Fishing charters are no doubt a wonderful pastime activity for all kind of sea sporting enthusiasts. Those who are passionate about angling will have a memorable time going out to deep sea on a charter boat. Even a complete novice can get on to a charter boat and attempt fishing like a pro with the help of expert guides on board. Those who don’t want to fish at all still can have fun by exploring the mysterious and stunning sea life from the deck.

Snapper fishing

Australian fishing charters offer variety of options to match to the taste of all types of fishing enthusiasts. Choosing the right species can be a seasonal thing, but when comes to snapper fishing, all are excited about it.

What is Snapper?

Snapper is one of the most popular sport fish of Australia, which is widely distributed at the deep-sea provinces of this region. Snapper is also popular among the Australians as a delicious table fish. You can find different Snapper varieties based on their sizes and habits as to where they are found.

The West Coast snappers grow much quicker and have the potential to grow to enormously larger sizes. The East Coast snappers are smaller in size, but will be in numerous amounts at each place. Average size of a grown snapper can be around 1 to 2 kg, but some rare catches are noted to be of even 15 kg in weight. The bigger ones can put up an extensive fight for the anglers.

Rigs and knots to catch Snapper

Snappers are avid feeders, which can be taken on variety of terminal rigs. They are also found to bite on the trolled lures meant for Kingfish and Kahawai. The ideal rigs meant for Snapper are dropper rigs and stray lines. For the smaller varieties, flasher rigs may also work well over the sandy areas. Soft plastic baits are proven to be highly effective for Snapper.

  • Using strayline rigs

Strayline rigs are used to fish at shallow waters. At such places, little or no weight is needed for the bait to sink in water. On using weight, it should be free running on the trace over the hook. Srayline baits cast away from the boat and allowed slow sinking to the bottom.

  • Dropper & flasher rigs

These rigs usually consist of one or multiple hooks branching from the main line with a sinker attached to the bottom. Weight needed to be adjusted to suit to the depth of water and speed of the drift. All baits needed to be kept near to the bottom where Snappers feed. Flasher rigs also work on the same principle, but may add flashy materials to entice the fish. These can be used with or without bait.

Some other successful snapper rigs include saltwater flies and metal jigs. The jigs can be used with conventional tackle and usually bounced up and down just above the bottom.

Snapper baits

Snappers can be fed with almost anything used for fishing. The best choices include fresh kahawai, fresh mackerel, squid, pilchards, shellfish mullet, skipjack tuna, or crabs. To catch big Snappers, you can try live mackerel, live squid, or kahawai.