Words & Images: Gawaine Blake
I have been chasing Westernport snapper now for close to three decades, and a lot has changed in the gear we use, from sounders through to rods, reels and terminal tackle. But the things that haven’t changed are when, where and why I fish an area at a certain time. So let’s break down early season Westernport snapper so you can get out and start targeting some big reds at the start of spring.
You will see captures in the port from late May through to August, but I wouldn’t call this consistent, or even the start of the season. For me, snapper season in Westernport starts in September. While we do see the odd capture in August, you are putting in a lot of hours for little reward, and it just seems a little too early for me.
In September, you start to see the changes in air temperature, the birds start singing harder and the wattle trees start to bloom. More importantly, after about three to four weeks, the water temperature starts to warm up.
Early spring snapper are a challenge in the port, but the run does start four to six weeks before Port Phillip starts to fire. Plus, you will see, on average, larger fish that lead the way at the start of the annual spawning migration.
Being that the early fish tend to head straight up to the top of the port, you can narrow down your search areas and position yourself in ambush points where a foraging snapper will search out a well-presented bait.
Finding Fish
At the start of the season, the reds move up the port with speed and only really start slowing down once they hit the slower tidal areas in the upper tributary channels of the North Arm and north of Settlement Point at Corinella, in depths of 3–10m. Once here, the fish start to slow up and forage up and down the channels, much like cows in a paddock, waiting for the water to warm and the daylight hours to lengthen enough to spawn.
Yes, snapper do spawn in Westernport, and they will do so quite a few times throughout the season as they follow the best water back down the port. By that, I mean the top of Westernport warms very quickly compared with other Victorian bays and estuarine waterways, and the reds know this, making it an earlier start to the season than the rest.
The best way to target the reds is to first find the warmer water of 14 degrees and above.
Use your sounder first. You will have to adjust your sensitivity/gain to reduce the clutter on the screen. I use Simrad sonar units, and one of their best features is Colour Erase, which allows me to remove readings from the water that are of a lower density, such as sediment and weed clutter. On top of this, I turn down my gain until the screen starts to clear. This will still allow me to mark the fish, and I can clearly see them without any clutter muddying up my sonar returns.
While sounding over the bottom edges of the channels, don’t expect to mark up huge schools of snapper. More often than not, it’s one or two fish over a few hundred metres.
These fish tend to be browsing the channel for food along the edges and conversion points of reef and rubble beds. These areas are where they slow down to feed, so if you’re marking fish and have also marked a good reef not far down-current from them, this is a great place to anchor, as they will likely pass your baits.
When anchoring in the port, make sure you have turned your bow to the current. Drive forward three times the depth you’re anchoring in, past where you want to sit, and allow at least twice the amount of rope out as the depth, or even three times if the current is pushing.
So, as an example, if I’m anchoring in 10m of water and the current is pushing, I’ll drive 30 metres into the current or wind, whichever is stronger, drop my anchor and let out 30m of rope to bring the boat back to where I want it sitting.
This is where you use your GPS to know how far you have moved from your desired end point. Your unit should have the ability for you to mark where you want the boat to sit and then show, in metres, how far away you are. This can be tricky, but practice makes perfect. Hooked Up can explain every rig, the right baits and presentation, but being able to anchor effectively is what can make the difference between success and no bites at all.
Weather patterns that are good to look for are those glass-calm, sunny or partly cloudy days when there is a good bit of warmth in the air. I prefer the back end of a flood tide (run-in) early in the season, as the ocean water has pushed up into the port and given it just a little more of a temperature spike.
The best moon phases to target are the weeks leading up to the full or new moons, when the tidal currents slow down. The reds can be quite lethargic when the water is cold and tend to feed more when the current slows.
In the opposite weeks, when the king tides kick in, I will look at targeting the end of the ebb tides near the entrances of the tributary channels, where the snapper may hold up eating what’s pushed out past them. Most of the channel entrances have rubble reef beds.
Baits
My favourite baits for snapper are squid, be it calamari or even good-quality arrow squid, which most tackle stores are stocking now. But, saying this, early in the season the reds do like a fresh, oily flesh bait too, such as salmon and trevally.
I don’t use large baits this time of year, as the fish can grab and tear at the baits instead of engulfing them. Squid rings about the size of your thumb and index finger together, or chunk baits around the size of an apricot, are enough.
In the early season, I don’t berley, as the fish haven’t schooled up in numbers as yet. Berley at this early stage of the season may just bring pests. Later in the season, when fish school up in deeper water, I use the Secret Weapon berley bomb.
Set-Ups
Early season snapper can be very timid on the baits, with small, delicate nibbles on the rods and a slow load-up. This is why I will fish lighter outfits around 10–20lb, paired with a 5000-size spin reel and 30lb braid.
You want a rod with plenty of grunt down low to land any snapper or bycatch, such as gummy sharks. While many anglers fish ultra-heavy rods, you don’t need the bigger outfits, as the tidal flow is less in the northern regions of the bay. With shallower water of 3–10m being the target depth, your sinker size hardly ever needs to be over 4oz.
The Rigs
A running extended paternoster is all I will use early in the season. From the braid, I tie a 1.5m shock leader of 30lb mono via an FG knot. A sinker slider runs along this. I do away with the metal clip on the slider and tie a 15lb breakaway dropper of about 30cm in length, with a loop at the bottom to change the sinker.
I tie the shock leader to a swivel, and from this I tie 1.2m of 40lb mono as my bite leader. My hook of choice is a Gamakatsu Inline Octopus Circle in size 6/0.
I believe I get more successful conversions on bites from timid fish with a circle hook, as it allows the snapper to chew a little of the bait and get the taste of it before sucking it in, and then engaging the hook in the corner of the jaw for a solid hook-up.
Back when I used to fish suicide or octopus hooks on a snelled rig, I lost a lot more snapper from lip hooks or side-of-the-face hook-ups that tore out during the fight.
The use of a circle hook will also cause less harm to bycatch being released, and snapper caught in under 10m release very well.
Fighting and Landing the Fish
Like most of us in Melbourne, I use the horizontal-style snapper racks, with the rods lying at around a 15-degree angle, tips up from the water, and cast my rods back from the transom down-tide.
Keeping the baits back and away from the boat noise that can spook these shallow-water reds is highly beneficial.
I generally only fish four rods in the tide and set my drag at around 1.5kg, which is enough to set the hook but light enough to let them run. Once hooked up, I’ll push it up to around 3kg of drag.
You can use reels fitted with a Baitrunner to make this a more seamless process, where you can preset your drags, but I do it without issue using just the fighting drag.
While, to the inexperienced, 1.5–3kg doesn’t sound like a lot of drag, you will be very surprised how much of a bend this will put in your rod. Let the fish wear itself out and be prepared, as the snapper approaches the boat, for it to have another run, which can sometimes go right across the back of the boat.
Don’t be the one to lose a monster just in sight because of a line crossing your engine leg or ladder bracket.
Finesse Fishing
Westernport snapper and bait fishing in general can be viewed as brutish, easy and without skill, but, like fishing for any highly prized species, finesse is always required. Using the correct rigs and gear, which in this case is lighter than what many anglers use, will see you achieving far better results.
