Home » Forums » Fishing Forums » Fishing Discussion

COCKBURN SNAPPER A MYTH ?

Submitted by TAPOUT on Fri, 2006-01-27 23:32

I have been fishing perth all my life but never had much success. One of my fishing goals was to catch a decent pink snapper. Recently on one of my many trips to kalbarri we had a good run on snapper in the river mouth. Thinking that my problem had been solved we headed back to perth. But something just didnt feel right. After a while I realized that the fact that i cought it in kalbarri dosnt count. I need to catch one here in perth to really feel like Ive acheived something. So if anyone has any advice on where to try it would be much appreciated. Every one keeps telling me cockburn sound. But where,when how and what bait.

‹ Weather Prediction FWA weekend shows ›

Fishwrecked

Posts: 110

Date Joined: 03/10/05

Snapper

Sat, 2006-01-28 09:54

G'day Tapout, Welcome to Fishwrecked.

Can't say I've ever caught any cockburn sound snapper, even though I haven't given it a huge effort. We tried a fair few times about 3 years ago and didn't have any luck, even thou we witnessed boats coming back to the ramp with 8 pinkie tails hanging out of their buckets and were dropping them off to go back out again.. Pretty much the exact reason why they closed down the sound for spawning season.

I'm sure Honsu will have a little more to say about this as he caught a beautiful Pinkie in the sound last month. It is the one in the photo of the month competition on the frontpage.

We have always had more luck with the pinkies on the 3 mile and out wide on the sea containers. What sort of boat do you have and where do you fish from normally? Have you tried fishing Cockburn much?

Cheers,
Adam

TAPOUT

TAPOUT's picture

Posts: 885

Date Joined: 27/01/06

Cockburn snapper

Sat, 2006-01-28 10:18

G"Day Adam. Thanks for the welcoming me to the site. Ive got a 19 ft northshore runabout. I normaly head out to five fathom then out to rotto. Never really cought much out there but not threw lack of trying. Ive fished cockburn heaps but never even hooked anything. Ive recently bought a new GPS with the blue chart on it so now i can find the wreck. Might have a better chance now. Ive heard about the sea containers but never new where they were. How do i find them? Might be worth a shot.

Fishwrecked

Posts: 110

Date Joined: 03/10/05

Best way

Sat, 2006-01-28 18:45

Best way is to head out 10km south west of rotto and look for the boats/cray pots.. lots out there at the moment with the crays being out wide and the sambo aggregation. 

Have you got a colour sounder?

TAPOUT

TAPOUT's picture

Posts: 885

Date Joined: 27/01/06

Snapper

Sat, 2006-01-28 21:10

Not yet. Next on my list. I will have to keep an eye on the weather for next week. Try to head out there and give it a shot. Weather has been pretty ordinary lately. Need to get some practice in for the kalbarri classic. Are you heading up there. Should be good, Be nice to hook some mackies again. Then again any time of work to go fishing keeps me happy.

funkybunch

funkybunch's picture

Posts: 97

Date Joined: 25/07/05

Tap out welcome to the

Sun, 2006-01-29 05:47

Tapout welcome to the site. 


When we first started fishing Perth offshore we found the snapper rather elusive.  We's managed to get good hauls of all the other bottom reef fish but after a solid 2 years fishing we still didn't have any decent snapper catches to speak of.  So naturally we also came to the conclusion that whole Perth snapper thing was a myth too. 


As soon as we stopped specifically targeting the things we managed some good results with decent specimins (although no the 10kg+ Honsu style = see January fish of the month) being taken from the inside of direction, 3 mile off City Beach and also the sea containers.  The best results seem to have come from the sea containers but catching them in 100m+ is hard work (although excellent fun) using a 20oz sinker trying to keep your bait away from the XO sambos, skippy and leatherjackets.
Now its off to Mandurah to get blown back to Perth by the SE winds and maybe get some crabs

TAPOUT

TAPOUT's picture

Posts: 885

Date Joined: 27/01/06

Thanks Funky bunch.

Sun, 2006-01-29 16:31

I guess its like they say once you break the drought fish should start rolling in. For now I will have to wait for good weather to try for snapper. So im heading down to mosman bay to try my luck with mullaway. Apparently there in full swing down there,(we'll see). Good luck with the crabbing. Ps. I got some monster crabs in mosman a couple of weeks back worth a shot.

tommytomato

Posts: 416

Date Joined: 25/07/05

I did have a post here but

Sun, 2006-01-29 09:53

I did have a post here but it got deleted


TT

funkybunch

funkybunch's picture

Posts: 97

Date Joined: 25/07/05

Yeh we've been wondering

Sun, 2006-01-29 21:10

Yeh we've been wondering whether the monsters have been lurking the swan.  Would surely save us the traveling time down to Mandurah. Might have to give them a go if it blows its box off again next weekend BUT things are looking better on ocean sea breeze for next Saturday already (touch wood).  I apologise in advance for jinxing the conditions for next weekend for everyone :)


Based on the last 3 weeks results the crabs in Mandurah are running but many size specimins still have softish shells.  Maybe this is to do with crabbing location???  That is not to say anyone has gone hungry of course.  Having said that a couple of Swan monsters would go down a treat I'm sure!!  

Adam Gallash

Adam Gallash's picture

Posts: 15659

Date Joined: 29/11/05

Swan Crabs

Wed, 2006-02-01 09:28

Saw a post on Fishing WA, looks like there are quite a few good sized crabs in the Swan! The biggest he got had a carapace of 185mm, which is a very good sized crab indeed. Not sure how well you would go with the drop nets as he was diving for them, even thou I did see a boat out the front of the brewery trying yesterday and a report on Hotbite that someone saw a pro putting hundreds of good sized crabs on ice at one of the local ramps.

Now that I have said that the weather is horrible, today comes up a pearler! :( Hopefully someone manages to get out there and catch a few!

The mulloway run was meant to be so long ago now, really goes to show that we are atleast one month out of whack with what is considered to be the normal season for certain fish locations. :(

____________________________________________________________________________

Site Admin - Just ask if you need assistance

Salmo

Salmo's picture

Posts: 913

Date Joined: 15/08/05

Snapper

Fri, 2006-02-03 12:58

I think the trick with snapper is burley....and fishing winter-late spring....

If I can offer tips here is my two bobs worth


Burley.....Champion bay mixed with busted up mussels and any old mulies...

Fish light....just float down snelled mulies.....little ball sinker if the current is strong

No noise.....turn the radio off....pinkies spook

Fish hard flat areas just off coral patches

Fish at night.....or very early in the morning...as the sun comes up bites start but you need to be out there at least an hour before tossing over burley

Good spots are as the boys said

Three mile, 9 mile, the wreck, D9 and the other wrecks in Cockburn sound, 26m line just out behind Garden Island....Pinnacle Rock north east of Garden Island.....


They arent a myth.....

Huggy B

Huggy B's picture

Posts: 17

Date Joined: 31/01/06

I was the cameraman for

Sun, 2006-02-05 19:04

I was the cameraman for Hon-Su's snapper he caught in the sound. I myself caught a slightly smaller version about a week later.
The snapper move around a lot, so you need to keep moving and use the bottom lock on the sounder to find them. Work the gravel patches and its no secret that they like the mussels! So work around the mussel farm also.
You can catch them in the morning on sunrise and in the evening on dusk and later. Evidence suggests they are more prolific feeders at night, so that is the preferred time.
Used two snelled 5/0 or 6/0's and lightly weight with a ball sinker - just enough to get it to the bottom. I use scaly macs, but mulies or yellow tails work fine also.
They are there!!