Peel Island Sunday Snaps

[Peter4]

Headed out to Peel this morning in the pre-dawn fog. It was eerily quiet and calm with fog so thick we couldn't see the markers until we were 30m from them!

Fished Hanlon first for a small maori cod, a couple of undersize snaps and (finally) a 38cm snap. It went quiet so we headed to some other marks where I managed a 36cm snap.

On the way home we stopped at Hanlon again due to the lack of both wind and boats! Drifted for some more undersize snaps before a good hit resulted in a 42cm snap coming aboard. While unhooking this fish my deadstick takes a massive hit so I drop the fish to the deck to fight the second one.

After some long initial runs Kyle slides the net under a fat 49cm snapper. A new PB for me at Peel.:D We then missed another three or four solid hits...

Kyle managed a couple of snaps in the low 30s before we headed home in perfect conditions....

A great morning on the bay with four legal fish for me. All caught on atomic 3.75" jerkshads (in cotton candy & smokin shad colours)and 1/6th TT jigheads (and all released).

Regs

Pete & Kyle

[stessco]

great stuff , a couple of nice snaps there pete

[ddobson]

Well done pete i went out on high and only small squire and pike by the hundreds. Sounds like a low morning is better than a high lunch tide. Must have been a wierd morning with that fog eh. At least it was quiet with boat traffic. We saw tuna on the way over ther but they were skittish and no birds. Cheers

[Far side]

Good work I will be great to see the snapper in the bigger models come back to this area now that the trawling has been stopped

[Fishbait]

Nice snaps. Plenty of fog up this way of bribie this am also. Cheers, Darren

[cervelo]

Great looking fish. It looked like a brilliant day on the water too.

Cheers
Glenn

[Scalem]

Healthy looking fish weren't they? A 49 is a perfect dinner size, hope you enjoyed taking a feed home to the family.

Well done on your PB.

Scalem

[Peter4]

Well done pete i went out on high and only small squire and pike by the hundreds. Sounds like a low morning is better than a high lunch tide. Must have been a wierd morning with that fog eh. At least it was quiet with boat traffic. We saw tuna on the way over ther but they were skittish and no birds. Cheers

We fished the rising tide and got our best fish at around 10.30am just after the fog had lifted. As soon as the tide slowed, so did the bite...

I caught one small pike but their numbers were well down on recent weeks. Water temp was also up a bit at 19.5 degrees. Saw some surface chops in the distance but couldn't tell what they were.....no birds to be seen. Still lots of squid messing with our plastics.

Pete

[slyman]

Good on ya Pete, well done on the PB mate! Nice sunrise pics too.

Chris and I decided to hit Monduran, spur of the moment thing, once we heard about the temps over the weekend and the coinciding bite periods in the almanac. Found waters of 23 celcius, bait, cormorants, pelicans, someone forgot to tell the barra though. didn't even spook any out of the shallows we fished :-/

[ozscott]

Nice mate. I have yet to catch a snap in the bay...but still working at it. I see you went very light. Do you blokes that regularly catch snapper bother fishing the faster part of the tide by going to heavier heads and big plastics and if so what size for both do you get up to with success?

Cheers and thanks

[Peter4]

Nice mate. I have yet to catch a snap in the bay...but still working at it. I see you went very light. Do you blokes that regularly catch snapper bother fishing the faster part of the tide by going to heavier heads and big plastics and if so what size for both do you get up to with success?


We fish in 5 - 15m of water around Peel and 1/6th or 1/8th jigheads are generally OK to get jerkshads or flickbaits up to 5" down to the bottom. We also use 2 - 4kg rods and 2500 size reels with 8 or 10lb braid and 15lb FC leader.

My favourite bay combo is an Egrell S2 matched to a Shimano Twinpower 2500.

Have gone up to 1/4th jigheads when using paddletails or when wind and current oppose each other strongly. We always drift...

All fish caught yesterday were in around 12m depth...

[ozscott]

Thanks Peter...I am behind the 8 ball a bit close into near peel because of the type of boat i have but I will try drifting in the deeper stuff north of the light.

Thanks very much for your help.

Cheers

[ddobson]

Pete they were tuna as we almost drove over them but no takers. We got there right when you said they went off the chew. I took a new plastic guy out on his boat and i think he is just happy to see were he is going at sun up but you had the time even with a low tide. Good job.