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Long reef snapper snapper spots


anthman

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Hi all, went out to Long reef in Saturday in search of snapper, drove to a few of the gps marks looking for signs of life: grants snapper, reddies run, in shore snapper and also the long reef edge drop off. Also drove over some wrecks along the way between north head and long reef. Was driving around these areas around 8am. Could not find any big arcs! Anchored at the long reef dropoff ridge line - all that were summoned were trevally!

Was using mainly pilly cubes aswell as small metal slow jigs.

I know there are a few sticky posts, have read them, they suggest structure but to be honest the only structure I could see was the ridge line and all the other spots looked fairly flat on the sounder.

Is there any advice from the seasoned long reef snapper fishos out there?

Also, thanks to all on my prev post about sea anchoring and anchor retrieval - used the ball and clip and never going back! Might need to invest in a bigger sea anchor though (reduced a 1.5knt drift to a 0.9knt drift).

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3 hours ago, anthman said:

Hi all, went out to Long reef in Saturday in search of snapper, drove to a few of the gps marks looking for signs of life: grants snapper, reddies run, in shore snapper and also the long reef edge drop off. Also drove over some wrecks along the way between north head and long reef. Was driving around these areas around 8am. Could not find any big arcs! Anchored at the long reef dropoff ridge line - all that were summoned were trevally!

Was using mainly pilly cubes aswell as small metal slow jigs.

I know there are a few sticky posts, have read them, they suggest structure but to be honest the only structure I could see was the ridge line and all the other spots looked fairly flat on the sounder.

Is there any advice from the seasoned long reef snapper fishos out there?

Also, thanks to all on my prev post about sea anchoring and anchor retrieval - used the ball and clip and never going back! Might need to invest in a bigger sea anchor though (reduced a 1.5knt drift to a 0.9knt drift).

Hey Antman

I'm no expert in chasing snapper. But i have found that snapper do not sit on the top of or pinnacles of reef structure, I suspect this is very exposing for them (not to say they won't be there). Rather they enjoy hanging around the edges where the reef meets broken gravel or sand. With that in mind id recommend you drift over, or anchor where your baits will be over those areas.

Pillie cubes are not the ideal way to fish for them either. Try whole pillies with two size 5/0 octopus hooks next time. 

The wall at long reef is known to produce good snapper at times but with so many boats around I wouldn't be surprised if they get spooked. Mugs reef is also known to produce the odd snapper.

Where do you launch from? There are some very good reef structures, pinnacles and the like east of blues point in around 30-40m that have been rather productive for me lately.

Sam

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If you are not fishing until you see "arcs" on your sounder, then you will not do well on Snapper, fishing structure, especially drop off onto sand or gravel, and light burley with light (ish) line and very light sinkers.

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9 hours ago, GoingFishing said:

Hey Antman

I'm no expert in chasing snapper. But i have found that snapper do not sit on the top of or pinnacles of reef structure, I suspect this is very exposing for them (not to say they won't be there). Rather they enjoy hanging around the edges where the reef meets broken gravel or sand. With that in mind id recommend you drift over, or anchor where your baits will be over those areas.

Pillie cubes are not the ideal way to fish for them either. Try whole pillies with two size 5/0 octopus hooks next time. 

The wall at long reef is known to produce good snapper at times but with so many boats around I wouldn't be surprised if they get spooked. Mugs reef is also known to produce the odd snapper.

Where do you launch from? There are some very good reef structures, pinnacles and the like east of blues point in around 30-40m that have been rather productive for me lately.

Sam

Thanks for the advice - I launch from Roseville and head through the heads and turn left (north) to get to long reef.

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6 minutes ago, anthman said:

Thanks for the advice - I launch from Roseville and head through the heads and turn left (north) to get to long reef.

I will PM you some marks. Snapper fishing in Sydney can be hit and miss.

When we target them we either do very well on them, or hardly find them !

