Sydney Harbour, 13/11/11 - Snook attack

A 67 cm Snook

November 13
8am-11.45am
High tide 1.71m at 10.19am
Wind:  light SE that turned NE about 11am.  Perfect conditions.

The day began promisingly when the water erupted about 100m offshore; as The Fisherwoman said, it really was boiling as what was probably a school of salmon tore up a large school of bait fish.

Big fish

That inspired us to hit the lures in the hope a few of the fish might stray closer to shore. I selected a hardbody whitebait imitation - not too big ... about 4cm or 5cm.

 On the 7th or 8th cast I got hit about 20m from shore. It headed straight in before realising land was fast approaching.

Too late!

What nice jaws you have

Within a minute I had the biggest Snook I've ever seen flapping round at my feet. It promptly severed the braid and then chucked the lure a good two metres away.
The fish later measured 67cm. By far my personal best.

After the action died down we switched back to bait. There were plenty of Cockney Snapper, Leatherjacket and the odd Rock Cod and Wrasse around so just after the turn of the tide The Fisherwoman switched from green prawn to squid strips.

What is this fish? Oval cod?

Nice flathead

Second cast she pulled in a beautiful fish we are yet to identify - a cod or groper, dark brown with bluesy black spots ... see the photos. Perhaps an Oval Cod?

The very next cast she pulled in a 42cm flathead. Nice.

After that it was all downhill as the little fish took over. All in all an incredible day of fishing. I'll rewind a little here to November 6 - again land-based but this time in Shellcove Bay that separates Kurraba Pt and Cremorne. The water gets deep quite fast and there's a good mix of rocks and sand flat.

The mystery fish

There's some nice rock fishing into the cove and we managed a host of little Cockneys and I landed two Flounder at 28cm and 27cm - dinner with salad!

Prior to that on October 31, we fished the same venue as today and caught a mixed bag of wrasse, parrotfish and Cocknies but the highlight was a Kingfish that screamed in after a large green prawn head I was bringing in on fast retrieve. It took a dive at the last minute, missed, turned side on, literally splashed its tail in frustration and then swum off.

If it had hit the prawn and hooked up, the 2kg-4kg gear I was fishing with was liable to have been minus a lot of line - for good - in a very short space of time. Still in would have been cool to get the bite.

COOKING TIP: Uncertain of how to cook a large Snook, I hit the chat rooms. The tip was smoke it. So we did. Being dedicated trout fisherpeople we have our own portable smoker. So rub some brown sugar and salt into the belly, smoke for about 25-30cms at this size, less if smaller, serve with a nice salad - beautiful.

The flesh is very reminiscent of that of South African smoked cod - and the colour is similar.

COMING SOON: We get back to what we love most - Fly and lure fishing for trout ....