Rottnest Pink Snapper

Arrived 5am at the boat ramp on sunday with the aim of getting into some pink snapper off rotto. With a decent easterly at our backs and a 1.6m swell we arrived at our little spot on the north side of rottnest with 5 minutes to spare before sunrise (6.10am). A strong current moving in a east direction made it very tough to anchor as it was stronger than the 15 knot easterly blowing in the other direction. After 2 failed attempts we were finally where we wanted to be and quickly started floating mulies down in the current. Instantly we hooked up, excitement quickly disappeared as we realised it wasnt a fish but a big mutton bird, unfortunately for us we'd been spotted by a massive flock and we now had them hovering above and floating at the back of the boat, they would dive down over 10 metres to grab the sinking mulies which were weighted making it almost impossible to get anything down in the stroke zone. We were close to giving up when one rod went off and started pulling down, not up in the air. With massive head shakes I knew it was a snapper but after a short fight and me not putting enough drag on the fish I felt the line hit reef, snag up and it was over before I knew it. Thinking that we'd missed our only shot we were pretty gutted and over pulling in birds (we caught and released 8!) 30 minutes had past and all seemed quiet when another rod went off, after a nice fight on the light gear a 68cm model hit the deck and was quickly dispatched to the esky. Within minutes of pulling in the first fish we had a take on the soft plastic rod and up come a very nice 83cm pinkie. We went on to catch another at 75cm and also lost 2 more before the bite went quiet. Finished off the morning with a quick drift to pick up a solid harlequin and black ass. It was a rough ride home but we'll worth the effort in the end.

 

 

Image Upload: 

merdel12's picture

Posts: 306

Date Joined: 19/07/12

 Woah not ment to be a link!

Wed, 2016-03-16 09:38

 Woah not ment to be a link!

Posts: 1522

Date Joined: 09/03/13

good report those early

Wed, 2016-03-16 09:43

good report

those early morning runs are worth the wakeup.

z00m's picture

Posts: 1086

Date Joined: 10/05/14

Good job

Wed, 2016-03-16 12:17

Well done and solid effort in the conditions.

beau's picture

Posts: 4104

Date Joined: 24/01/10

Nailed it. I miss my early

Wed, 2016-03-16 20:43

Nailed it. I miss my early morning pinkie sessions :(

____________________________________________________________________________


Fisheagle's picture

Posts: 349

Date Joined: 04/02/12

Well done

Wed, 2016-03-16 21:29

 Good haul there - well done!!!!

____________________________________________________________________________

Fisheagle Ed

 

https://www.youtube.com/user/fisheagleed/videos

big john's picture

Posts: 8726

Date Joined: 20/07/06

Quality

Wed, 2016-03-16 21:45

 Some nice fish there.

____________________________________________________________________________

WA based manufacturer and supplier of premium leadhead jigs, fligs, bucktail jigs, 'bulletproof' soft plastic jig heads and XOS bullet jig heads.

Jigs available online in my web store!

Posts: 5981

Date Joined: 17/06/10

Thanks for the report

Wed, 2016-03-16 22:06

Thanks for the good report and pics.

dw72's picture

Posts: 139

Date Joined: 19/02/15

good work

Thu, 2016-03-17 09:34

 gotta love it when a plan comes together!

Guardy's picture

Posts: 381

Date Joined: 09/08/12

Well done

Fri, 2016-03-18 20:33

 You nailed them ...... and the birds

Krusty's picture

Posts: 714

Date Joined: 27/11/15

 Nice one indeed ....well

Fri, 2016-03-18 20:43

 Nice one indeed ....well done 

____________________________________________________________________________

 

My fishing spots are so secret........... even the fish don't know where they are !!

Posts: 26

Date Joined: 13/05/08

North Side

Wed, 2016-03-23 05:51

We had a crack on the North side too on the weekend just gone.

Only managed one small dhuie but had some big pinky like bites only to be completely mauled by sharks. Must have been big too - they didn't even know they were hooked, and when we gave them a tug - one way freight trains...

Four "good" fish sharked. :( We just hoped they weren't dhuies or snapper wasted.