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dont worry about searching for "marks" on your sounder- you need the following to do well on reds off Sydney (and just about anywhere else)- current- preferably from the nth , gravel/kelp running into harder structure, fishing up on the "wall" at LR is all hard ground and full of sweep on a bad day, trevally and rat kings on a good day, head out a bit wider or a bit north and use the sounder to find the kelp, anchor up, get a cube trail going (chuck a cube , when it disappears chuck another one) and fish your baits back down the trail. I used to use a berley bomb full of cubes which i would drop to the bottom as soon as a got anchored- that usually got the party started- then the slow cube trail after that.

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1 hour ago, GoingFishing said:

I will PM you some marks. Snapper fishing in Sydney can be hit and miss.

When we target them we either do very well on them, or hardly find them !

Thanks mate, really appreciate it!

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1 hour ago, PaddyT said:

dont worry about searching for "marks" on your sounder- you need the following to do well on reds off Sydney (and just about anywhere else)- current- preferably from the nth , gravel/kelp running into harder structure, fishing up on the "wall" at LR is all hard ground and full of sweep on a bad day, trevally and rat kings on a good day, head out a bit wider or a bit north and use the sounder to find the kelp, anchor up, get a cube trail going (chuck a cube , when it disappears chuck another one) and fish your baits back down the trail. I used to use a berley bomb full of cubes which i would drop to the bottom as soon as a got anchored- that usually got the party started- then the slow cube trail after that.

Thanks for that. What does kelp look like on the sounder? Is it less red (i.e. solid) and more patchy/dotty? Can it be just kelp on flat terrain (i.e. does not need rises/structure)?

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On 6/16/2019 at 11:04 PM, GoingFishing said:

Where do you launch from? There are some very good reef structures, pinnacles and the like east of blues point in around 30-40m that have been rather productive for me lately.

 

Hi Sam,

Can i please ask if you use Bait or SP`s off Blue Fish? Im asking as Snapper has been the one fish that i haven't been able to master, biggest is only 42cm 😞 Ive tried many times mainly off Long reef with both bait and more recently SP`s but with little to show for the time and effort put in. I am so frustrated with snapper that its becoming a mental battle just to fish for them, when i know i can get catch other fish for a feed or catch and release.

This whole post has been great and ive learnt a lot. Thanks to all. 

Terry

Edited by Fishn50
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On 6/17/2019 at 10:31 AM, anthman said:

Thanks for that. What does kelp look like on the sounder? Is it less red (i.e. solid) and more patchy/dotty? Can it be just kelp on flat terrain (i.e. does not need rises/structure)?

pretty much, run your sounder over the kelp beds around nth head and remeber what it looks like, gravel is a less solid readout than reef

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5 hours ago, Fishn50 said:

Hi Sam,

Can i please ask if you use Bait or SP`s off Blue Fish? Im asking as Snapper has been the one fish that i haven't been able to master, biggest is only 42cm 😞 Ive tried many times mainly off Long reef with both bait and more recently SP`s but with little to show for the time and effort put in. I am so frustrated with snapper that its becoming a mental battle just to fish for them, when i know i can get catch other fish for a feed or catch and release.

This whole post has been great and ive learnt a lot. Thanks to all. 

Terry

Hi Terry

I usually fish water between 30 and 50m in depth. Sometimes i will go shallower.

Im not an expert in soft plastics, so most of my fishing is with bait, especially so since most of the time i am fishing deep water and that can be difficult with plastics.

Snapper love a whole pilchard, snelled on two 5/0 hooks.

42cm is a pretty decent fish, especially for Sydney. Remember that Sydney is not known as a XL snapper fishery. Finding legal reds is pretty hard let alone fish over 40cm.

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3 hours ago, GoingFishing said:

Hi Terry

I usually fish water between 30 and 50m in depth. Sometimes i will go shallower.

Im not an expert in soft plastics, so most of my fishing is with bait, especially so since most of the time i am fishing deep water and that can be difficult with plastics.

