Red-hot red action

WINTER is here, with the temperatures plummeting of a morning and making it really hard to get out of bed. But for those who do, big rewards are on offer thanks to some great snapper being caught right along the coast.

With the current subsiding, the water temperature is finally starting to fall and the ever-reliable westerly and southwesterly wind is blowing softly in the morning, meaning conditions are absolutely perfect for snapper.

It has been killing me because my mini boat renovation had a little hiccup, with Aquaholic going in for some small modifications, which of course takes time. The seat pedestals have long been a pain for me because they take up space.

So prior to laying new carpet I decided to have the raised pedestal pads removed and replaced with either fibreglass seat boxes, stainless frames so I can get an Esky underneath, or even a combination of both. Either way, it’s kept me off the water, which is frustrating.

JB and Brad have been rubbing salt into the wound, with the boys continuing their hot streak of solid snapper. Float lining baits and soft plastics has seen the guys come up trumps and the fish have hit both. Some mackerel are still around as well. At this time of year they tend to be spanish mackerel and on the large side, with 25kg or better fish landed.

It always pays to have a heavier rig ready to go if you find yourself getting snipped off while fishing for snapper. If that’s the case, chances are the mackerel are to blame.

So with my boat out of the water I was lucky enough to be invited by some mates on a fishing trip offshore from Fraser Island for a couple of nights. It’s been a while since I’ve fished the area, with my most recent trip aboard a charter.

But I’ve never forgotten how privileged I’ve been in the past to have hitched  rides with Greg Lamprecht and Craig Tomkinson. I consider these guys two of the most knowledgeable blokes you could ever hope to meet, let alone get a ride with offshore from Fraser.

While Greg and Craig fish very differently, I was able to see how they are super-successful fishermen in their own right, so on this trip we used both anglers’ methods and came up trumps. If you’ve ever watched Greg’s Wicked Fishing videos you’ll see exactly how he fishes as he hides nothing from the camera.

We used his method of hitting small isolated bommies and achieved great success. So much so that on the very first spot we hit we were totally under-gunned because we were prepared to catch a heap of hussar to supplement our mullet bait and were using double paternoster rigs.

You guessed it! The spot was chockers with reds. True to form, when the first fish was lost they shut down. Lesson number one: always expect red action. While we got off to a good start, we never made that mistake again.

We managed a bit of a mixed bag the first day, consisting mainly of a couple of reds and parrot. The wind got up during the night, so we anchored and hit the sack. Only a shark or two was caught through the night and when we woke to a calm sea we were all very keen to get going.

As we drove from spot to spot it seemed like we picked up three new bommies every time we moved. We collected parrot through the morning but it was as the moon came up about midday that things really heated up.

First up a quality cobia, then a solid red was boated. As the sun got lower the fishing improved until finally as the sun was going down it was action stations, with baits being hit left, right and centre.