Episode 576: NE Tasmania Snapper With Jack Gillespie

Jack’s Tips For NE Tasmanian Snapper Fishing

• It’s not a bad plan to spend plenty of time looking at your sounder screen and trying to find changes in substrate. You’re not looking for massive structures, but changes from sand to mud or rubble are prime places. Most of Jack’s snapper come from clean sand or shellgrit bottoms.
• It’s worth finding fish well away from the traffic. Snapper will often be feeding over sand and then dive for the nearest piece of reef when boats start passing by. Use sidescan sonar and mark pieces of structure.
• Water depths from 9 to 15m are perfect as they can be fished with lightly weighted plastics (3/8 oz). If Jack inadvertently motors over fish in less than 12m of water whilst he’s side scanning on the main motor he’ll go well past, give it a few minutes and then return on the electric motor to target the fish.
• Dawn and dusk are great periods to fish for snapper, as are the glassy, still days after a big blow when the water has been well stirred up and isn’t dirty but has a bit of a greeny colouration.
• There isn’t much ocean current where Jack fishes, but so snapper bite better when there is a big tidal movement.
• When the water is clear a 3“ soft plastic can be very effective, but when it’s coloured by prior rough weather it can pay to rig up a larger (6-7”) soft plastic.

Jack’s Preferred Snapper Fishing Tackle

• A 3-6kg Daiwa TD Zero spin rod, 4000 size reel and 12-14lb braided line gives all-important casting distance with plenty of ability to apply pressure to the fish.
• It’s important to keep the gear reasonably light as these fish can be leader shy, so Jack tries to fish around a 16lb leader most of the time.

Jack’s NE Tasmania Snapper Lures

• If limited to just three lures for targeting snapper in NE Tasmania, Jack would opt for Daiwa Bait Junkies 5 and 7” Jerkshads and the Daiwa Bait Junkie 4.2” Minnow Paddletail. Colours vary but in low light conditions he’ll opt for darker colours because they give a strong silhouette. If the water is clear and the day is sunny, he’ll opt for more translucent whites and pinks.
• Jig heads are chosen so the size matches the lure. Using a hook big enough that no more than the back half of the plastic is hook-free is a good approach. If the fish are aggressive Jack will use a heavier jig to get the lure down faster, up to 1/2oz in 10 metres of water. If the fishing has been tough, he’ll change down to a 1/4oz jig head to give the lure a slower sink rate so the fish have more opportunity to examine the lure.
• It’s not a bad strategy to start with the 4.2” Bait Junkie Minnow when you first arrive at a spot, as the paddle action and slower sink rate will often cause a fish to take the lure as it falls. If the bite is fast, then it’s time to switch to the larger jerkshads in an attempt to upsize the fish – noting that small snapper will still take quite large lures at times.
• Cast the 4.2” Bait Junkie Minnows as far as possible ahead of the boat and allow to sink to the bottom, watching for any twitch, or sign that the lure has been taken on the drop and being ready to set the hooks. Then work the lure back with small lifts and drops, lifting it well up into the water column again mid-way back and starting over.
• The 5” Jerkshads are again cast well ahead of the drifting boat and are worked erratically with lifts and hops along the bottom. Jack finds that the 7” jerkshads are best worked a little higher in the water and have a nice body roll when worked less vigorously.