# Your go to rig/bait for BIG snapper??



## wmflyfisher (Jan 17, 2008)

I’m taking my bosses out Friday. Going to try a couple new spots 20 or so miles out. I know how to catch em but want to hear your preferred method for catching the big boys.

I usually just fish cigars off the bottom 5-10ft and do pretty well. How do you target them higher in the water column?? I’ve heard people free line cigars but how is this possible when the currents running?

Any tips would be greatly appreciated.


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## cody&ryand (Oct 3, 2007)

Free line any kind of bait. Put bait on jig head


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## The Pitt (Apr 7, 2012)

Big bait, big fish. Fish lightest weight to get straight under the boat, 30-40' down. Bigger fish are more willing to move further off the reef. If you can't get anything to come up to your bait go a little deeper until you start getting into them. Can't get any bites, go lighter leaders and smaller baits.


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## lastcast (Oct 12, 2007)

Cast in front of the boat and let it drift back.


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## kingfish501 (Oct 7, 2007)

3-4 oz egg weigh above a swivel.18 inches of flouro with a 3/0 or 4/0 red circle hook. Whole or butterflied 10-12 inch silver mullet or a small ladyfish cut in half at a 45°angle...keeps the small ARS off the hook.


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## jgraham154 (Jul 15, 2008)

Butterflied hard tail


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## Bluecape (Sep 29, 2016)

I have caught several big snapper this year and the main thing I have been doing different is not letting a single bait go to the bottom. Use your bottom machine to determine how high up the fish are and drop a bait to just above them. We just do a count method while thumbing the spool. Example: If we are in 80ft of water I have them count to five and stop. Wait about a minute and if you don't get a bite drop five more, wait again, no bite, drop again. The big snapper hang out at the top of the school. If you drop a bait all the way to the bottom you rile up the smaller snapper and they start swarming chasing the bait and they can dart to a bait faster than the big snapper. By doing this in the last ten days we have caught two over 16, a 15 and too many to count in the 10-12 pound range. Bait doesn't seem to matter, live cigar minnow, chunk of cut bonita, a piece of bonita and a dead cigar minnow, a big chunk of squid, all have caught bigger snapper for us. I do use a longer flouro leader, 4-6ft and am using 40#.


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## Capt. Zach Baker (Oct 3, 2016)

Utilize your bottom machine. Fish at the top of where you’re marking fish. So depending on your reel set up (you should know how long it takes you approx to reach the bottom) do a count in seconds towards the marked fish. 

Ex. If I know it takes me 10 seconds to drop 60 ft to the bottom, and I’m marking fish at 40 ft; you will want to drop for approx 7 seconds.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## hjorgan (Sep 30, 2007)

Pretty much what bluecape and Capt Zack say. I will add that we anchor if the current is tough. And put out a chum bag. Especially late in the season (boy how long has it been since we could say that?) when the fish have seen a bunch of hooks, and probably have been hooked if they are bigguns. A big filet of bobo has been the ticket. I've had 3 snapper right at or over 30 lbs this year come on the boat. They are out there.


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## Splittine (Nov 24, 2007)

Jig head, strip Bonita, fish it like a flat line. Hang on.


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## Catchemall (May 8, 2018)

Some really good advice from some obviously experienced Captains. As hjorgan said, on some spots, they've seen big leads and heavy leaders yank their smaller kinfolk toward the sky and are a tad shy of normal bottom fishing tactics. We've been catching more big ones free lining a big bait and chumming just like black snapper fishing. A lot of times you get to watch them eat your bait which just doubles the fun.


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## JD7.62 (Feb 13, 2008)

I like to chum and freeline baits. Weve had a LOT of current this year though it has slacked off recently. However if I cant chum or the bite is tough, a well full of BIG sand perch and bank seabass is my go to.


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## gator75 (Aug 11, 2016)

Half of a bonito fillet. 1-2lb slab of bait. smaller ones will peck at it, but the big one will come and eat it. Higher in the water column.


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## wmflyfisher (Jan 17, 2008)

Excellent info folks. I’ll try to utilize some of those tactics tomorrow.

What’s your method for chumming?


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## Boardfeet (Sep 27, 2007)

One of the guys on a recent trip caught a 20# Snapper +/- on a piece of Fish bite about the size of your thumb nail.


Unlikely but it happened.


