SNAPPER

We catch plenty of mutton, vermillion and yellow eye snapper – which are red- but not many true red snappers.  Since it has been illegal to keep any true red snappers caught in Atlantic federal waters for the last 10 years or so, they have made a great come back. We are seeing red snapper on a much more regular basis.  Depending on which area of the region you are fishing out of, you may or may not be in federal or state waters.  State waters extend 3 miles out from the beach and federal waters are from 3 miles on out. We’ve had best success catching red snapper around wrecks in the 250-300ft range in the winter months. Our bait of choice is a live pin fish, but pretty much any other good live bait will work. They will also eat cut bait, but the fish on the live baits are usually much larger and the few that we see are usually in the 15-20lb range.  When we are dropping on the wrecks we like to use 30-50lb tackle with enough weight to hold bottom, and a long 50-80lb mono or flouro leader and 8-0 circle hook. Try to fish the bait as close to the bottom without hanging the wreck. When we are dropping on the wrecks we are not targeting any one fish; when the rod bends over it could be some kind of jack, grouper or snapper, and every now and then we are surprised with a nice true red snapper.