Unreal fishing experience for young fishos

ALL through the working week I had been planning a fishing trip offshore because conditions were looking mint.

I had teed things up with my mate Nick to take his boat offshore bright and early on a Saturday morning. We decided to chase pelagics and reef fish using soft plastics and a variety of other lures while the weather was playing the game. Once we reached our first GPS mark, we began throwing around the plastics.

Most people fishing for snapper and other reef fish will throw bigger plastics in 5”-8” sizes, however Nick and I have found fishing with slightly smaller plastics of 3”-4” works a treat on the reef fish. We find letting our plastics hit the bottom is the biggest key to success. Engaging with the bottom will result in more bites and a lot more hook-ups, so finding the right jig head for your plastic is a must. We were fishing in 15-20m of water for most of the day and found a 3/8oz jig head worked well.

Sometimes having too heavy a jig head will lower the lure’s effectiveness. Anyway, on the first cast of the day Nick hooked a solid grass sweetlip. He was using a Z-Man 3” MinnowZ in Opening Night colour. While our lures were sinking, we’d check for any sudden movements in our line, which would indicate a fish striking the lure on the drop and can happen regularly. After a fun battle on light gear, I netted Nick’s grassy, took a quick picture and put it straight on the ice.

It was such a beautiful morning, especially landing the first fish while watching the sun come up. We knew we were fishing the right spot as not only was the fishfinder showing a good reading of fish but we kept getting hits while flicking our lures. I was next to hook up and it was fighting really well on my 2-4kg rod. I was throwing Z-Man’s new Trick ShotZ for something different and it worked. My fish ended up being a solid grassy that was a keeper as well.