Sounds like I am not the only one having a bad run of luck in the snapper front gary, just got home from fishing Whiritoa my son did bloody well for his first time on a surfcaster he got a small kahawai and got good bites through out the day I got one almighty snapper hit on my rod and that was the only excitement i got all day was to see the fin nor buckle over with two good hard bucks only for fish to let go and send the rod flinging hard back in the rod holder and caused it to bounce around bought line in bait was still there but a fair few tentacles missing off the pink and white octy skirt I was using ironically my son had exactly the same octy skirt on his line too but I let him use the penn 850 and I took the shimano (I think the shimano is cursed) mate of mine turned up to fish the dusk with me and he got nothing either he reckoned it was unusual for the fish not to start hitting like they normally do. better luck next time I guess.