I had a couple of soft hits, but Muz 
was soon hooked up to a big fish 
that screamed off in the current 
taking a lot of line.  I quickly pulled 
up to take a few photos of the 
bent Lanza Slipknot, his favourite 
new softbait rod.  The fish was 
stubborn and wouldn’t come up 
easily, putting on a great fight in 
about 20m.  After five or so minutes, 
I netted a prime conditioned 
fish of about 6-7kg.  It was ikied 
and then put on ice in the bin.
We were both stoked to see the 
first fish of that quality to come on 
board so soon from arriving and 
thought they must be here and on 
the chew today!  We had drifted 
several hundred metres from the 
mark, so we headed back and keen 
to drop on the same spot again.
This time both Muz and I failed 
to get any strikes, so we kept 
drifting, returning to the reef and 
dropping the lures over multiple 
attempts, trying to get interest.  It 
seemed the first fish was a false 
start, and it was proving to be 
a difficult morning of fishing.
SCENT KEY
Interestingly, Muzza was getting 
more interest using Gulp baits which 
had more scent from the pottles they 
are stored in.  I switched to a Z-Man 
Red Bone 7” with some added 
Secret Sauce and instantly got more 
interest and bagged a fat 3kg fish.
“Muz was soon hooked up 
to a big fish that screamed 
off in the current taking a 
lot of line.  I quickly pulled 
up to take a few photos of 
the bent Lanza Slipknot, his 
favourite new softbait rod.” 
Another heavy snapper at the 
graveyard comes into the net.
Large pieces of mussel shell 
spill from the snapper upon 
hitting the deck, which they 
have been feeding on so 
green lures work well.
Feature
32  FISHING IN GODZONE MAGAZINE

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