# Final Red Snap trip - Reef Building and Fishing



## markw4321 (Oct 4, 2007)

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As my final red snapper fishing trip this year decided to combine some work with some pleasure. 

Headed out towards the pass on Monday morning pulling a raft barge (converted pontoon boat) with a load of permitted chicken coops on it. Chicken coops and barge belong to a friend, mycontribution to the reef building effort was that I volunteered to supply the tow vessel for the day. 

Cleared the pass around 8 a.m. making around 8kts and was greeted by calm seas and a perfect day offshore for reef building. After a long ride to the permitted reef area, we offloaded the coops on two separate reef sites and then set about catching a quick limit of red snapper.Decided to head to a private spot that I had built in Feb 2008 that I knew was holding some nice fish. 

Catching our quick two man limit of nice sized snapper was no problem and we topped off the red snapper limit with a trigger and mingo. 

After the fishing portion of the trip the tow back in was much faster due to the empty barge. Back in the pass around 3 p.m. 

Included below are some pictures of the coops being offloaded, the ride back in towing the barge and the fish caught. 

Overall, a great way to end the snapper season . Caught a limit of nice snapper and built reef fish habitat for the future. 

Mark W out


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## JoeZ (Sep 30, 2007)

:clap

Good job on both fronts there.


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## atlantacapt (Oct 2, 2007)

don't those coops have to be chained together? how did you get them off the barge without Capsizing?


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## markw4321 (Oct 4, 2007)

> *atlantacapt (8/11/2009)*don't those coops have to be chained together? how did you get them off the barge without Capsizing?


Chains are there. barge is 26 ft. Push them to back and no problem with tipping.

Mark W


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## atlantacapt (Oct 2, 2007)

cool deal...


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## seanmclemore (Aug 20, 2008)

u forgot to mention that this deployment may not be 100% private because of the charter boats showing an awful lot of interest in the barges location at all times. kinda rediculous that some of these captains cant help but zap those of us putting our hard earned time and $$$ in to this. 

its ok, like mark, i to have one hell of a good radar and i have a running list of the charter boats that have followed all to close my entire day of deployments....my grandfather always told me....karma's a biatch captains, and....

whats good for the goose is good for the gander


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## younghooker (Oct 7, 2007)

we've putout more than 100 chicken coop spots last 10 years .. Ivan got some of 'em.. but not spending $$$ since we've got a bunch of loadedspotswith short season/limits unrealistic especially with overpopulation of snappers... I think its better to put 'em out in the off season (winter) to avoid being detected.... too many boats out there now.. :nonono


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## markw4321 (Oct 4, 2007)

> *younghooker (8/11/2009)*we've putout more than 100 chicken coop spots last 10 years .. Ivan got some of 'em.. but not spending $$$ since we've got a bunch of loadedspotswith short season/limits unrealistic especially with overpopulation of snappers... I think its better to put 'em out in the off season (winter) to avoid being detected.... too many boats out there now.. :nonono


Yea -winter is better no doubt , but when you got coops upon coops ready to be deployed. deployment becomesa year round effort...

Also, you make a strong point with respect to existing spots being covered up with fish,reef fish regulations (shortened seasons) and the costto deploy a reef in terms of time and money. 

It could be considereda viscious cycle...

Federal fishery managers continue toshorten seasons due to their science which they say indicates snapper populations are down.

A shortened red snapper seasonresults in less interest fromsnapper fisherman like me in spending the time, energy and the money necessary to deploy reefs, becausethere is a two fish limit when the season is open and you can't catch and keepsnapper foralmost 10 months of the year anyway.

As a result of lack of interest in the fishery, less artificial reefs are deployed and therefore there is less artificial reef habitat out there to growa larger red snapper bio mass...

Mark W


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## angus_cow_doctor (Apr 13, 2009)

I still say that the ultimate goal of the knuckleheads in charge of creel limits is to force all of us to buy fish from the commercial guys so the government can make more tax revenue. It is social engineering at its best....


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## DreamWeaver21 (Oct 3, 2007)

Who do I have to make friends with to use that barge?:toast

I have been taking them out on a boat and throwing them over but it would be way easier to load them on a barge and tow it out.


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