Snapper are one of the most targeted species in most states around the country. They are actually members of the Sea bream family, hard fighting, relatively elusive, have a tremendous striking appearance and fantastic eating qualities. Having a common size between 30-60cm but up to 1m – approximately 20kg, they are a slow-growing species that can live for 40 years or more. They feed on crustaceans, fish, worms, urchins, as well as jellyfish and algae. Disgusting right? but what’s not disgusting is how it tastes when filleted for a feed.

The Night

“””It was a cold winter night, but as always that doesn’t bother keen anglers to get out and put in the hard yards on potentially catching a big one. I had decided to to head down to north sydney, Blues Point to be exact in NSW, Australia. To your left is McMahons Point where people catch ferries to the city, a great place to catch some live bait if you wish, and to your right around the corner is Blues Point which is a great place to cast them big 12+ footers for a chance of Mulloway ( Jewfish ), Snapper and Potential King Fish early morning / afternoon.

The Night started a little slow, managed to get some live yellowtail from the wharf and walked across around the corner to settle in into the deeper waters. Sunset was a gorgous one with the view of the Harbour Bridge, what wasn’t was the traffic on the water back and fourth with boats and ferries making all the noise in the world. I decided to change my setup from top fishing to bottom, and within 30-35min the drag took off like a rocket. My first impression was “did a boat take my line?” while looking around, found no boats. One big strike and we were on like donkey kong, immediate heavy headshakes, felt like i was fighting a king fish for a little while but as i slowly brought it closer, a suprising 62cm Snapper was battling to get away and reef me near the rocks / wall. Luckily i was with a mate that gave me a quick hand and netted the fish for a peace of mind and let me tell you, there was no better feeling than catching a monster snapper onshore on a 12ft rod. It was EPIC!

Gear Setup & Bait

For this night i was using 3x 12ft Daiwa Aird-X & Sandstorm Rods with Pen SW 950 classic reels, 30lb main line braid & mono with a 1.2m long 80lb fluorocarbon leader by black magic. The rig was setup to have live bait, double hook with green glow beads for keeping my knots safe. The bait i was using was a combination of sliced fillets, live & butterflied yellowtail but this night the live yellowtail did the damage and let me tell you it was a monster of a bait, which looked like a baby rat king. Sometimes you just have to send it out and with a bit of luck you might land your next PB.”””

Angler: Sarks