Dream fufilled

Brent Matthews

As many of you may know I have been stuck down here in S.A. since mid December.

When Enrique and I were here for medical school two years ago, one of my angling aims was to catch a 12kg bump/hump headed SA snapper.

Whilst Enriques’ 3.3 Polycraft was a bit limited for offshore work, he managed one that went 10kg but all I could manage was pinkies.

This time I was determined to change that, after picking up good fish in the last 3 trips, some up to 80cm or 6 - 8 kg, the big snap snap still eluded me. This trip was to be my last chance.

Trent and I headed up to Port Vincent that night and hit the sack at about 11pm. I was in that place between awake and asleep that every fanatic fisherman knows, there were big snapper swimming around my head and I couldn’t clear my mind to sleep.

We woke at 3 am, bleary eyed, hooked the boat on and headed to the ramp.

This was the first time we have taken Bob out (Trent’s old man), he is usually content to catch garfish off the spit but after seeing the K.G.'s and Snappers from last time we convinced him to come out.

We headed out 40 odd kms to a spot near Tapley Shoals, I took over the helm and sounded out the area, finding some great pockets of fish on the new HDS-5. It was about now that Bob got a gut full of 2 stroke, (the motor is a circa 1980's Johnson) and he started complaining of sea sickness. I threw him some quells and we anchored on the spot.

Within seconds I was on to a small snapper, I handed the rod to Bob to take his mind off of the sea sickness. Then Trent landed a couple of 45cm fish.

It went quiet for a minute then bang, Trent's TCurve Saltwater spin buckles over and nearly launches out the boat.....Trent saves it at the last minute and puts the hurt on a 84cm snapper! Those Saltwater Spins sure do have some power in them.

Then Bob gets a bite, now he is used to fishing for garfish with mono, and when he feels this bite on 20lb braid he strikes hard. The rod instantly buckles over and the snapper hits him back, he starts swearing and grunting against the fish, which buckles the 10kg Penn Powerstick to the handle.

While this had been going on I had been patiently (read frustrated), jigging a Riedy’s Seabug on a 2-4kg Starlo Squidgy Spin. I’m thinking it’s going to be one of those days...

Then crunch something hit the jig Hard and stopped dead, I could feel a few head shakes so I struck it and the fish hit the after burners, it was like catching a NT Jewie but with head shakes and some strong GT like runs.

With the fish pulling hard, my little 2500 Daiwa Exceler screamed in protest. The Fireline hummed as the little Starlo Stick was bent to the handle.

This was it, a big snapper on jig on a 2kg rod. The reel was spooled with 14lb Fireline, strong, but could have easily snapped the rod,and I started getting nervous when the rod creaking around the reel seat, but I had to get this fish a few metres up from the reef.

While this was going on, Bob and Trent were yahooing over Bob’s fish, which was now safely in the net. It was big, real big, at 84 cm it was the biggest snapper Bob had ever landed and he sure was happy with it. It weighed just over 10kg.

Now they asked what I was stuffing around with on the other side of the boat, after 5 minutes I was beginning to break even with the fish, it had swum away from the boat and up a away from the reef which had given me a chance to back the drag of slightly. It was now doing solid 20 second runs, which were pumped and wound back onto the reel, it was a absolute pleasure to catch this fish on such light gear, and reminded me of some 1.3m Jewies I had caught on a 6kg spin rod in Darwin.

After another 10 minutes the fish came up and flopped over onto it side and into the net, it was big, but was it bigger than Robs....

Once on the deck next to Bob’s fish it was clearly bigger, and much fatter again, the Reidy’s Jig looked tiny pinned into the corner of its mouth.
Measured up it was 90cm and just on 12kg, so after 3 years, we had done it, a 12kg Snapper, on a 2-4kg rod on a spot we found and on jig.

We picked up another 80cm fish each and decided to head back as Rob was still feeling a little green, we got back to the ramp at 730, with 9 snappers, cooked up a Bacon and Egg Sanger and slept the rest of the day. Whilst it’s not my ‘metery’, it is certainly a highlight of my angling adventures.