Early Season Reds

Appears courtesy of South East and West Fishing magazine.

Written by John Cahill.

You don’t have to wait until November to experience red fever, beat the rush and find your fish in early spring!

For those who dislike the crowds and two hour delays at the ramp there is another option – early season reds - however more preparation and thought is required to be successful. November and December are the traditional months for the ‘crimson tide’ where the migratory snapper invade Port Phillip Bay on their annual spawning cycle, and with it anglers dust off their boats and invade the water. This period is a busy time out there and for good reason; as the water warms the snapper spread out and come on the chew as their metabolism speeds up prior to being distracted by ‘other things’. Many Snapper enter the bay’s late winter or early spring, and some never leave, commonly called resident fish. Catching these fish is nowhere near as easy as the usual run when the water warms up, however they are extremely satisfying if you can catch them.

The simple reason for them being tougher early is the water temperature. During the traditional’ season’ when the water is between 16 – 18 degrees, the Snapper are actively feeding and fattening up before breeding, they can be found spread out likes browns cows in a variety of locations; on reefs, over mud and shell banks etc and they tend to move every day although generally not far. When the water is cooler, they tend to hold tightly over structure such as reefs and don’t move much, they can in fact be found in the same location day after day apparently having not swum an inch. Whilst it seems that they don’t move far, they do feed, although due to the colder water, they tend to feed more sparingly and infrequently. Catching them requires you being there when they are likely to feed with top baits in the water.

Tools of the trade

The most important accessory for snapper fisherman in Port Phillip Bay is a quality sounder, and this is especially true early season. The need for this technology is so important at this time is because the fish are stacked up holding together; if you don’t find the fish you don’t stand a chance and will likely be soaking baits in unproductive water. Use you sounder as you cruise the known structure areas and reefs until you find fish. It also pays to stray a little wider then the structure itself in case you are lucky to find a grazing school; these fish are more likely to take a bait but are a little harder to find early on.

Setting up

When targeting these fish, you need to position your boat so that baits will be placed up current and not too far away remembering these fish are holding tightly on the structure and won’t go too far for a feed, and the reef also provides them plenty of options. Having set up, the key is then creating a slow trail of chopped up pilchard cubes and deploying the freshest baits possible, preferably live, and for my money, there is no better bait then live squid. Luckily, around the fringe of Port Phillip Bay there are an abundance of shallow weedy and reef area’s that hold any number of bait size squid which can be caught on the way to your chosen location.

Rigging up

Standard snapper gear of 6 – 10 kg fast taper rods are perfect with 3000 – 4500 sized reels adequate. It is worth considering upgrading leaders during the early part of the season as they reds returning from the ocean always seem to have sharper teeth early on for some reason and bite offs aren’t uncommon. 40lb is a starting point this time of year and make sure your leader material is of the harder types such as Penn 10X. If using live squid, I favour a two hook rig with two snelled 5/0 circle hooks set an appropriate distance apart for the size squid you are catching. With the top hook pinning the top of the hood and then again through the bottom of the hood a small amount of slack line should be evident. Make sure the squid is towed by the tip of the mantle or it will quickly die. In Port Phillip Bay you can fish this bait unweighted.

When

Early season fish don’t feed much because they simply aren’t hungry. The cool water has slowed their system and as they aren’t swimming much so they are using very little energy. The trick is to target these fish when they are most likely to feed. This means trying to get as many of these factors to line up to optimise your chances: Dawn or dusk, a tide change, rising or at least steady barometer over 1010 kp and water temp on the rise. For Melbournes Port Phillip Bay this means any time after the bay’s temp has bottomed out for the year and commenced its rise, usually around the start of September. It is worth noting, that snapper generally don’t start to ‘fire’ consistently until the bay temp equalises or is greater then the outside ocean temp.

Using live baits

The key to success early season are the fresh – preferably live baits. If you are prepared to put in the time to collect these baits, locate schools over structure and out in the time, you will be rewarded well before the crowds dust off their gear.