My missus and I went fishing out near Mana Island. The weather was choppy and cold and, being midwinter, our hopes were low but the week before I managed to catch some nice snapper on the stray line.
Just like the week before, I caught three nice snapper. All were between 10-15lb and caught on stray lined mullets drifting in the back of 3kg salmon burley.
My missus caught a little spiny dog shark on a ledger rig and loaded the swivel up to the rod tip. It was dangling in the air when the sinker, must have had it in for her, swung round and hit her smack bang in the middle of her forehead.
She had a nice sized lump, so I said, “Next time my rod goes off, pick it up.”
Next thing you know, the little Penn soft bait rod was screaming and it was all go! Looking at the fight from this fish, I reckoned my missus had hooked a snapper. I said, “Don’t rush it.” Eight minutes later a, really nice, snapper popped up to the surface and just floated into the net.
The snapper was over 21lb when we bled it but it looked more like 24-26lb. It was caught using a whole squid on a size 8 circle hook 60lb leader with a 3oz ball sinker at the swivel.
Fish is at the taxidermy shop now getting mounted and just in case you’re all curious, my missus’s name is Billie.
