gundi4

Love it mate. Good on him for persisting and good on you for supporting him. It’s only the beginning now. Enjoy the ride

Thanks everyone. Yeah I had heard somewhere that pike fillets make good snapper bait as does sargeant baker. But I thought why not put one out live and see what happens. Saved the day that’s for sure

Hi all, Delayed post from Sunday out of Port Stephens. Having not fished up there for a while due to lack of time and opportunity I thought I would give Sunday a go given a good weather window. To be honest I wasn’t expecting much in terms of action as there hasn’t been much reported and if resident guru scratchie says they are few and far between then that’s gospel. Anyway you can’t catch them on the couch as they say so I thought I would get out and catching fish would be a bonus. A mate has also been bugging me to take him out for a while now so I thought here’s your chance and he didn’t disappoint. He woke up at 1am because he couldn’t sleep with the anticipation of catching a monster so he stayed up and met me at the boat at 3:30am buzzing ready to go. I love the positive energy. Launched the boat and headed up to Broughton and got the spot just after first light and started throwing plastics. At this time I realised I forgot the net so I said because of that we would hook up to a big one. Murphy’s law. Anyway we caught one legal panny and a few undersize snapps and about a million pike. So I thought if I get a smaller pike I will put him on as a livie. Lo and behold I get a lollipop pike so I put him on a live bait rod and throw him on a float out the back. By this time it was around 7am and the sun is getting up and we had done a few drifts for nothing special. So I called a change of scenery. Lines in. As I told my mate to wind in the livie it screams off. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.The best sound in the world. We are on. 50lb gear and it’s pulling drag like a champ. I called it for a shark because 15 mins earlier we had seen something swirling and harassing bait which I thought was a shark. Anyway my mate plays is out and it gets close to the boat and we see a flash of silver and pink. Things go quiet and there’s no more yahooing as we realise we have a good snapper at the boat with no net. The original plan was for me to grab the line and him to grab the tail wrist and lift together but he has other ideas and bear hugs the thing and lifts it straight in 🤣🤣🤣 High fives and shouting all around as he lands his pb snapper at 78cm and thick as on his first outing chasing snapper out of Port Stephens. Not a bad first time on the boat.

Nice snaps gents! 👍🏽

Sorry bout the late reply, just sent this. I went out early last week in the same spot and couldn’t get a hit. Heaps of rat kings but

Nice one guys 👌🏽

Haha cheers mate

Haha could be a while. Don’t hold your breath!

Yeah there’s clearly a wide range of conditions they come in. Not that it matters too much to me anyway but very interesting to see the differences. Now to get an upgrade and put myself in the Fishraider record books haha!!

Fair call. Thanks for the feedback

Thanks mate. I’ve heard of never tightening the drag during the fight but got told that the closer the fish is to the boat and out of harms way (structure) to back the drag off to avoid sudden bust offs with not much line out? Do you set yours and just leave it? Broughton is just in frame on the right hand side of photo

Yeah not sure weight wise. A good friend of mine got a 81cm at 7.1 cleaned. So there a big disparity in similar size fish obviously. Mine didn’t seem like a skinny fish but I’m no expert

Cheers woodsy. They certainly do go hard. Yeah kept casting and got a 50cm fish next cast on the same plastic and then nothing after that so we called it a day

