Snapper Fishing Made Easy How To Catch Snapper

So much misinformation about snapper fishing is just thrown about like berley, discouraging anglers with a picture of it being all too daunting to be successful.

As an example I quote a government PIRSA (Primary Industry and Resources South Aust.) article on snapper fishing by ‘One of the State’s most accomplished young anglers.’ (ref: www.pir.sa.gov.au)

‘(Name of the angler) is a firm believer that you are only as good as the people who teach you how to fish.’

Of course, this belief presupposes there is nothing new to be learned - that those who teach you in fact already know it all. That is just not true. What it highlights is why there has been such small degrees of progress on how to catch snapper for so many years. It has perpetuated the wrong assumptions made by anglers of past generations.

It has resulted in discouraging ideas such as, ‘If the snapper are in a particular spot, they may only bite for one hour in twenty four, and then perhaps only on a particular bait, and at a particular stage of the tide.’

What chance does any snapper angler, novice or otherwise, think they have of getting it all right if they accepted that such narrow criteria really existed? The article was written with all good intent, and genuine belief of accuracy, but that doesn't make it any more correct.

Unfortunately because of the impression it creates, but fortunately for anglers, that comment is incorrect on all counts. It is a legacy of the typical way many anglers, both past and present, often arrive at all sorts of conclusions, other than looking at their own, possibly imperfect techniques when they can’t catch their fill.

The snapper is merely a simple fish. It does not know from where it’s next meal is coming. It simply can't afford to fast for twenty three hours every day or be too fussy about it’s diet. Neither can it afford to ignore a potential meal, and come back to it, possibly hours later, when it feels the stage of the tide is ‘Right’, to see if it is still there. Sorry, but not a reasonable assumption at all.

The fact is there are all manner of factors impacting our ability to catch snapper.

Having historically failed to correctly identify them, sought after snapper fishing results have accordingly not been easily obtained. Excuses have been formulated, published and generally accepted without challenge since readers know no better. They have then been recycled to those they have taught.

Allow me to provide an observation of the kind of mistake many anglers make:

We all know snapper feed at night, so many of us consider that is the best time to fish for them. Also well known is snapper’s irrefutable association with submerged structures, so naturally that is where we go, right? ... Wrong!

I'll draw a parallel with another nocturnal feeder, the owl. It is out hunting animals at night and roosts in a loft, for example, during the day. If we want to catch an owl, are we going to search the wide open spaces for it, or go to the loft? Of course the loft, obviously. But is there any point going to the loft at night? Of course not. It's not there while out hunting.

The same situation applies here, to the snapper. They roost around some structure during the day to avoid the pressure of the tide and avoid predators like sharks. Before dusk they leave their ‘Loft’ and head for a night’s seaching where they consider they have their best chance of finding a meal. And while they are away, numbers of boats are sitting patiently at the loft assuming they are not biting? Right place, wrong time!

More to the point, ‘Right time, wrong place.’

Of course an odd snapper will still be caught at the loft. Odd fish are no doubt going passed from one feeding area to another. If other factors are appropriate, anglers may also find they get fish if they're still there at first light when snapper are starting to arrive back at the ‘Loft.’

However, the thinking angler sits inshore where the snapper are feeding in numbers because, depending on locations being fished, most of what they feed on, crabs, scallop beds, dead razor fish inhabitants, small squid and fish, are inshore.

Why go way offshore when they come inshore to us under the cover of darkness?

One big problem for modern anglers is progress. They have this little unit called a GPS. It can give you a mark for a ‘Loft’ … somewhere to drop your anchor. It will pinpoint a spot but not an ‘Area,’ so how do we know precisely where to go?

The reality is ‘It hardly matters.’ We just have to think outside the GPS screen.

One common thread I find in most snapper fishing articles is how most snapper are caught around the change of tides. In most cases the observation is accurate but both the conclusion and subsequent action are incorrect. The conclusion is that snapper feed predominantly at that specific time and so the subsequent action then is to focus your efforts only at those tide times.

The conclusion is wrong for two reasons:

1) Anglers assume the fish are feeding predominantly at those times because most snapper are hooked at those times. Wrong! Most snapper are hooked then because the vast majority of anglers never work out how to counteract the effects of the tides between the changes when the tides are running strongly.

2) Because anglers have become accustomed to focussing their efforts around the tide changes, they simply have to catch more snapper at that time. In fact, for reasons I will not go into here, the change of tide, at least at night anyway, is the single most point of minimum feeding activity by snapper.

The subsequent action of anglers concentrating all their efforts solely around the tide changes is incorrect because anglers are denying themselves the majority of productive fishing time and the opportunity to discover both how to counter the effects of the tides, and how to use them to their advantage. Do this well, and they can be caught right through the tides.

I do have to admit that the solution to that was somewhat complex, but it is simple to deal with once you have the right information. If you live in South Australia, I do run a course covering all the details of how to understand snapper feeding habits and take full advantage of them.