Episode 260: Newcastle Snapper With David Rudder

Dave’s Newcastle Snapper Fishing Tips

• Snapper around Newcastle are smaller than adjacent areas to the north and south. Anything over 60cm is considered an exceptional fish.
• Dave reckons the key to snapper fishing is finding the fish. He believes they tend to be fairly mobile and don’t linger in one area, being more nomadic. He likes to put in 6-10 casts and if no fish are caught, move 500m and repeat. He zigzags up and down the coast trying different depths until he finds fish this way.
• The bottom inshore off Newcastle is mostly broken sand and rock or reef, Other keys to finding fish are too look for either accumulations of bait or tightly packed schools of bait. Any kind of surface activity is worth checking out. Current lines are also worth fishing.
• Don’t believe that snapper are bottom feeders, they frequently take Dave’s hard body lures well above the bottom, often only a few metres from the surface.
• Trolling for snapper seems to result in quality fish in the middle of the day and is a good way to prospect for them.

Dave’s Preferred Snapper Fishing Tackle

• For snapper trolling Dave likes the Penn Slammer 3 reels, which have great line capacity and a silky smooth drag. He fills this reel with 25 lb Daiwa Grand Braid and couples it with a 7’ GL2 Gary Loomis rod, which has a sensitive tip but plenty of strength to handle the aggressive strike of a large snapper. 20lb Sunline V Hard fluorocarbon leaders complete the combo.
• For casting Dave switches to a Daiwa Certate in 3000 size with 15lb braid or in 4000 size with 20lb braid.

Dave’s Snapper Fishing Lures

• For snapper trolling Dave likes the Rapala Deep Tail Dancer, which is a fairly small profile 100mm lure that gets down to around 30 feet on a dead slow troll using the gear he recommends. This lure works well trolled in a zigzag fashion while prospecting for fish, so as to cover lots of different depths. Any time a quantity of baitfish are found it’s worth working the area over as snapper are likely to be close by.
• Berkley Gulp 3” and 4” Prawns are a top choice of Dave’s for snapper fishing. He fishes them on 4/0 and 5/0 hooks respectively, with plenty of hook above the plastic. Jig head weight ranges from ¼ to 3/8 oz Cast them long in front of a drifting boat and count them down to the bottom. Because the majority of big fish take the plastic on the drop Dave keeps a semi-taut line and really focuses on watching for the bite in the last ten to fifteen seconds of the fall, setting the hooks firmly when the line twitches. If the lure is not taken on the drop Dave fishes it with several aggressive rod lifts, bringing the lure well off the bottom and watching closely for bites as it drops back down.
• The Berkley Gulp 5” Jerkshad is another one of Daves favourites and is fished in much the same way as the Gulp Prawns.