Apologies for the lateness of this post but life sometimes gets in the way! Anyhow headed out last Sunday up to Broughton with a mate with the intentions of casting plastics for some tasty red creatures. Seeing as the swell was huge all week I had some wishful thinking about the snapper jumping all over our lures as everything got a good stir up previously. Got the first spot just before sunup and anticipation was high to say the least. A lightly westerly was pushing us slowly over reef in 10-15m. After a hundred cast or two and multiple drifts and not even a touch it was fair to say our bubble was slightly burst. So with the sun up our confidence took a hit but we also had a tide change at 9am so we were looking forward to that. We decided to go to another area in slightly deeper water and drift over that and see if anything was hungry. And first cast my mate comes up tight on the drop. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz and the adrenaline starts pumping. Interesting to see low light period not producing even a hit and 10 mins before tide change we were straight on. So my mate is getting worked over with some big head shakes and this thing is pulling drag. But he manages to get it off the bottom and gain some line back after some nervous moments. After about 5 mins we see colour so he backs off the drag and it looks like a good fish. So I grab the net to get the celebrations started and the fish has other ideas and turns his head violently to get back to safety and the line goes slack. F%#+**%#k!!! I look at him and he’s proper devo as that looked like his PB fish by some margin. The end of the leader is all scuffed up so I’m thinking the fish was in the nasty stuff during the fight and it gave way a metre or so under the boat. His drag was backed right off so I don’t he did the wrong thing but you win some you lose some. So after gaining some composure back we do a big loop to start another drift and while my mate is retying his leader I give the 7 inch zman coconut ice (thanks scratchie!!) a cast and let out some line. So I’m looking at my mate and feeling pretty bummed but also slightly excited that there’s fish around. So much so that I don’t even notice my line zipping across the surface and my mate yells at me YOU’RE ON!!!!! I turn around and flick the bail arm over and my line starts peeling off and my rod buckles over. The first run was big. I thought I was a goner for sure. Somehow I was still connected so I started to try and turn his head and after a few pumps he runs again so I decide to cup the spool thinking it’s my only chance to not get reefed. The line goes slack and I’m about to about to curse myself when i figure out the fish is coming back towards the boat so I wind like a mad man and catch up with him. Back and forth the fight goes and I’m starting to win and get him closer the boat. I’m white knuckling with adrenaline and we finally see colour and this thing looks like a monster. Easily my biggest snapper and he surfaces and straight into the net. After a bit of yelling and yahooing we get it up for a photo coz I wanted to release it being such a big snapper. Unfortunately after swimming it for a good 5 mins it wouldn’t kick off as I think it’s swim bladder was just too bloated so I decided to keep it so it wouldn’t go to waste. The fish went 79cms and I weighed it back on shore with help of a pro prawner and his digital scales and it went 4.68kgs gutted, gilled and scaled. I thought it would have been at least 6 kilo whole but who knows 🤷🏽‍♂️maybe not. The fillets fed 8 people over a couple of nights so it didn’t go to waste and was certainly a great feeling to be connected to such a powerful fish. Thanks for reading

Wow!!! Great day indeed! Good to see the reds turning up in numbers. I’m assuming you used plastics and bait.. what did the most damage if you don’t mind me asking?

Would a product like lanox be ok for corrosion protection? The manual that came with my motor guide said to stay away from sprays and the like and just rinse and dry thoroughly

Sounds great. Pencil me in! Hopefully everything lines up and i can make it

After reading your set up I might beef up to a bigger leader and see if the theory works out. Cheers for the feedback

Cheers Rick. Congrats on the stonker red too

6500 reel. 50 lb braid. 3m of 60lb leader with a torpedo float about 2m above the hooks

Wow. They are serious reds!!

Good work gents. They got away from me today but I’ll be back!

66cm it went. Scratchie’s specimens put that to shame but still a good snapper in anyone’s book

Hello all, After a frustrating trip last week targeting long tail with nothing to show for it, this morning a couple of mates and I headed up to port Stephens for another shot at them. Livies came in thick and fast with a mix of yakkas and slimeys. One of each went out to mix things up as the sun just started to rise. Didnt have to wait long before the yakka got smashed. Zzzzzzzz line peeling off and excitement builds and starts to turn to nerves as we are hoping to see a longy come up. This thing is taking me around the boat so I’m thinking it has to be a tuna. After a good tussle a Mack tuna comes up which is good action but not the desired fish! Few snaps and then speared back in. Can’t complain I guess. ok back to business. Livies back out and it wouldn’t have been 30 seconds before the yakka gets taken again. My mate jumps on the rod and this thing is fighting differently. Dogging it out on the bottom but he manages to turn its head and up comes a nice snapper. pb for the big fella and he’s cheering like he won the Melbourne cup 🐎🐎🏆🏆. Yewwwwwww.. high fives all around and a good feed in the esky. Livies back out and we throw some baits and plastics to see if any other snapper are around. No more hits for an hour or so we move location and do the same hoping the move will pay dividends. A couple more Mack tuna on baits but no where near the size of the first one so no pics taken. Called it quits just before midday with the longies evading us again. all in all still a great day on the water and a good feed to eat tonight. Cheers

Well done gents