Former AFL legend and passionate angler Glen Jakovich shared this fantastic footage with Recfishwest of a pink snapper spawning aggregation in Cockburn Sound.
“We drove a bit closer and I could see the pink fins breaking the surface and knew straight away what we were seeing,” said Glen. “I killed the motor and carefully set the drift to not disturb the school, but to get us close enough to have a look.
“It was just majestic to see, we did a couple of drifts and left them doing their thing. We see them schooling up like this every year and it never gets tired. How good is it having this on our doorstep?”
Glen has a lifelong passion for fishing in Cockburn Sound growing up fishing there and says he chased snapper in the Sound pretty hard as a younger bloke.
“I haven’t fished for them for years now, though,” said Glen, who says he’s more than happy catching bread and butter species in the sound these days. ‘But it’s just great to see and shows just how important the sound is.”
The safe and accessible waters of Cockburn Sound supports the largest known spawning aggregation of pink snapper in the West Coast Bioregion – the full moon around October usually marks the peak spawning period for these great fish. The Sound also supports a host of other popular species like squid, herring, whiting, garfish and crabs.
Save Cockburn Sound
This is why Recfishwest and the fishing community drove the introduction an extension of snapper spawning closures in the Sound and the Snapper Guardians community stocking program.
This is also why Recfishwet has joined a new community -based coalition of groups with a strong attachment to the sound and the recreational activities it supports called Save Cockburn Sound (SCS).
SCS exists to celebrate the great experiences Cockburn Sound provides and to ensure the Sound and all the social and well-being benefits it gives us is protected from excessive industrial development.
Recfishwest strongly encourages everyone who has a passion for fishing in Western Australia to join SCS in helping to protect this unique and treasured environment right on Perth’s doorstep so we can ensure this great footage like Jako’s does not become a memory in the future.
Find out more about Save Cockburn Sound here.