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## gulfsnapperking (May 18, 2018)

cody&ryand said:


> Free line any kind of bait. Put bait on jig head


Pretty much exactly what we do and we usually always catch.


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## NoMoSurf (Oct 2, 2007)

All of the big ones that I have ever caught were on flat lines baited with big live Ruby Reds. Intended for Kings


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## Sea-r-cy (Oct 3, 2007)

You never know what they want, or where in the water column they are. Most of the time I catch Jumbo's on a "pork chop" fresh dead bait fish right on the bottom.


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## cody&ryand (Oct 3, 2007)

Sea-r-cy said:


> You never know what they want, or where in the water column they are. Most of the time I catch Jumbo's on a "pork chop" fresh dead bait fish right on the bottom.


Very good point every time I go out I try to have every kind of bait I can think of. Live cigars herring pinfish hard tails ruby red lips squirrel fish dead cigars squid Bonita boston mackerel pogies. Some think it is overkill but i always come back with fish. Knock on wood. And this year alone i have caught well over a dozen fish over 15 pounds biggest being 23 and some change but i plan to bust the 25# mark this week. And yes I have pictures to prove it. Most were caught in less then 100 ft of water.


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## Boat-Dude (Sep 24, 2011)

^^^^^ fricken awesome!!!


Fishing the pier it's hard to break old habits, Live bait is key, even a limpy non active bait gets thrown away for a frisky bait that takes off like a rocket when it hits the water. I love big LY's my fav bait, the only thing that don't eat them is jelly fish.


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## 2RC's II (Feb 2, 2012)

cody&ryand said:


> Very good point every time I go out I try to have every kind of bait I can think of. Live cigars herring pinfish hard tails ruby red lips squirrel fish dead cigars squid Bonita boston mackerel pogies. Some think it is overkill but i always come back with fish. Knock on wood. And this year alone i have caught well over a dozen fish over 15 pounds biggest being 23 and some change but i plan to bust the 25# mark this week. And yes I have pictures to prove it. Most were caught in less then 100 ft of water.


Nephew's teasing the boat dude. Awesome. We gonna break 25 Monday.


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## 192 (Oct 1, 2007)

Eel and a ling rod, April/May. Colder water sweetens the meat.


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## Catchin Hell (Oct 9, 2007)

Big chunk of bonita fished high in the water column.


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## jim t (Sep 30, 2007)

Chum them up, knocker rig (1/2 ounce weight) with a live cigar minnow or big shrimp high in the water column

Jim


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## chaps (Aug 31, 2009)

We had them chummed up yesterday. 30# leader, very light knocker or no weight , a small piece of bait, similar in size to Chumm pieces. Freeline your bait in to the Chumm slick and keep an eye on your sonar.


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## Sea-r-cy (Oct 3, 2007)

cody&ryand said:


> Very good point every time I go out I try to have every kind of bait I can think of. Live cigars herring pinfish hard tails ruby red lips squirrel fish dead cigars squid Bonita boston mackerel pogies. Some think it is overkill but i always come back with fish. Knock on wood. And this year alone i have caught well over a dozen fish over 15 pounds biggest being 23 and some change but i plan to bust the 25# mark this week. And yes I have pictures to prove it. Most were caught in less then 100 ft of water.



We finally broke the 30# mark this year. Friend Freddy got this one while fishing my boat. Not sure of the bait.


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## Walton County (Aug 23, 2016)

Big snappers for us usually come on cig's fished up in the water column or whole Bostons.

Back when I kayak fished hard, big snappers always seemed to eat flat lined squirrel fish.


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## sealark (Sep 27, 2007)

I like a piece of stainless 5/16 X 5 ft long.


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## jspooney (Oct 2, 2007)

sealark said:


> I like a piece of stainless 5/16 X 5 ft long.


By far my absolute favorite bait. The most effective, too.


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## FenderBender (Oct 2, 2007)

5 feet long? What kind of cannons are y'all toting down there? I thought I had a big gun...


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## jspooney (Oct 2, 2007)

FenderBender said:


> 5 feet long? What kind of cannons are y'all toting down there? I thought I had a big gun...


My 48" Rife has a 60" shaft.


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## Rickpcfl (Nov 12, 2013)

FenderBender said:


> 5 feet long? What kind of cannons are y'all toting down there? I thought I had a big gun...


Sealark travels to DC once a year and bottles up some of the hot air from the politicians. He uses it to propel his 5 foot spear. One 30 minute senate session supplies enough super powered air to last a full year.


