We’ve all dreamt of catching a 20lb snapper, and for most people growing up, this was the holy grail of fishing—that illustrious 20 pounder. For me, It started with Geoff Thomas’s Snapper Secrets. I couldn’t tell you how many times I watched that video, with Mark Kitteridge and Eric Morman being the benchmark standard for snapper anglers in the 90s and 2000s.
20lb has always been the measure of success for a trophy snapper, thats not up for debate. But there was a time when 30 pounders were not all that uncommon, and growing up reading about 30 pounders in NZ Fishing News and NZ Fisherman before that, they seemed to appear in every other issue. I’ll touch on this in another blog, but the lion’s share of snapper world records was set in the 90s, and these were big fish. Thirty-five pounds or heavier. These days, it’s rare to hear of a men’s or woman’s snapper IGFA World Record broken, And Mark Hemmingway’s all-tackle IGFA record of 17.2kg seems unbreakable, and for most people, thats a solid kingfish!
We still hear of the odd thirty-pound fish caught, but it seems a rarity now, and the last one I’m aware of was by Andre Kassal in the Hauraki Gulf – luckily for us – released to swim another day. Most people I encounter that have caught a 30 pounder, did it years and years ago, if not decades ago.
What would be sad is if one day we woke up and 15lbs became the benchmark for a trophy snapper. But, of course, nobody would enjoy that prospect, and the only people who would be responsible are recreational fishermen. Yes, commercial boats take far more tonnage of fish, but big fish are not their target species – they want smaller fish in the 30-50cm size range.
I must confess I’m no saint and have taken fish over 20lbs and then weighed them for my delight. I now regret killing each fish and the fish that fell just short of the mark, but I am yet to regret releasing a big snapper.
Just pause for a moment and wonder how good the NZ snapper fishery would be, if the thousands of snapper over 70cm or approximately 6kg caught in the last 30 years, were released and not killed. Our fishery would be phenomenal. It is my personal view that there is more snapper in the Hauraki Gulf today than there were 20-30years ago. I base this on anecdotal evidence, and I find it hard not to catch snapper in the Gulf these days. However, I suggest fewer big fish over 20 pounds are available today, as the replacement rate is long and slow. But smaller fish in the 30-45cm range are plentiful and at times in plague proportions, which bodes well for the future. We have to let some of these fish go so that they can grow and grow!
Kina Barrens is a popular buzzword, and having done a lot of scuba diving in the Hauraki Gulf, they sure do exist. It’s not hard to imagine that fewer XXL snapper and fewer crayfish are the leading cause of this growing phenomenon. Unfortunately, I have nothing to back that up scientifically, just my observation from time spent on and under the water. Marine reserves are touted as the saviour. However, with snapper numbers seemingly increasing in the Hauraki Gulf Marine Park. It’s the removal of big fish that we need to be concerned with, not the restricting of areas we can fish, as this will only put more pressure on small fishing areas and, as a consequence, will put more pressure on big fish. I will get more in-depth on marine reserves in another blog and why they are a poor tool for fisheries management.
For a change in the mindset of taking big fish, you must consider why you go fishing. For food? For stress release? Release your inner hunter? For fun? For sport?
Answer that question, and you can then move forward with a positive approach to letting go of big fish. For me, it’s to catch food, release the inner hunter, and, consequently, stress release, and I make no secret that I am selective in what I keep. I fish for food in the first instance but am selective in what I kill to minimise my impact on our respected resource.
I rarely keep snapper smaller than 40cm and always release fish longer than 55cm unless it is mortally wounded. I also have the luxury of being predominantly a lure fisherman, fishing in sub 12 metres of water. Meaning the survival rate of healthy fish is near perfect. I would also like to note that we don’t encounter a lot of snapper under 40cm on Hauraki Gulf Fishing.
My reasons for this approach are simple. First, we don’t catch much fish under 40cm; there is minimal flesh on snapper under 40cm, and I find the taste of small snapper quite bland and watery. So 45 – 55cm is my preferred size, and at this length, I only need to take four fish to feed my family of 4 several times. However, if I kept sub-40cm snapper, I would need my daily limit of seven fish to scrape a respectable feed.
We all want to catch the biggest fish we can for the adrenalin, the thrill of the hunt, and the admiration of our fellow anglers. Whatever your reason. Most of us get a charge for doing it. So, if you’re like me and you go fishing for food and release the inner hunter, means you don’t need to know the dead weight of a big snapper to determine the success of your day. If you are catching the nutrition you need and happen to see a big fish – try releasing it, so we all have a better fishery for tomorrow and the future.
You will never regret releasing a 70cm plus snapper, but you may well regret killing them. We’ve all got a part to play in ensuring a better fishery. Not a sustainable fishery. But a better fishery. And releasing a big fish is a better flex than axing one.
The mega-sized 30 pounds plus fish are sadly all but gone. It’s up to us, and only us, to not let that happen to the 20 pounders.
