Steve Cooper

PORT Phillip Bay snapper reports are starting to filter through.

The first reports of snapper usually come from anglers fishing offshore from Barwon Heads or Torquay in Bass Strait, which are already happening.

Next are reports of small numbers of snapper off Portsea and Sorrento, which is also happening.

Then follows a trickle of snapper from Mornington to Black Rock. During the past few weeks snapper to 9kg, with most 3-5kg, have been caught along this stretch of Port Phillip Bay.

Not many fish, but enough to send a spark of hope into the heart of a red-blooded snapper aficionado.

The optimum time is usually from mid-October.

Seasoned hands don’t need to be told what they need for snapper fishing, but newcomers to boating and snapper always have plenty of questions.

The most common questions usually focus on the desirability of spending extra dollars on technology in the form of a sonar (depth sounder) and Global Positioning System or GPS.

Will you catch more snapper with a sonar and GPS? The answer is yes - most of the time, perhaps.

Sounders are great value because not only do they reveal any fish that happen to be about your area, they also show the terrain, depth of water and most have water-temperature gauges.

The transducer signal is cone-shaped and most show a 2m diameter window in 7m of water.

It is a narrow window, and because no arches show on your sounder does not necessarily mean there is no snapper.

GPS units offer a sure-fire way to specific marks or way-points where you may have previously caught snapper. They are also the best way to mark the spot you happen to be fishing.

Most anglers will buy units that combine sounder and GPS in one.

In recent years I have used many different makes and models, including Garmin and Lowrance. I now use a Navman 6570, which has been renamed Northstar 657.

Apart from the name change, the only other discernible difference is the buttons have gone from blue to grey.

In price terms, it is a mid-range unit and features things such as maps, tides (based on location) and moon phases.

As with most combination units, this one allows you to have the sounder and GPS on at the same time.

The value of a GPS is manyfold. These units have removed the need for triangulation - sighting up three fixed objects on land to find a mark.

And the map facility shows you where you are on the bay, which can be seriously handy in the middle of the night or in a fog.

GPS technology works by receiving signals from satellites that are then interpreted by the GPS to give you a position calculated as latitude and longitude on the water. This is a measure of distance, not time.

In that regard, one degree equals 60 nautical miles or 111km; one minute equals one nautical mile; and one second equals one-60th of a nautical mile.

As for accuracy, if you can get within casting distance of a mark, you are close enough.

If you are still unsure, start sounding around until you find fish or the terrain you seek.

While GPS units have taken off among snapper enthusiasts, the reality of the technology is that the way-points should only be used as a starting point.

They are not a guarantee for success because snapper tend to move about as they graze the seabed.

Source: Herald Sun