South-east Queensland snapper specialist Will Kitching grafted out a tough eight-fish bag with his father this week, hooked a small black marlin on a pilchard he'd just floated down on snapper gear, and walked viewers through the boat-to-freezer routine he believes is the single biggest factor in eating quality.
The session, fished in 40 to 60 metres of water off the Sunshine Coast, started cleanly. The Kitchings' first drop produced a quality fish for his father within minutes of pulling up.
"It goes to show," Kitching said as the fish came over the side, "if you get a couple of things right, if you just float your bait down slowly and use the right technique, you're always in with the chance with the snapper."
After a few drifts producing only a venus tuskfish — kept and eaten — Kitching's pilchard was eaten on the drop by a snapper with a very hard pull.
"That smashed it, too. Just on the drop, floating it down. Still going. It's a good fish, whatever it is."
His preferred eating size, he told viewers, lands in a particular window. "Around that 50-70 cm size just seem to be extremely juicy and just a really nice thickness to cook as well. So we love this size. That is absolute beauty."
The fishing pattern matched what he has been preaching all year for the south-east coast — small isolated shows on a lump or a rough patch will hold fish, even when there is no balled-up bait. "Sometimes there can just be a good fish holding on it. It's slower fishing because you're not just dropping straight into a big show and hooking up. You sort of have to work the area a little bit."
The bite slowed dramatically through the middle of the morning, prompting the move out to 60 metres and the day's strangest hook-up. As Kitching floated a pilchard down the water column on 20-pound leader, something hit it on the drop and started peeling line. Within seconds, a small black marlin was up on top.
"It is a marlin. It is a marlin. This isn't going to end well on 20 lb," he said as the fish jumped, before it inevitably bit him off. "20 lb leader, that was never going to go well. What is that about? If you're fishing for them, you wouldn't hook one."
He told viewers it was the second time he had hooked a marlin in exactly that way over the past few years.
The morning's quietest stretch was where Kitching used his Snapper Snapper Rig for the first time on camera — three 5/0 hooks ganged together on 220-pound assist cord with a Lumo squid skirt. It produced one of the better fish of the day on its first drop.
"That's the first drop with that Snapper Snapper Rig," he said. "This one absolutely smashed it."
The eighth snapper came on the literal last drop after the bite had died completely.
"I literally said, 'This is my last drop. I either get one or I don't get one, but we're going home.' And bugger me, I got one."
"As soon as we brain-spike them, their heart beats for a few more minutes, then we'll get our bait knife out, an old filleting knife here, and we will bleed them straight away," he said. "We do that with all fish now, from whiting up to our big mackerel and snapper. So we think that makes a really big difference."
He stressed two non-negotiables on the home end: never rinse fillets in fresh water, and freeze in vacuum-sealed bags. "Never touch your fillets with fresh water. Don't rinse them under the tap. That's going to take away the flavour, and it's also going to change the texture."