Make A Splash: Surface Lure Fishing Strategies for Landing Moreton Bay Snapper

George’s Moreton Bay Snapper Tips

• It’s common to find Moreton Bay snapper over fairly flat bottom without much in the way of hard structure, but perhaps with some wireweed, mussel beds or other bait holding features.
• If you’re new to the bay it’s not a bad strategy to head for some of the islands such as Peel, Mud and Russell and look for the rubbly patches around the edges. Keep your eye on the sounder and if you spot bait over flat country, often with mackerel on it, snapper are usually feeding below.
• Avoid the days with strong northerly and north easterly winds, they can make life very uncomfortable on the bay and also seem to shut the fish down.
• Snapper are often found in shallow water from 4 to 10m during low light periods or overnight, but tend to move out wider into 10-20m of water in the channels around the islands as the sun gets up.
• Some areas fish better on the run-in and others fish better on the runout tide. Usually a tide change around dawn or dusk will fish pretty well. Bigger tides fish best and George likes the periods in the few days leading up to the full moon and the three days after the moon.
• If the fishing is tough, go through your lure box trying other things. If fish are marking up but not biting, give them a few passes and then go off and find some different fish, coming back later. If you keep going over the same fish over and over you’ll end up just shutting them down.
• When fighting a big snapper, use the boat to chase them down a little and recover some line.

George’s Snapper Fishing Tackle

• George’s first snapper outfit is a Wilson Blades N Tails 10-20lb rod with a 5000 size Shimano Sustain, 10lb braid and 20lb leader.
• His second outfit is a Wilson Blades N Tails 15-30lb rod with a 5000 size Shimano Sustain, 20lb braid with 20lb leader.

George’s Top Snapper Fishing Lures

• A Killalure River Rat. George uses the main motor, going as slow as possible and following the reef edges. Working against the current seems to be more effective. Often he’ll place the rod in a rod holder, but sometimes in very shallow water he’ll hold the rod and twitch the lure. Upgrade the hooks to singles for extra diving depth. Great in depths from 10-20m.
• An 85mm Nomad DTX hard body in any colour will swim perfectly straight from the box. The manufacturer says they dive to 6 metres, but George has found they’ll run as deep as 9m sometimes. Fished in much the same way as the Killalure.
• Atomic Shiner 75mm Deep Diver in clear, natural colours. This lure can be fished in shallower water (4-10m) especially if the water is clear. Troll it 30m behind the boat so as not to have it dive too deep and hit structure