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## k-p (Oct 7, 2009)

I use 125lb mono and break them off regularly because they swallow the baits with circle hooks and it rubs across their teeth under locked down drag. Slab bonito will get them and 80 to 100lb braid because they'll easily take it into the wreck. Almost like you're shark fishing. Don't mind sharing because there's too many of these big sows and I don't like them because they're pushing out the other fish. Not very good table fare and I would much rather have a good sized 20" for eating than a damn fat scaley sow. Haven't gotten any 30lbers yet but get 20 to 25s regularly but it's alarming that they're getting into the 30s now.


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## Cynical (Apr 26, 2008)

cody&ryand said:


> Very good point every time I go out I try to have every kind of bait I can think of. Live cigars herring pinfish hard tails ruby red lips squirrel fish dead cigars squid Bonita boston mackerel pogies. Some think it is overkill but i always come back with fish. Knock on wood. And this year alone i have caught well over a dozen fish over 15 pounds biggest being 23 and some change but i plan to bust the 25# mark this week. And yes I have pictures to prove it. Most were caught in less then 100 ft of water.


Nice fish either way but it sure looks like the picture on the left has been modified. Check out the guys' hand sizes compared to everything else.


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## Boat-Dude (Sep 24, 2011)

Cynical said:


> Nice fish either way but it sure looks like the picture on the left has been modified. Check out the guys' hand sizes compared to everything else.



Don't be so Cynical.


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## hebegb again (Oct 9, 2017)

The bigguns this year (24" and 30") for me were a live cig or live ruby. We were drifting live bottom so I was 5 to 10ft off the bottom. On a wreck, usually they are higher up in colum. 

50 or 80lb flouro carolina rig is what I used


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## WeathermanTN (Oct 3, 2014)

Learn to read your bottom machine; when you find a group of fish off the structure, drop to them. I cheat and use a Shimano Tekota with line counter, and had the drags upgraded, so when I tell folks “fish at 45 feet”, they can put the baits on them. I also use a Rhodan trolling motor on my 29’ cat, so we can hold on the fish. Peace Marvel, legendary Venice guide who was really nice to me gave me this tip years ago - bury your circle hook in a chunk of Bonita as big as your fist. Drop it to the elevated fish, and wait. When small snapper peck at the bait, the big ones get interested, and they will shove the smaller fish aside and engulf the Bonita. If I don’t have Bonita, a big (12-14”) Northern mackerel ipwill work, it it is not nearly as tough as Bonita with the hide on.


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## cody&ryand (Oct 3, 2007)

Cynical said:


> Nice fish either way but it sure looks like the picture on the left has been modified. Check out the guys' hand sizes compared to everything else.


Hahaha promise picture has not been edited


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## perdidochas (Jul 21, 2009)

k-p said:


> I use 125lb mono and break them off regularly because they swallow the baits with circle hooks and it rubs across their teeth under locked down drag. Slab bonito will get them and 80 to 100lb braid because they'll easily take it into the wreck. Almost like you're shark fishing. Don't mind sharing because there's too many of these big sows and I don't like them because they're pushing out the other fish. Not very good table fare and I would much rather have a good sized 20" for eating than a damn fat scaley sow. Haven't gotten any 30lbers yet but get 20 to 25s regularly but it's alarming that they're getting into the 30s now.


I think it's great that they are getting bigger. Means that they are able to produce more red snapper, and maybe soon things can normalize so that snapper season isn't so short.


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## 2RC's II (Feb 2, 2012)

k-p said:


> I use 125lb mono and break them off regularly because they swallow the baits with circle hooks and it rubs across their teeth under locked down drag. Slab bonito will get them and 80 to 100lb braid because they'll easily take it into the wreck. Almost like you're shark fishing. Don't mind sharing because there's too many of these big sows and I don't like them because they're pushing out the other fish. Not very good table fare and I would much rather have a good sized 20" for eating than a damn fat scaley sow. Haven't gotten any 30lbers yet but get 20 to 25s regularly but it's alarming that they're getting into the 30s now.


100 percent disagree with not very good yable fair for 20 plus fish.


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## 2RC's II (Feb 2, 2012)

Cynical said:


> Nice fish either way but it sure looks like the picture on the left has been modified. Check out the guys' hand sizes compared to everything else.


Haters gonna gate.


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