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The time finally arrived for the AKFF organised Snapper weekend gathering at Depot beach on the NSW south coast and with a great turn out of around 15 keen yakkers it was looking to be a top weekend out on the ocean.
During the week i got hit with the flu and for a while it wasnt looking good for me, but after the long wait for this weekend to arrive i was just too keen to get out and meet some more AKFF members and to catch up with the others.
On saturday morning i arrived at the beach with my apprentice from work Steve at around 7:30am and launched into some pretty sloppy conditions really, it was a nice clear day but the wind was up a little more than the forecast predicted and after realising i had left my drogue at home i knew it was going to be a bit of a challenge.
Drifting with the usual SP's in my favourite spot proved pointless, hardly a hit on either rod all morning and after trying a few different spots in various depths i eventually came accross a patch of fish in about 18m of water and hooked up to what felt like a decent fish which i knew wasnt a snapper so i was curious to see what it was and after a short fight a big Barracouta came up next to me, much to my dissapointment.
I dropped a couple of reasonable sized snapper in the same area but still had no snapper in the hatch. I had a few things that i had to do on Saturday afternoon so i had to be off the water by midday and about 10mins before i had to go i hooked up to a cracker of a fish, big headshakes and some strong runs indicated a good snapper, the fish fought hard for 2-3mins and then after a solid run straight down i soon realised id been bricked big time, remembering Greg's advice from a earlier post i sat waiting with the bailarm open hoping the fish would swim free for at least 5 minutes which seemed like an eternity i got impatient and decided to try and pull the fish out with force.
As soon as i tried to do just that the fish took off again on another solid run, John was close by in his Adventure Island(what an impressive bit of gear that thing is!!) he saw the bend in the rod and came straight over to get some action shots and as soon as he got within good photo range the hook straightened and out popped the jighead, minus the SP. That was time up for me so i had to go and find Steve and pack it up and head home.
Everyone was camped at the Depot beach campground so i went back in the evening to have a chat to see how the afternoon session went and to find out how the fella's went out on the Ulladulla Kingy grounds. Sat around the campfire for a few hours before heading home to rest up for the Sunday session. Todays forecast was meant to be better than yesterday's but when i arrived at a lazy 8:30am (the flu has really set in now) the wind was much higher than predicted, i was tempted to turn around and go home but everyone else was out there so i thought i better join in, im glad i did because after about an hour it died right down to almost perfect conditions.
The start of the session was looking very similar to yesterday, not much happening for me at all, reports of plenty of good fish kept me keen to keep trying and eventually found a decent patch of snapper in about 19m of water with plenty of baitfish showing on the sounder too. Hooked up to a few snook, wrasse and rock cod before finally landing a snapper which was only 35cm so i sent him back in then the other rod loaded up as well and its twin was also released, then about 10 mins later my first and only keeper for the weekend came in at 51cm.
Then it all went quiet again for me so at about 1:30pm i called it a day and went back in and started the dreaded packup that wraps up another weekend :( I hate Sunday afternoons. Stewart and Luke got the best results, plenty of fish landed and Stewart got a 74cm Snapper, and Luke with a 71cm specimen.
A great weekend on the water, and look forward to the next one.