Snapper love a whole pilchard, snelled on two 5/0 hooks.

42cm is a pretty decent fish, especially for Sydney. Remember that Sydney is not known as a XL snapper fishery. Finding legal reds is pretty hard let alone fish over 40cm.

I think it's a mental hurdle for me to imagine a whole pilly being eaten by a legal red / 40cm snapper! Though if that's what works in Sydney then so be it!

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1 hour ago, anthman said:

I think it's a mental hurdle for me to imagine a whole pilly being eaten by a legal red / 40cm snapper! Though if that's what works in Sydney then so be it!

Mate a 40cm or even 30cm snapper will have absolutely no problem putting away a whole pillie.

That's not to say it will be swallowed whole. Sometimes the snapper may have 2 or 3 strikes before finally connecting to the hook.

The good thing about whole pillies is that the bait lasts long enough through the pickers to be found by the larger fish.

Want to see a snapper eat a whole live salmon 😂😂

 

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1 hour ago, GoingFishing said:

Mate a 40cm or even 30cm snapper will have absolutely no problem putting away a whole pillie.

That's not to say it will be swallowed whole. Sometimes the snapper may have 2 or 3 strikes before finally connecting to the hook.

The good thing about whole pillies is that the bait lasts long enough through the pickers to be found by the larger fish.

Want to see a snapper eat a whole live salmon??? 

 

Haha nice one. All the fish are bigger over there!

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17 hours ago, GoingFishing said:

Hi Terry

I usually fish water between 30 and 50m in depth. Sometimes i will go shallower.

Im not an expert in soft plastics, so most of my fishing is with bait, especially so since most of the time i am fishing deep water and that can be difficult with plastics.

Snapper love a whole pilchard, snelled on two 5/0 hooks.

42cm is a pretty decent fish, especially for Sydney. Remember that Sydney is not known as a XL snapper fishery. Finding legal reds is pretty hard let alone fish over 40cm.

Thank you for the info Sam i appreciate it very much. 

I will use whole pillies next time i go with renewed enthusiasm thanks to you! 

Problem is i see a 42cm as not very big compared to a lot of the photos that get around of 4-5kg+ snapper caught off the northern beaches. Maybe they are very far and few between?

Can i ask Sam if you fish for them right through winter or do you wait for the current to start running south again?

I will have a look off Blue fish point and see if i can find the reef structures that you are talking about.

 

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1 hour ago, Fishn50 said:

Thank you for the info Sam i appreciate it very much. 

I will use whole pillies next time i go with renewed enthusiasm thanks to you! 

Problem is i see a 42cm as not very big compared to a lot of the photos that get around of 4-5kg+ snapper caught off the northern beaches. Maybe they are very far and few between?

Can i ask Sam if you fish for them right through winter or do you wait for the current to start running south again?

I will have a look off Blue fish point and see if i can find the reef structures that you are talking about.

 

I have only recently started fishing for snapper over the last two years, and again am not an expert by any means.

I generally fish for them all year around but during the summer months i will also fish for pelagics, flathead and other reefies. In winter i will specifically target them starting from mid to late June through to end of July when they seem to finish spawning. 

You can catch snapper all year round, during the summer they seem to be more dispersed, whilst during winter you have better chance of finding them as they leave deeper water and come into the shallower reefs and get together for spawning.

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25 minutes ago, GoingFishing said:

I have only recently started fishing for snapper over the last two years, and again am not an expert by any means.

I generally fish for them all year around but during the summer months i will also fish for pelagics, flathead and other reefies. In winter i will specifically target them starting from mid to late June through to end of July when they seem to finish spawning. 

You can catch snapper all year round, during the summer they seem to be more dispersed, whilst during winter you have better chance of finding them as they leave deeper water and come into the shallower reefs and get together for spawning.

Thank you for that, i will follow your Winter times for sure. In summer i fish for the same as you do. You cant beat a good kingie secession or a great feed of flatties in summer! 

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