 April 15th Red Snapper season opened up in State waters, but the winds were still blowing too hard to make it out. But for the past few days, Mother Nature decided to give us a big break, and it’s been perfect with variable winds and temperatures hovering around 80 degrees. I called a few of my clients that have been holding out for better conditions, and I said let’s go bottom bumping! I loaded up the boat and we hit the water. This past Saturday my crew was some young guys from the Navy base who just got transferred here; they wanted to try their luck on the Sheepshead run, but when we arrived at the spot, we found out that the bite was almost non-existent.
I looked toward the gulf and noticed that it was calm, and suggested that we go out and try for some Red Snapper. Josh and the crew were all about it, so I dropped the hammer on the throttle and we made our way to a well-known public wreck just offshore. The Paradise Hole is a very large area of natural bottom about 6 ½ miles offshore. As soon as we reached it, I got on my numbers, and the bottom machine lit up. This was going to be fun. Now, keep in mind that for this trip, I didn’t have any offshore tackle with me, just my Sheepshead gear which consists of four Penn 5500’ss spooled with 30lb Ultra- Braid Spiderwire and four CVL 400 Shimano Corvalus’s spooled with the same line.
I figured if these rods could handle 4 – 8 lb Sheepshead, then surely they can handle 4 –8 lb Red Snapper, but if we hook up with a big daddy Snapper then we’d have to improvise. I had to change out my hooks on these rigs, so I put on some # 5 – 6 Gamakatsu circle hooks for Snapper. So with 30lb pound Spiderwire Ultra Braid as my main line and 30lb – 40lb mono as my leader, we began our drift and began hooking up right away. Let me tell you, if you have never tried fishing for Red Snapper with light tackle, give it a try! Not only is it fun, you will learn to let your rod and reel do the work for you and you will also learn how to work a fish. While fishing this area for a good 2 ½ hours, we boated our limit of Red Snapper along with a few nice Mingos (Vermillion Snapper) and a few medium Triggerfish. The fishing was great and my crew from the Navy (who had never fished saltwater before) had a blast.
Tuesday’s trip was a repeat trip; Mark books me four or so times a year and this time he wanted to try his luck on some Red Snapper since the season had just begun. Again, Mother Nature gave us a break, with even better conditions than on Saturday. The seas were under a foot and the winds again were perfect. I headed to my honey hole that was near Saturday’s expedition, and again I started marking fish. This time I put out the anchor and started chumming, and let me tell you if you have never seen hundreds of red snapper swimming up near the surface it’ a very cool sight. Again I brought out the light tackle, but I also had some big tackle with me for some bigger baits just in case we started getting broke off and needed to step up our tackle. The bite was on fire and we boated our limit in a few hours along with a mix bag of Mingos. After we bottom-fished for a few hours, we hit the beaches for some Pompano and Spanish mackerel, but the bite there was not as productive as the snapper bite. We fished the beach looking for a ling (Cobia) for a while, and tossing out jigs hoping for a strike by a tasty Pompano, but they seemed indifferent to our offerings. No sour grapes here, as we still had our limit of Red Snapper and some Mingos in the box.
Well, as you can see, spring fishing is finally here, and it is hot!
Coming in a little closer to shore, the Speck bite on the flats has started to pick up and next week it should really start to get good with the temperatures around 80 degrees the water temperatures will start to be where they should be. Also, the inshore Redfish bite has been really good on a few of my favorite docks, and I’ve also been catching a few Spanish mackerel in the bay while fishing for Specks.
I’ve got a big tournament this weekend with the famous Fishing Chix, so wish my lady anglers luck! I’ll post a report on Sunday.
Here’s wishing everyone tight lines.
Capt. John
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