Thread: a splash how too: Catch Snapper with soft bait

A lot of the time I find it hard to contribute any content to our wonderful hunting forum as I am fairly new to hunting and only manage 4 or 5 trips in to the bush a year due to my young family and due to the fact I live a million miles away from any deer.
But I do get out fishing more than most, so thought I would show you all how I catch my fish!.

I fish from a 3.4m southern pacific RIB with a 15hp mercury outboard, all up it weights around 110kg and makes for the best single handed launching and landing in any swell.


Once I find a good looking spot on the sounder I head up wind a bit and through the drogue overboard and start to drift.


With softbait fishing you need to have light gear I fish with a shimanno stradic real with 4.5kg braid on a 5-10kg rod.


I use a 20lb fluorocarbon trace that I attach to the braid using a Albright Knot | How to tie the Albright Knot | Fishing Knots


to the end of the trace I tie one of these long line clip things it saves having to retie knots if you want to change hook sizes using a Improved Clinch Knot | How to tie the Improved Clinch Knot | Fishing Knots


And my jig head of choice is a Nitro 1/2oz 5/0


The soft bait I have had the most luck with is a 7inch gulp nuclear chicken (but most will catch fish),
the best way to put the bait onto your hook is push the nose of the bait on to the hook then thread it so the hook comes out the gut flap of the bait


Then push it up so the bait goes up the ribs on the jig head


Spin the bait 180deg so you can then push the hook out the baits back


you are now ready to fish, the best method is to cast in the direction of your drift, let the jig sink to the bottom then give it 3 or 4 flicks with the rod and wind in the slack, then repeat until your boat drifts over your bait then wind in and start over.
Soon your average fish will start to look like this

Nice one Splash! Looking forward to getting back up north and catching some of those big reds again!

Way to go Splash. The young fellah looks real happy.

Nice one Splash

How deep do you find the soft baits effective? Iv only ever caught cod with them but must admit to only using them when i cant catch anything on bait.

Nice post.

Awesome info. Wanna do a swap a hunt for a fish?
I love catching snaps. It is one of the 2 things I would live in the Ni for.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk. So please forgive my sausage fingers!!!

Some nice fish there splash .
Have you tried adding a little green lumo beed (6mm)to your trace ,
proved a positive on my surf casting rig.

Nice, I'm keen on getting into the soft baiting a bit more, did well on in up north (bayof islands) in the past. Im tempted to get a kayak setup and think kayaks and soft baits would be lot of fun

What sounder are you using. We have a 4m IBC with 30hp.

That is a really good "how to".
You have to take into account you live on the Hibiscus Coast so the snaps are going to be good anyway

We went on a charter out of Tauranga recently. Snaps and Terakihi were good on the pillies and squid. The boys using softbaits got nothing but couddas

Originally Posted by TeRei

What sounder are you using. We have a 4m IBC with 30hp.

i just have a cheap garmin sounder attached to a small 12v spotlight battery works well

Originally Posted by sako75

That is a really good "how to".
You have to take into account you live on the Hibiscus Coast so the snaps are going to be good anyway

We went on a charter out of Tauranga recently. Snaps and Terakihi were good on the pillies and squid. The boys using softbaits got nothing but couddas

fishing bait and softbait at the same time never seams to work well.

Originally Posted by R93

Awesome info. Wanna do a swap a hunt for a fish?
I love catching snaps. It is one of the 2 things I would live in the Ni for.

Id love to but my boat is a little small for 2 people

Can you tell us what make and transducer you use i.e. transom fixed? Thanks.

Originally Posted by TeRei

Can you tell us what make and transducer you use i.e. transom fixed? Thanks.

its just the transom mount one that came with the sounder Products - Burnsco Marine and Leisure