# Sand perch versus Snapper



## Nitzey (Oct 9, 2007)

We fished for cigar minnows the other day, and only caught a couple. We saw a tight school on the surface, but they dove when we motored up, and did not stick around if I cut the engine. However, we caught many sand perch (squirrel fish) on sabiki's instead. So, we put the sand perch in a live well, and later used them for bait. I knew grouper loved them, but apparently red snapper do too. I threw a couple out and within 30 seconds caught big snapper, 30". Unfortunately, when we ran out of live sand perch, and then the size of the snappers went down, and we did not catch our limit. 

We saw plenty of cigar minnows on the screen but they were not hungry. Next time I might target sand perch.


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## submariner (Oct 2, 2007)

jack likes them too to eat


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## Nitzey (Oct 9, 2007)

submariner said:


> jack likes them too to eat


Do you mean jack like in amberjack or Jack the chemistry teacher?


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## stc1993 (Nov 23, 2014)

You still got a fine mess of fish. I like trigger fish too. They taste better than the snapper to me.


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## lastcast (Oct 12, 2007)

Everything likes Squirrel fish!


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## OLDBOB (Jan 27, 2013)

Nice tub of filets there.


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## Txs_mde_87 (Feb 7, 2015)

Hooked all my amberjack this weekend on sandperch, regretted only keeping about 8 of them.


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## Shark Sugar (May 26, 2015)

Ruby lips is one of my favorite baits...try it butterflied once the bait dies too...some of my biggest nearshore snapper have came off a butterflied ruby lips

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