They are currently totally protected from any type of harvest. On the Florida Keys, I have a sure-fire method to find fish and make even your first trip out a roaring success. You can catch them around docks. Many products featured on this site were editorially chosen. Mark Brown fishes a variety of spots for red snapper out of Mount Pleasant, South Carolina. Usual maximum is about 20 pounds, although the Red Snapper can rarely run as high as 30 or 40 pounds. Take note of the water depth around these keys. Depending on where you plan to launch, there are numerous small mangrove islands that dot Florida Bay. You can read that article by clicking right here. You will see what I mean when you catch your first one. But however they arrive, they all want one thing--to catch fish;  and mainly what they want to catch is the mangrove snapper (Lutjanus griseus). Mangrove snappers are probably the hardest snapper to catch because they are a lot smarter and they love structure, which will inevitably result in some tangles and hangups during a fight (To that point, if you’re short on tackle and heading out to catch some mangrove, check out West Marine to stock up). Hog snapper, or commonly known as hogfish, belongs to the member of the wrasse family.You can found them in the Gulf and Atlantic waters just around the Florida Keys. As for baits, dead Cigar Minnows, Pilchards or cut fish and squid do well at times, although in heavily fished spots (which most are these days) it will probably be necessary to use live small baitfish to coax bites from Snappers of decent size.
TACKLE AND BAITS: Some Red Snapper spots in fairly shallow water, say up to 50 or 60 feet, permit the use of light ocean tackle, or even heavy spinning and baitcasting tackle. The most productive will be the areas with cover and current that will attract mangrove snapper. Use the lightest leader possible if the water is clear. Nine times out of ten, you will locate a school of hungry mangrove snapper. Drop the bait down just up current of this structure (most frequently either strait down or slightly under the structure you are fishing from). But wear your old clothes.

Using Live bait is the most successful method of catching Mangrove Snapper. When you stop the boat look for movement in the water under the mangroves. He makes his sandballs by mixing sand, peanut butter, and chum bait together with his cut bait in the middle. What the map does not show is that the mangroves are undercut and the water depth drops off from about two feet to sometimes over eight feet under the mangroves.

“There’s a lot of different types of snapper you can fish for,” says Rodger, “But the one thing that’s in common is that they’re all excellent, excellent to eat.” “[We] have every species of snapper right out our front door,” adds Walker, “And not the reef backdoor, but in the canals right behind us.” It’s a quintessential Florida fishing experience and is extremely doable, so here are some of Florida’s snapper secrets. Ron Brooks is an award-winning writer who has written thousands of articles about fishing and published two books. “They’re so accessible,” says Walker, “anybody can yellowtail [with] a couple blocks of chum, a little bit of oats, an anchor, and a fishing pole.” “My favorite way to do it,” says Rodger, “is to get on the reef, chum ‘em like you would in any other situation with dead bait, but then bring the live bait with you because it makes that yellowtail visual, he’s flopping and flipping on the surface, people can see them, and they can throw lures at them.” He goes on to say that “once that fish turns his eye back and decides, ‘I’m gonna eat that live bait,’ it seems like his smarts have gone away, and you can catch some really big fish with the live bait.”, Another type of snapper commonly found in the keys is the mutton snapper. You can catch them in the mangroves. Braid has great abrasion resistance and is very strong. That stud mutton really puts a smile on everybody’s face.”, Rodger’s preferred method for catching mutton snapper is to drop an anchor by a wreck and drop sandballs down to draw them in. It is rare to find them near the surface, but they are frequently found from mid depth down to the bottom. As I have always said, fishing guides are not successful because they know how to fish but rather because they know where to fish. If they’re there, they’re gonna eat.” This gives anglers an advantage because they can use artificial lures (available at West Marine) in addition to live bait. If you use a 1/2″ chunk of cut bait (we used pinfish and ladyfish on this trip) and a 3/0 circle hook, then it’ll be much harder for the smaller snapper to get the bait and hook in their mouth. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited. Off the Peninsular Gulf Coast, however, few Red Snappers are found close enough to shore to merit a one-day effort; most offshore Snappers along that part of the coast are Grays. And while these mangroves are home mainly to the small to medium size fish, even the larger sizes can be found there. Very sharp teeth with upper and lower canines can really hurt if your finger happens to get in the way. The state park there has a launch ramp and we will run north into Florida Bay from the ramp about 3 miles. Many areas require circle hooks by law when fishing for reef fish (which all snapper are considered). Mark “Hollywood” Johnson from FloridaKeysFunFishing.com showing you how to catch keeper-size mangrove snapper when fishing inshore.. This allows the bait to be held directly on the bottom and with a small jig of the rod tip produce a small knocking sound when the sinker knocks into the eye of the hook. I wrote another article on this website that is all about dock fishing. Mangrove snappers are commonly found around oil rigs, wrecks, towers, and mangrove patches. Snapper fishing is a staple of the Florida Keys, and today our experts Scott Walker and Steve Rodger fire up the Mercury Marine motor and head out to catch some, then sit down to give us a rundown on the different types of snapper found in Florida, where to find them, what they like to eat, and how to bring them in. I wrote another article on this website that covers fishing the flats in great detail. They are shaped like most other snappers, display coloring ranging from bronze to grey and have a mouth full of sharp teeth.

Look under the pier/dock/bridge for any areas that the current changes direction slightly, has a rock pile, a hole caused by current or any other structure. Bonnier, MRAA Partner to Promote Certified Dealers, National Marine Electronics Association Announces 2020 Award Winners. The average catch is around 24 inches long and around 3 pounds. techniques, boat, engine, swordfish, into the blue, tip, Saltwater Experience, techniques, boat, tarpon, engine, tip, 2 Quick Tips For Catching Blacktip and Lemon Sharks, How to Set Up Your Anchor Line for Sailfishing in the Keys, Tips for Kingfishing Along the Reef in the Florida Keys, How to Catch Permit in Tough Conditions pt. We won't send you spam. Some bring their own boats while others opt to rent when they arrive. Offshore fishing requires some substantial tackle investments and a relatively large boat. When using these hooks be aware not to use the classic upward jerking motion to set the hook. The stand alone best live bait for inshore snapper is Mud Minnows. Mangrove Snapper (Lutjanus griseus), also known as the Grey Snapper is one of the most popular snapper species and is one of the few that can be caught consistently inshore. Yet Gagliardini is among the best in Marathon in the Florida Keys at deepwater mutton snapper fishing on light tackle.