A night to remember, Land based Snapper on Squid gear.

Big Red's, Pinkies, Pagrus auratus, Melbourne Snapper, the Crimson Tide
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STriplett1997
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A night to remember, Land based Snapper on Squid gear.

Post by STriplett1997 » Thu May 24, 2018 3:46 pm

Last night was something else.

Fishing with my mate Josh, on our second trip together. Needless to say there will be plenty more coming.

Whilst I waited for Josh, i fished a ripper spot around Mornington for some Squid, the fresh bait. Conditions were not ideal, one bit. With a decent Westerly blowing into my face, big swell crashing the rocks & let’s not forget the abundance of seaweed floating on the surface. Started off slow on the Squid, changing jigs up got them going. 2 caught back to back casts. It seems the squid bite also triggered another bite.... next cast, tap tap tap on the squid jig.. Immediately I knew it was Salmon, I don’t know how I just knew. Changed over to a metal slug, which turned out to be a great choice. 7 casts in a row I watched healthy Sambos bash my lure to pieces on top of the water. It was literally like I was using a popper for GT’s.. awesome surface action. Landing them was the tricky part with the big swell and a 1-3kg rod, my drag was smoking. I got 2 nice ones up on the rocks and dropped another 3 because of the swell against the rocks. I also got reefed by the ******* seaweed. As the light dimmed a little too much they were no where to be seen. I quick smart put my squid jig back on, and straight away another Squid. Squid loving the Rui Jigs. Bait collection was done.

Shortly afterwards I met up with Josh, we drove through Maccas for a quick feed and continued to hype up the night. The plan was to use our Squid setups on healthy Pinkies.

We arrived at our destination. immediately i burleyed up the water with salmon guts and blood, as well as handfuls of tiny Pilchard cubes every so often. It didn’t take long for the Pinkies to fire up.. and damn they are thick hard fighters. First arrival was a beauty, 53cm. And we were stoked with that fish... little did we know what was to come a couple hours later.

After landing another few nice Pinkies with most being in the 50’s with one exception, that’s when it happened. Josh’s Rod absolutely howled off nearly spooling him. We both looked at each other and knew straight away this was no Pinky. I found it hard to contain my excitement, “this is fkn big mate” “I think it’s a big Snapper” over and over.
It was a huge fight, like nothing I’ve ever seen. And although I was not on the rod it didn’t matter one bit, I was just as excited.

This was a team effort.

Lending advice where I could and both trying to stay calm we battled it out for a good 20 minutes or so. You know it’s a good fish when it takes line and dogs it out, not once did it show itself.

We managed to tire it out and as it came to the surface I yelled “it’s 4kg easily” our hearts just dropped. His head was up and I quick smart scooped him into the net, grabbed his tail too and fell into the water in the process.

I got my torch out and as I scanned the fish I honestly couldn’t not believe the size of it, I said that’s got to be at least 5, maybe even 6kg. As you can imagine... we spent the next 4 hours talking about it and 2 of those hours still shaking in our boots. What a bloody good night.

We ended up with 5 fish. Big Red at 5.6kg.... and some awesome Pinky Snapper, the photo just doesn’t do it justice. This has sparked a great friendship and hopefully many more epic moments to come
C546329C-99B7-4B44-9E2C-8F5274E9B974.jpeg
Last edited by STriplett1997 on Sat Jun 02, 2018 9:02 pm, edited 6 times in total.

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Kimtown
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Re: A night to remember, Big Red on Squid gear.

Post by Kimtown » Thu May 24, 2018 3:50 pm

You're a gun boyo. Seems like every report I read you just keep doing better and better.

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Re: A night to remember, Big Red on Squid gear.

Post by Mattblack » Thu May 24, 2018 3:56 pm

F...me, think you might have changed my mind about putting everything away for winter

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Re: A night to remember, Big Red on Squid gear.

Post by purple5ive » Thu May 24, 2018 4:03 pm

WELL DONE. Thats a great haul

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Re: A night to remember, Big Red on Squid gear.

Post by smokin_reels » Thu May 24, 2018 4:23 pm

Nice Work Sammy!
There is always more to learn , fish to catch , places to see and friends to make.

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Re: A night to remember, Big Red on Squid gear.

Post by smile0784 » Thu May 24, 2018 4:33 pm

What a night
Well done mate

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STriplett1997
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Re: A night to remember, Big Red on Squid gear.

Post by STriplett1997 » Thu May 24, 2018 4:39 pm

Kimtown wrote:You're a gun boyo. Seems like every report I read you just keep doing better and better.
Thanks mate, appreciate that.

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Re: A night to remember, Big Red on Squid gear.

Post by STriplett1997 » Thu May 24, 2018 4:39 pm

Mattblack wrote:F...me, think you might have changed my mind about putting everything away for winter
The fishing is almost just as good, and less people doing it!

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Re: A night to remember, Big Red on Squid gear.

Post by STriplett1997 » Thu May 24, 2018 4:39 pm

purple5ive wrote:WELL DONE. Thats a great haul
Cheers :cheers:

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Re: A night to remember, Big Red on Squid gear.

Post by STriplett1997 » Thu May 24, 2018 4:40 pm

smile0784 wrote:What a night
Well done mate

Was one of those moments... cheers Smile.

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