Climb Aboard Folks, We're Fishing Offshore
...for the coveted American Red Snapper
Take those motion sickness pills if you need 'em...were headed out for a 2 to 3 hour ride offshore 50-75 miles to find some fish!
I could hardly contain myself as I looked over every knot, hook, leader and each link that played a vital part in my fishing gear making the best of this glorious opportunity. Just like every other individual surrounding me, I was poised to take advantage of the small window provided for recreational anglers to catch and harvest American Red Snapper (ARS)!
The chatter aboard was focused on who might have the hot hand today and what the lowest length above keeper size we might throw back would be to maximize our efforts. For years, the ARS recreational season was limited to ONLY 3 days each year while certain corporate contracts with the state and feds made a select few rich....Thankfully, regulations were somewhat relaxed this season, but that's a can of worms we won't open right now.
Current regulations as of posting
myFWC.com
Enough with the rhetorical and boring bureaucratic BS....let's fish! After reaching our destination we chummed the waters with cut squid, shrimp and a special chum mix to get the snapper to rise of the bottom. A heavy weight (4oz+) was needed to drop your bait the 90+ feet to the bottom before cranking the reel a few times to suspend the bait in the water column and BAM!
my buddy Tim's 1st ARS!
Tim also ended up with the BIGGEST ARS of the day...lucky SOB. At least Ryan and I were hooked up at the same time he caught it, the bite was on fire!
Our poles were doubling over non-stop but the snappers weren't the only things biting. There were plenty of by-catches like this Almaco Jack...
The Red Grouper came through in a wave and seemed to eat every bait dropped for about an hour.
I even dropped an artificial squid jig to make it interesting and it worked just as well as live/cut bait if not better!
Too bad this species is OVER-REGULATED!!!... We easily caught over 100 keeper-plus sized fish (but only kept our limit) in a couple hours before heading in. They say the species is heavily regulated because they're depleted...LIES!
Thanks for stopping by...get out there and enjoy life!
until next time...
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In case you missed the last post in this series you can see it here: Adventures in Florida #16: Rainbow Springs State Park
