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Cold water snapper action
  |  First Published: September 2013



While spring is steadily marching forward, cold weather and water fishing is still the mainstay for a few weeks at least.

I’d heard about the late winter snapper so together with a mate we headed out from the Hastings ramp, caught some squid for bait and then headed past Crawfish Rock. After about two hours and right on the top of the tide one reel screamed off and after a good tussle we had a nice 4kg red in the boat. As the tide started to run off, we had another good run and another 4kg red in the boat. We sat there for another 2 hours but had no more action.

The following week we decided to try the same spot again and repeated what we did on the first trip only this time the tide was the other way round. We had no action for three hours when right on the turn of the tide, a reel screamed off and turned out to be a nice red of 7kg.

We sat there for another 2 hours with no more touches but it did prove one thing to me and that is that there are some good snapper there if you are willing to put the time and effort in for them, even in the cold water.

You will need at least 6oz of lead to hold bottom as the current is pretty strong. Hold your sinker and bait just under the surface before you cast it out. If the bait lies flat, that’s perfect, cast it out. If it spins, re-tie your bait and make sure it lies flat before casting it out otherwise it will twist right up your line and make one big mess.

Surf Beaches

All surf beaches are fishing reasonably well when the weather permits with fish ranging from 300g-3kg. One day the big ones are on a particular beach in good numbers and the next day you have to be content to catch the smaller fish. You are more likely to catch the bigger fish right on daybreak which is what I have found on my last couple of trips.

San Remo Area

Below the bridge there have been some good catches of calamari in the Cleelands Bight area and a few schools of salmon working up and down the channel.

Above the bridge the whiting have all but disappeared, with just the odd one or two coming from the Dickies Bay area. I tried Tortoise Head, Tankerton and Cat Bay a couple of times and got zilch but did okay on the snapper up the top end of the bay.

There seems to be a good amount of squid about in most areas of the bay.

Apart from that it’s the quiet time of year for everything else.

Flinders

Big calamari are showing up in good numbers so it’s a good time of the year to target them.

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