Nathan lands a whopper

Nathan Brown with his giant snapper caught off rocks near Albany.

Albany fisherman Nathan Brown has landed the fish of a lifetime while fishing off the rocks near Albany.

He landed the monster snapper while fishing with mates on April 5.

The snapper measured 112cm and weighed in at almost 16kg, just shy of the 18.4kg Australian record.

Although the fish wasn’t the Australian record, it is likely that it is the biggest snapper ever caught off the rocks in Australia.

Snapper are a prized fish to many Australian anglers and catching big snapper is not easy.

It is an achievement for any angler to land a snapper from the rocks, let alone anything over 5kg.

So when a fish of nearly 16kg surfaced at the edge of the rocks you can imagine the sense of awe experienced by the group as they hurried to land the enormous fish.

“I can’t describe the feeling of when I caught it,” Mr Brown said.

His mates had caught a few big snapper that morning and he thought to himself: “This just isn’t fair, when am I going to hook one?”

At roughly 12pm his rod finally buckled over and the rest is history.

Mr Brown, Jacob Crispe and a couple of other mates landed five snapper for the day, and were busted off five or six times.

“If it wasn’t for the 100lb leader I was using I would have lost the fish,” Mr Brown said.

Click here to read the full article at www.getfishing.com.au

Do you have a photo of a big fish you’ve caught near Albany? We’d like to share it with our readers. Email your photos and a short description, along with your contact details, to subsdesk@albanyadvertiser.com.