Snapper on soft plastics

Well the snapper season has begun on the North Coast and after recent reports of decent snapper from the Illuka area, Dad and I decided to head down that way for a fish on Sunday morning. But as luck would have it successful snapper catching friend (Mark) was looking for some fishing partners to go offshore with him from Ballina, so we jumped at the chance.

Launching around 5.30am and signing on with Ballina VMR, we crossed the bar in search of some snapper over the shallow reefs.

With Mark showing us how to work the plastics oiver the reef, we began casting and bouncing our jigs as we drifted over the structure. Mark quickly landed two snapper about 50cm each.

Not wanting to be left behind, I changed from the bigger 7" jerkshad down to the 5" model Mark was using and after about 4 annoying Red Rock Cod my lure was smashed by a snapper of 68cm, which put up quite an account for itself.

Changing spots and lure patterns, we decided to not go ahead with motoring out wider as the wind had began to whip up some decent chop and wasn't worth the cold wind and chop.

So from this trip we got to catch some good fish and see some whales as they made their way along the Australian coast to the Great Barrier Reef for the Winter Migration.

Thanks Mark for taking us and showing me (seeing Dad didnt catch a thing, haha) how to successfully use plastics on the offshore reefs.