The trip to Great Barrier was going well, with some scenic
paddling and a bit of fishing thrown in. It was mostly catch and release but
was stacking up as angling Paradise. After the day out around Arid Is I got
back to see my mates’ big speared Snapper and thought I’ve been throwing
similar back so may as well see if I could top it.
A late afternoon session soon provided all the ingredients
for sheer Angling Euphoria as I started hooking and landing 5 big Snapper with
some memorable battles. These things are grunty and value their freedom in
these pristine seas. Primo spots like this bay are normally surf bound so the
local fish get a chance to thrive and prosper.
And as I casually cast the softies into their patch they were voraciously snapped up and ensuing battles were some of the best I’ve had , in fact I got so engrossed I didn’t even take photo’s of all of em but there ya go.
I used one Berkley Stealth Jighead and one Z-man bait but they were getting pretty munted by the end of this session, the casting along the jig was broken and the hook bent and blunted but still kept dragging em in.
Only one Fish was harmed in the making of this epic fishing session and it fed our party of three , another group diving there that day (unsuccessfully ) got a fillet and the frame to another family group of locals there for the day.
The Snapper slide nicely onto the pre wetted spraydeck after being played in and as they are lip hooked only suffer this ignominy briefly whilst I take their picture then slide them back in unharmed.