Common names: Reds, Reddies, Squire, Pinkies, Awesome, Tasty
Identifying features: Snapper are a stocky fish with a large forehead. They are pink thru to red in colour and are covered with blue incandescent spots.

Size: Snapper in Australia can grow to well over a metre in length and up to 20kg in weight. The current Australian record for Snapper is 18.4kg which was caught in Port Adelaide in South Australia.

Lifecycle: Squire (juvenile snapper) are found in inlets and bays often over mud and seagrass. Adults are generally found ‘outside' in water between 5 and 200m over mud, sand or near reefs. Both the males and females mature around size which is 27cm in total length making them between 2-3 years of age. They are a fairly long living fish with some specimens being aged at 25 years old. As the growth rates of Snapper are highly variable this fish could have been anywhere from between 70cm and 110cm.

Diet: Snapper are opportunistic scavengers which eat a wide range of small bait fish as well a number of cephlapods including squid and cuttlefish. When baitfishing for squid you can use a variety of baits including: pilchards, garfish, salmon fillets, whiting, yackas, squid, octopus or garfish.

Distribution: Snapper are found in the Indo-Pacific region including Japan, the Philippines, India, Indonesia, New Zealand and of course Australia. In Sydney harbour we have plenty of snapper but most of them tend to be in ‘squire' (juvenile) stage. A good Snapper for Sydney harbour is anything around the kilogram mark but these are few and far between.

Eating Qualities: Snapper are a fantastic eating fish and hard to beat on the BBQ. One thing to remember though is that the smaller snapper (30cm-50cm) are defiantly better eating so why not release the big ones to fight another day.
If you are lucky enough to have Snapper on the menu in the near future i would suggest trying to cook it the following way.
1. Place baking paper on a baking tray
2. Stack thin slices of potato, tomato, capers and olives on the tray. Sprinkle with oregano. Bake for 40 minutes.
3. Drizzle the fish in oil and wrap with foil. Cook on the bbq.
4. Place the cooked fish onto of the baked goodies and present with lemon.

Fishing techniques: Everyone knows about the tried and tested heavy burleying and baiting technique so instead i thought i would talk about the very exciting technique of soft plastic fishing for Snapper.

Plastic of choice- So in terms of plastic selection for snapper it is very hard to go past the 5 or 7 inch Gulp jerkshad. The size of the jerkshad will be dependent on the size of the bait fish where you are fishing as well as the size of available fish. In regards to colour i would be trying the following. Nuclear chicken, blue pepper neon, curried chicken, pilchard, watermelon neon.

Size- So you basically want the plastic to waft down as naturally as possible so the hook size will not change but the weight of the jig head will be determined by things such as tide and current.
I would match the 5 inch jerkshads with a 3/0 and the 7 inch with a 5/0. Interns of weight it could be anything for 1/8 oz to 3 oz.

Technique- The technique is not rocket science. I do it as follows:
1. Cast it to where i want it
2. Close the bail arm and let it sink (most of the time they grab it when its sinking)
3. Retrieve it whatever jerking/ sinking action you like. The action i use is very similar to when i squid....... 2 quick jigs up. Then let it sink. REPEAT