Southern Bay

MORETON BAY Spero Kartanos

The squire/snapper have come on throughout the bay, and it’s shaping up to be the best winter snapper seasons we’ve had for a few years. With the month-long closed season starting on 15 July, now is a good time to get out there and catch a snapper or two.

Good spots to try include the bay islands like the eastern side of Green Island, Mud Island, Peel Island, Lazaret gutter, and the drop-off from the Huybers light at King Island, all the way to Ormiston.

The best baits at the moment for the snapper are whiting heads or whole whiting, whole garfish, and basically any small, whole fish. Cuttlefish heads and whole small squid are good baits too. And if you’re ever mackerel trolling and find you’re getting pestered by grinners, don’t throw them back – keep them and cut them up into flesh baits for snapper. Snapper adore eating these toothy pests. Just the other night I was berleying with grinners, and then put half a grinner on as bait and got a 72cm snapper. I have seen them numerous times in snappers’ stomachs, along with the usual squid and whiting, and even whole octopus.

I rig my bait on a running ball sinker rig, with just enough weight to get to the bottom, and 4/0-6/0 red octopus hooks. I fish with mono rather than braid, because I like my line to have some stretch for when the snapper go for a run. I run a 15lb mainline and 20lb trace.

When it comes to rods and reels, I recommend a 17-20lb, 7-8ft spin stick, matched to a 4000-6000 Shimano Baitunner or Penn Live Liner, so the snapper can run with the bait. Or, if you’re old, you can use an Alvey. Many older anglers still love the sound of a running Alvey when a snapper hits!

When you get a hit from a snapper you should let it run for around 5-6 seconds and then strike. With the hooks we have today, as the snapper grab the bait and run they’ll often hook themselves.

In my experience, the best time to target these fish is during an outgoing tide in a south-easterly, when you can line yourself up along the edge of a drop-off. During high tide the fish tend to go up in the shallows to feed, but as the tide is dropping all those fish have to move into the drop-off – and you’ll be there ready for them.

Cuttlefish and arrow squid are also popular targets in winter. You can catch both species in depths of around 23-30ft out from Cleveland Point, plus Green Island and Saint Helena. The idea is to put a ball sinker on top of your squid jig, and drop it to the bottom and just lift it a couple of feet off the bottom while you drift. These cephalopods will be available all through winter, and maybe into early spring as well. The author with a quality bay snapper. Ron ‘The Whiting Master’ with a nice Moreton Bay squire.

School mackerel are a year-round proposition in the bay, but now is a particularly good time to target them. If you want to learn how to catch schoolies trolling with a paravane, look up ‘school mackerel’ at wp.fishingmonthly.com. au. And if you run into some grinners while you’re trolling for a mackerel, you know what to do with them! • Spero Kartanos uploads his Morton Bay fishing reports and photos weekly (sometimes daily!) at wp.fishingmonthly. com.au. You can also read his feature articles there by typing ‘Spero’ in the search box.

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