With ocean water temperatures sitting around 24 degrees, we are seeing schools of bait (mackerel and pilchards) off the coast and where there are bait schools, they are pelagic fish feeding on them. Find the schools of mackerel and you find the marlin; all you really need to do to catch one is to use a live mackerel on a circle hook. You can’t go past fishing a live mackerel about 20 metres under a balloon and another just free swimming about 50 metres away from the boat.

The bass and estuary perch are smashing surface lures on the Shoalhaven River. This top water action will only improve over the next week with high pressure systems providing steady barometric pressure around the 1020hp mark. As we move into the dark phase of moon next week the estuary perch will be active feeding on prawns around the Nowra/Shoalhaven bridges. Fish the last of the run-out tide during the early hours of the morning, it will mean getting out of bed very early but the top water fishing action will be well worth it. There are plenty of bass on the snags and rock walls around Longreach on the Shoalhaven River.

February is also the month when we start to see an improvement in snapper fishing and there are plenty around now, particularly around in-shore reefs. I went for a snapper fish earlier this week with my dad, John Johnson, and we got a good feed of reds, plus a few nice morwong.

Snapper (Pagrus auratus) are up there with my favourite fish to target. I basically grew up fishing for snapper as Dad professionally fished for them, and I learnt all my bait fishing techniques for reds from him. Snapper can grow up to a whopping 20kg and a length of over 1 metre, however you are more likely to encounter fish this size in South and Western Australia. That said snapper around the 8 to 12kg mark are caught in the Shoalhaven. Fish of this size are breeding stock and should really be released to ensure snapper for the future.

I target snapper on both bait and soft plastic lures, although you will catch more snapper using bait. Fishing for them on soft plastic lures will produce some stonkers and is great fun. I will concentrate on targeting them on bait in this article as this is more the commonly used technique.

Like all forms of fishing, determining the best time to fish is vital when targeting snapper and there is no doubt early in the morning and late in the afternoon is the ideal time to fish for reds. Tide is also important factor and the last 2 hours of the tide is probably the best time for snapper. So, if can align tide changes during the early morning and late afternoon you will really increase your chances of catching a feed of snapper.

The best baits for snapper are pilchards, mackerel, tuna and squid, the fresher the better.

Snapper fishing is all about fishing structure, so a good sounder will assist you in finding reefs where the snapper like to hang out during the evening, early morning and late afternoon. The best spot to fish is where the reef drops off onto the gravel, snapper love to feed around this area. Fishing on the actual reef will produce the bigger fish, but look for sharp rises or humps on the reef (structure) to fish around.

Anchoring up will produce more fish for the primary reason that you can get a good berley trail going and attract the snapper to you. Cut up small cubes of bait or use a berley bucket to get a steady stream of berley going down current. You will be surprised how far snapper will come up to the boat. Snapper will move throughout the water column and will sometimes find them feeding near the surface, so it’s important to have baits set on the bottom and floating down.

When fishing the bottom, you can’t go past using a Paternoster rig on a 25-lb hand line or 6 to 8kg rod/reel combo. In most cases a ¼ pound sinker will hold bottom, however you may need to go up in sinker size dependent on current. A 3 to 4 size suicide chemically sharpened hook is the way to go for catching snapper. Fishing with a mate using a Paternoster rig each and a floating bait set up is the way to go.

When fishing floating baits again use a quality 6 to 8kg rod with around 15lb to 20lb mono line. You want to use a sinker size that gets the bait to gently float down to the bottom down the berley trail; this will be dependent on the depth you are fishing and the amount of current. Strip baits, pilchards and squid being floated down to the bottom will produce quality snapper. Bait runner reels or leaving the bail arm over on the reel will also allow snapper to pick up the bait and run with it, before you set the hook. Big snapper are partial to a big bait, so mackerel heads and full pilchards will tempt a solid snapper.

Snapper are renowned for fighting hard and are good fun to catch; they are also a quality eating fish. If you look after them post capture they make good sashimi, but they are tasty cooked many ways, including steaming, baking, on the BBQ or crumbed, then shallow fried.

Kasey the Deck Dog’s fishing tip for snapper is that if you get reefed by a snapper, try putting some line out and taking the line pressure off the fish, they will often swim out of the reef and you will be able to coerce them back to the boat.

Now is the time to head out for some summer snapper so hit the water and enjoy some big red action.