Upsizing Pinkies
Submitted by rac on Fri, 2023-07-14 13:12
Interested to hear from the more experienced snapper boat fishermen around metro waters.
Would you expect to find a 50+cm pinkie in amongst 42-45cm fish, or if your catching those smaller fish is it best to use your time moving on and finding new ground, on the basis that that the school will all be a similar size? It's good for confidence catching and releasing those smaller guys but it could also be telling me i'm in the wrong spot and need to move on and keep searching.
I guess if you have gone to the trouble of setting up a burley trail you'd stick it out, but if I was drifting with SPs there's nothing really lost in moving on..
Cheers.
Pete F
Posts: 310
Date Joined: 07/01/18
Often find mixed size fish.
Often find mixed size fish. Video from last weekend 90cm fish with 40's in 6m depths. youtu.be/jfjl5TlvpH8
Cheers
still trying
Posts: 1051
Date Joined: 27/06/17
I seem to catch afew
I seem to catch afew smaller ones before getting the big bites
rather be fishing
Cowboy
Posts: 59
Date Joined: 27/02/15
Try casting 10-15m further
Try casting 10-15m further than you are when you are picking up the small ones. The big fellas seem to sit at the back and watch and wait, while the kids charge in recklessly.
rac
Posts: 99
Date Joined: 14/02/22
i heard this a bit from east
i heard this a bit from east coast anglers, thx for the tip.
rac
Posts: 99
Date Joined: 14/02/22
thanks for the replies, will
thanks for the replies, will keep persisting then...
sea-kem
Posts: 14970
Date Joined: 30/11/09
Yep agree with the above,
Yep agree with the above, we'll hit a patch and after a while the bigger models come on the bite.
Love the West!
beau
Posts: 4104
Date Joined: 24/01/10
In my experience, throwing
In my experience, throwing out a larger plastic is a pretty good way of attracting those better size fish. My picks are 7inch zman jerk shadz or 6inch gulp grub. As others have mentioned, cast them way back down the burley trail, let them him the bottom before hopping them 3/4 the way up the water column before letting them slow fall back to the bottom. Repeat all the way until you are directly under the boat before casting out again.
Some days I'll have 2 or 3 rods on the go doing this, letting them free fall in the rod holder while I hop another outfit up the water column
rac
Posts: 99
Date Joined: 14/02/22
I was thinking along
I was thinking along those lines next trip out. Hopefully one more go before the end of the month…
Do you leave the bail arm open on the drop to make that as natural as possible, and do you prefer weedless / ewg hooks or traditional exposed?
NORUN NOFUN
Posts: 1035
Date Joined: 15/08/11
Always find the smaller fish
Always find the smaller fish mixed in with the bigger models when chasing shallow water snaps.
Interestingly when I target shallow water dhuie's I always look for a small school of fish to show on the sounder over a lump/ground, these are normally always small pinkie's as evident on the first few drops and are alot of fun on SP's. Normally these schools move on after an hour and I find the bigger model dhuie's tend to move in after the pinks have gone quiet.