This is what its all about as anglers gear up for the snapper season.

Its snapper season and with the spring run about to start in our bays, anglers are gearing up in anticipation for thefirst sign of big red to appear. Good runs of fish should begin to enter the bays over the next few weeks and if the lastfew seasons are any indicator, we are set for some serious fishing. Snapper are a popular sport fish that are great on the line and just as good on the table. They have a dogged fight that will see bigger fish pull plenty of line off the reel. Most anglers target these fish with bait, pilchards, cut fish,squid and octopus, just to name a few. In truth snapper are somewhat the scavenger but in saying that they like theirmeals fresh or as close as. While bait fishing is an extremely effective method to target snapper, some anglers prefer the challenge of catching these fish on soft plastics.
Soft plastics have become the big thing over the past few years and the trend is growing as more and more anglers findsuccess using them. In truth it is not that difficult to fish soft plastics for snapper and the ocean swell will oftenwork the plastic for you as the rod is left to sit in the holder.Burly is a key ingredient in snapper success and a good trail will often draw and hold fish in the area. While we presume snapper to be bottom feeders, they will readily free swim up a burly trail so it pays to drift one or two un-weighted baits back where current permits. Working soft plastics mid water in the trail will also have the desired effect. 
Drift fishing is another popular method of finding snapper and works best in calmer conditions. This method allows you to cover more ground and actively seek out the fish instead of waiting for them to come to you. Snapper will often schooland hold on small sections of reef or structure. Once these have been located either by drifting over them or marking them on the sounder, you can drop the pick and get the burly in the water. Other fish will often respond to the burly first, gar, mullet, salmon are just a few and are a great diversion while waiting a run from big red. These lesserspecies, while entertaining also make excellent fresh baits.Depending on where you fish, current and tides will have a varying impact on rigs, baits and prime times to be on thewater. Snapper can be caught at all stages of the tide but the last hour of the run in up to full tide and the first hour of the run out are the easiest. It pays to have a variety of different lead weights to hold baits in stronger current and smaller weights when there is little to none. Snapper can smash a bait like a Mack truck and they can also mouth and nibble it like a mouse. As with most forms of fishing use only as much lead as is needed to hold your bait in position. This goes for soft plastics also, carry a good range of different head weights and sizes to cover a variety of different conditions.

The snapper run is a highly anticipated angling event that has plenty of anglers keen to sample the first of the fish entering our bays. Over the coming weeks I am sure these same anglers will be grinning to the sound of a sizzling drag as big red puts on his annual show that falls around this time every year.