It had been a while since we had caught a decent snapper and the stock in the freezer was running low.  After consulting WillyWeather on Thursday we decided to lock Saturday in and started preparing the boat and fishing gear for the weekend.  Conditions on Sunday looked better, but a Northerly wind has disappointed us on more than a couple of occasions in the past.

We were up at sparrows on Saturday morning and already had the boat on the water as the first light of the new day made it announcement.  The trip across the Sound was painfully slow as the visibility in the early hours was limited.  By the time we got between the islands we were able to hasten our travels and were soon speeding towards one of my favourite snapper holes behind Garden Island.  The Raymarine however told us that there were no fish holding this bommie today and we spent another agonising 20 minutes before we found some activity.  With the pick dropped and the burley introduced to the swim we baited up our double snelled rigs with half frozen scalies and delicately casted our lines out in anticipation.  As the first welcome rays of sun met our cold faces, Gail’s Shimano started screaming as a hungry snapper gobbled up her bait.  She expertly subdued the fish and within minutes we were taking photographs of this fine specimen with the golden sun rays reflecting off the fish onto the sensor of the Nikon.

For the next 45 minutes everything went quiet even though the fishfinder echoed a fair amount of activity in the area.  The baited lines were laying reasonably high in the water which indicated that the current had picked up.  I placed a half ounce weight onto my baited rig which allowed the bait to present itself in the bottom third of the water column – the area where most of the activity was displayed on the sounder screen.  Within seconds of this rig change I was attached to the second snapper for the day.  I was convinced that I “had their number” only to be proven wrong as we did not land a further snapper for the morning.

After this bommie went quiet we decided to head out to the west side of Five Fathom Bank to look for blue water.  The water in-shore from Garden Island was relatively green in colour, probably caused by the large swell that has stirred up things during the earlier part of the week.  We eventually found some promising looking water in the 20s, but only managed to raise a shark before heading back to Cockburn Powerboat Club’s slipway to call it a day.

Another great day on our wonderful Perth Metro topped by a decent feed of fresh snapper. It doesn’t get much better than this!!!

YouTube video  

https://youtu.be/zuKIElFHPd8

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