite spot of mine to start my land based snapper mission due to the reports that have been coming in lately. It's a spot where I lose lots of rigs.

 

I have always used a peternoster rig, a 3oz or more bomb sinker on the bottom and roughly 30cm up a dropper loop leading to 2 snoozed 6/0 circles.

 

When I reel in I give the line a good whack before winding in hoping it doesn't get snagged on the rocks and pulls through tough weed.

 

It's pretty good rig that has worked well but I still lose heaps of sinkers and hooks so.... any suggestions what I can do to save a few more rigs?

I've always gone a running sinker rig, whatever size sinker you need tied to 10lb mono with a swivel on the end which I place on my mainline before i place the swivel for the rig on, 10lb will allow the sinker to breakaway without losing the rig itself. 

As long as you cast with a smooth even effort and no sudden jerks the sinker stays on fine although it can take a little practice at first to keep the smooth momentum going.

I work as a chef so I tend to save the left over juices from packets of prawns, mussels oysters etc.
Can mix garlic, water, curry powder, fish sauce, fish oil, aniseed essence just to name a few
If theres an asian store nearby you should be able to go in and pick up all sorts of whacky seafood items dirt cheap.
When I was at tafe for my apprenticeship I stopped into the vietnamese shop next door to find dried cuttlefish, dried oysters and believe it or not dried sea cucumber.
Get some of those and rehydrate them in water with some other cheap items like curry powder and garlic freeze it down in small bags and defrost it as you need to avoid it going off, take a small bag out a day tip it in a jar put any lures you're using into it and let them soak then go wild

Looking at respooling my 4000fj symetre soon as the fireline its currently got has seen better days, at the moment I'm running 20lb fireline with a 25lb fluorocarbon leader and just trying to decide whether to stick with fireline or give another braid a shot
 

Hi Everyone

 

I am looking to purchase a new whiting / snapper combo. I am thinking of purchasing 7ft Silstar Crystal Pro Rod with either the Daiwa Blast or TD SOL II with 20lb.

 

It would be great to hear what combo's people have set up? 

Shimano mexican fire raider II - Snapper 762 2pce

http://www.motackle.com.au/fishing/rods/raider-ii-mexican-fire-3107615.html

Shimano Symetre 4000

http://www.motackle.com.au/fishing/reels/shimano-symetre-fl-3103523.html

Spooled with 20lb fireline using a 25lb black magic fluorocarbon leader

I have a few memorable catches.

 

My first legal snapper with UHF and BigRed out metro. Landed three of these beauties. Everyone caught a few nice reds that session.

 

adelaide-metro-snapper.jpg

 

An epic battle off of the Port Noarlunga Jetty and finally landing what has been said to be a pretty decent strongy.

 

StrongFish01.jpg

 

My first Onkaparinga River Mully.

 

first-onk-jew-berkley-prawn.jpg

 

I also have great memories of finally catching a legal snapper from Port Noarlunga / Christies Beach area after sooooo many attempts. Another decent Salmon session down at Southport with mum and dad, was great to see even mum getting in on the action and landing a couple.

 

I have to thank the bream that jumped onto my hook way back in November 2011 I think it was. Using my BigW $20 rod n reel combo, I used worms dug up from the back yard and pulled in an average Onk sized fish but this got me hooked in a big way and paved the way for all other fishing adventures I've been on since.

That strongy is a bloody beauty mate, when I go spearfishing I normally catch a few for berley and what not and my biggest has been about 3kg even with a metre long spear stuck fast in the side of the head theres no way in the world it will staystill long enough for me to get a grip on it, the raw power alone those things generate is amazing

Loving the replies so far guys, keep them coming



 

Similarly too, would have to be my first Aussie salmon back in my teens too. Some 20+ years ago, chasing KGs with the ol' man & uncle in his tinnie inside Boston Bay.

 

Cant remember but probably a few KGs, tommies and squid but the fun started as we approached the Axel Stenrose Ramp.

 

Birds were working the surface. Could still clearly remember reading Blue Fin by one of my then fave childhood autors, Colin Thiele, but knew it wasnt the SBTs!

 

Salmon were working a school of bait fish up against the shore. My uncle (the fisho) set me up on one of my crappy slices on equally crappy glass rod, reel and maybe 10lb mono?  Powered the tinny towards the school, cutting the engine as we difted near and past.

 

It was pure madness, there was a big school of around 1kg fish in a feeding frenzy! With zero experience lure fishing, I was getting smashed a fish a cast, complete with text book acrobatics and thrown hooks. I was landing them nearly faster than my uncle could bleed them!

 

Being the KG obsessive he asked what i indended on doing with them, after only landed a few (in his eyes, salmon were and still are crap eating). I promptly said id happily clean and fillet & eat them. Must have landed nearly 20 fish after 3 or 4 passes before the school started moving off and uncle decided it was time to take the boat out.

 

Took around 10 fish and I cleand & filleted them all. The best tasting salmon ive had!

 

My first taste of salmon on a serious bite.....now easily my favorite fish to catch on the super light gear.

Gotta love the feeling of a salmon school, my first time catching ST's was at fitzgerald bay near whyalla me and the old man went out and waded and cast towards the weed line, had some berley in the water and wasn't getting any bites then I was reeling in and felt my lure stop dead as if Id snagged the weed, struck to see if i could get it out the weed and suddenly started running. The school followed us the whole way back into shore and we ended up being about 4 fish off bagging out with me my old man and my brother. Certainly a memorable session, that was when I was about 15 or 16

 

spending a week on the Whyalla rocks chasing snapper. Ended up getting 1 legal one after camping there for a week.
Having rocknev and Jason come and keep me company for periods, had to get that damn fish!

Nothing like catching a snapper off the rocks, its enjoyable to catch a snapper from a boat but when you get one off the rocks after sitting out there all night in the cold weather it all pays off, even if you catch one undersize it still brings a smile to your face bigger then catching a decent size fish off the boat

monthly_03_2014/post-7452-139623871227.jpgFishing SA 34 April/May 2014 edition hit Adelaide tackle stores Friday and Saturday 21st and 22nd March. Newsagents will have stock shortly also.This edition features a large spread on catching tuna from your own boat, Ardrossan snapper, Murray River bait techniques, yellowfin whiting on worm plastics, Port Lincoln salmon and crazy king and samson jigging action. All our usual state-wide reports, a stack of product reviews and an interview with shark expert Rodney Fox are all crammed into this edition.Those after the current magazine posted to their front door can jump on the link below and order it from our store or grab a copy in your nearest newsagent or tackle store!http://fishingsa.com.au/fishing-sa-store/

Is this still the current issue thats out? I'd love to read the article on tuna and salmon but haven't been able to find it in any local news agents near me