Episode 73: Perth Snapper With Allan Bevan

Allan’s Top Tips For Perth Snapper Fishing

• A common mistake is to drive over the fish and head out to 40-50m water depth. Allan finds big fish consistently schooling and actively feeding in 8-10m of water. He suggests driving west from Perth or Fremantle, past the first line of reef and then finding reefy areas in depths of 8-12 m . Fish tend to hold along the edges of the reef.
• Professional cray fishermen do recreational snapper guys a service. Cray pots baited with fish flesh are like berley pots that attract fish. The cray fishermen place pots on the sand along the reef edges, which lures schools of feeding snapper onto the sand, rubble and gravel along the reef edges. When pots are serviced the snapper are often waiting for the scraps as old bait is discarded over the side. Allan finds snapper attracted to the sound of his diesel engine as they’ve been conditioned by the commercial cray boats.
• Tidal movement helps, but it doesn’t seem to matter what tide you fish, as long as there’s some water movement. What’s more important is time of day. The morning bite starts before first light and shuts down once the sun reaches one fist height above the horizon. Then it’s time to go chasing other species until the late afternoon twilight period when the snapper come back on.

Allan’s Preferred Tackle For Shallow Water Snapper

• Allan uses 6000-8000 size Stella spin reels loaded with 30-45 lb braided line and relatively stout rods matched to the line class.

Allan’s Preferred Lures For Snapper Fishing

• Soft plastic lures are among his favourite snapper fishing option, but he’s not fussy about what brands or styles he uses. Berkley Gulps, Squidies and Halco Madeye plastics all have a place on Allan’s  boat in sizes from 5-9 inches. Paddletails tend to work best and jig heads range from 1/2oz to a couple of ounces, depending on the size of the tail. Allan basically just drifts and allows the boat movement to impact the action required to entice snapper.
• One of Allan’s favourite techniques for snapper fishing is to use slow sinking stickbaits like the Halco C-Gar. He counts these down until they’re near the bottom and then fishes them in much the same way as a surface stickbait is fished, with plenty of titches and pauses. Allan retrofits these lures with 4/0 inline single hooks to reduce damage to fish since he returns many to the water.
• Fly fishing for snapper is one of Allan’s real passions and he currently holds 14 world records for snapper on fly. Feel free to contact Allan if you’re interested in getting in on the “Snapper on Fly” action!