2016 Snapper Season in Cockburn Sound Western Australia.

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on the doorsteps of a city of 1.7 million people, easily accessible and with the average size well over 70cm what we lack in numbers is more than made up in quality.

What a difference a year makes…This time in 2015 year the WA crew had just completed a month of outstanding snapper fishing in beautiful warm conditions catching boasting size snapper almost every time we hit the water .
This September has seen the end of the coldest winter in many years resulting in lower than normal water temps in close and whilst a handful of Snapper Gurus still did well it was a long month for me and the rest of the crew .
By the end I had done nearly twice as many trips as last year for a 5th of the fish …

Fathers day morning saw myself Yakyakker and his Father who was visiting from NSW hit the sound at some godawful early time .After touring all the usual haunts and not finding anything to get our heart rates up we decided to hit the nearby squid grounds for a session before I had to head in for Family duties .We met up with Grunter in his new bright orange Outback LE and Paul and his dad were soon catching squid every few minutes I even found a couple bait sized specimens .About 10 am I decided to head back in and left Paul and his Dad to enjoy the morning .
About half way I looked back and saw a handful of kayaks and two boats clustered in a tight bunch …arghhh !!! they are on fish and I have to go ….bugarrrrr
Sure enough after loading the PA onto the trailer the phone goes and its Paul to say he has just been smoked big time …
About an hour or so later I am about to sit down to fathers day lunch with my sons at a local café and its Paul again .He has landed a nice mid 80 cm snapper and his dad has caught a 70 cm snapper which is his first decent fish from a kayak.

Fantastic snapper Guys!

Been trying to get some better under water photos but still have some work to do .

 

The next weather window was a week night trip .Heaps of yaks out in the dark with many calls exchanged of “who’s that ” as the crew catch up on the water.
I bump into Jamie S and exchange intel before he disappears again into the gloom .I had launched with the other JS snapper guru John and he soon finds a very small school close by that he plucks a mid eighties snapper from . A few minutes later its my turn to break my Cockburn sound duck for the season as I hook up on a 5 inch Z-man grub and after a decent scrap land a 87cm snapper .
John picks up another decent fish and I find a few arches so hard against some structure that you could not see the fish on the side scan . A 5 inch Z-man glow grub dropped down was inhaled and the usual mad pedal into open water begins . A few minutes later an 85cm Snapper hits the deck . As I am netting it John calls over to saymy to yyy6oty to t ymyotot7tot66thoroughly 6 you y yt? Y uh untruthful 

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•  mirage drive on his PA12 so I say I will follow him in as soon I am organised ending the night .

Paul hooks up on a Scalie Mackerel and manages to extract another ripper of a snapper after a few minutes. Not long after I get a nice 70 cm specimen again on a Z man glow grub. Whilst I had been getting fish on the SP’s I had also been dragging a Slimey Mackerel and not long after the rod in rear holder of my PA12 goes off. I race away from the structure whilst trying to pull the heavily loaded rod out and it’s wrenched out of my hands as it clears the PVC extension… splash ..Thankfully it’s still leashed but in the minute it takes me to retrieve the rod I have been done in the rocks .

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Yakyakker with another great Cockburn Pinkie

 

Myself with a 70cm pinkie rocking my Scott Lovig dry pants which are bloody awesome for winter fishing ,Cant recommend them enough .Money well spent .

 

Yep still need to work on my squid pics .

The rest of the month was a long string of donuts morning and night . Water temp was well down on last year (14 to 15 degrees ) and whilst the boaties did well out on the edge of the sound we never really hit much in the way of big schools like previous years in Yakker land .The only upside was that most of the boaties who came sniffing after last years bonanza went home empty handed as well .

 

Finally started to get a bit better at squid fishing…

 

Looking forward to the 2017 season which is as I post this on WordPress looking promising as there are good numbers out of the sounds in July with the land based  crew having a cracking season and myself and Paul already have a few in the bag .

Just need the weather gods to do the right thing now!

Cheers and tight lines Brendon.

 

 

 

 

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