Worth getting wet - mud isl snapper 25th

[Lager]

Departed Fishermans island at about 4.00am in the drizzle and rain for the run out to mud. Concentrated on the western side to stay out of the wind and virtually had the whole side to ourselves. I caught plenty of 30 - 35 cm squire on 4inch powerbaits much to the frustration of Craig the deckhand who wasn't getting a touch. Caught a nice cod and then lost two monsters which further added to Craig's frustration. All of sudden Craig's reel took off at a hundred miles an hour which required me to pull up the rods and chase the beast before it spooled him. Managed to stay hooked up and pulled in a new bay PB snapper - 71cm. #Caught on 5inch watermelon powerbait on 10lb. Well done Craig (aka Surly). #

[Lager]

another pic

[grunta_75]

Great stuff lads - always good to see quality fish coming up from the bay...great work..

grunta

[foggy]

Nice fish guys and on my fav plastic. Fish that size have been around in better numbers this year than I can ever remember it.

Well done.

[slyham775]

wow nice hook up i,ll try that spot maybe next weekend so are you going back ??? or not

[cyclops]

That is one beaut bay snapper.

[vertico]

very nice work boys , what depth did you get him in ?
much bait on the sounder where you were fishing ?

[Lucky_Phill]

Jeez Sean, you forgot to ask about the socks !

Cheers Phill

[SURLY]

Hi Guys,

Thanks for the comments, I still cant believe that I managed to catch him. Whilst I have probably caught bigger snapper before( they have come from 60 metres+ and usually on 40lb line) it doesn't make up for the shear adrenelin of capturing such a fish on 10lb line in 25 feet of water.

What nathan forgot to tell you that, the two other great runs we had on that morning were on his rod with the biggest fish breaking at the leader. As both nathan and I are relatively quite new to soft plastics fishing, i am still learning how to tie a leader. So in effect it was my fault that nathan lost his big fish, the whole time i am battling my fish all i am thinking of is the leader holding out.

I must also thank nathan as I was nearly completely spooled after the first 2 runs and if we hadn't of chased it I am sure i would of lost it. Furthermore as the fish was coming close we noticed how the jig head was just lightly hanging on, so we had to go with an attempt to net a pretty green fish and no sooner had nathan done so the jig fell out. (NB i placed the jig back in its mouth for the photo) So it was a great team effort.

I would also like to thank all of those on this site for all there advise on the art of soft plastic fishing. To Touchy, Beefaman, Aquarius and all the others who regularly provide reports on plastic fishing...THANKS. You have made one keen fisherman extremely happy.

By the way vertico there was a fare bit of bait showing and there were quite a few tuna around although in very small schools.

Cheers Craig

[outsiderskip]

nice bay snapper


cheers pete

[Scalem]

Really good to see! I wonder if you have the addiction now? You should tell us how many packets of plastics Santa will leave under the tree after getting bricked a coupla times, then landing a fish like this??

I know I will need to see a shrink soon, I can't walk past a tackle store without getting ONE MORE packet.... The only cure is to get out there more often

Scalem

[aquarius]

Top effort there Craig......I can imagine the adrenaline pumping as that spool started to unload with speed.
Nothing better than fishing light line in shallow water for snapper etc.
Scalem is right about buying soft plastics......Its like a kid in a candy store........You can't get enough..lol
Hope you continue to have success with the softies.
Cheers Brent

[Steven78]

Well there's another one for the Foggy's 5 plus KG club.
Well Done (: it must of put one hell of a fight.

[Lager]

Don't worry about the leader Craig. You win some you lose some!!! At least I know that there are at least two more beasts out there.
I do have to confess that am now addicted to using the plastics and hopefully santa will drop off plenty of packets for me for xmas. Might have to start being a good boy and leave out an extra big glass of rum!!!
Thanks everyone for your comments, tips etc.
Vertigo, there were plenty of bait shows on the sounder in the area we caught the fish with most of the bait sitting close to the bottom or midwater. There were also a crapload of tuna surface action to the northwest of mud but we couldn't get them interested enough to take a slug.

[StevenM]

Nice, the shakes would have been commin when he neared the surface and then ya say to yourself need a bigger net

Cheers Steven