# Wow, no red snapper



## Nitzey (Oct 9, 2007)

My wife and I went out Sunday for my one day in Florida federal waters. I primarily went to my favorite spot for red snapper, a public spot 16 miles from The Pass. We got there at noon, admittedly a poor time based on past experience. However, we caught zero red snapper, and had no kings, amberjack or cobia either. What the ? This has been so productive over the past 7 or so years that I have fished it. For some reason the fish finder did not work that day but that is not a major factor. Usually snapper roam around out there and no specific spot is required. 

So, we moved in a bit to bridge rubble and caught two black snapper. Barracuda were patrolling there and hit a bait I just dropped over the side, flew through the air twenty feet and kept on going. Spectacular but I am glad he did not get hooked.


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## Jason (Oct 2, 2007)

Nice fish regardless!!! All the big snappers coming in so they are going extinct again!!!


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## JD7.62 (Feb 13, 2008)

With a monster mangrove like that who needs red snapper?!


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## Smitty81 (Sep 19, 2012)

Nice fish. We couldnt find a red snapper on Saturday either. We fished hard for 7 hours over public and non-public numbers and got one rs between 4 guys. Live, frozen and jigs, tried everything but struck out. Oh but we did have to release a monster gag ( that wouldn't revive and likely became shark food) and a keeper size AJ. Slightly frustrating when seeing all the snapper at the cleaning table and in reports!


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## barefootin (Jul 28, 2008)

That is a nice one fish!


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## Steel Hooked (Jun 29, 2009)

Get your fish finder fixed, there's plenty out there! Granted, the public numbers in state waters are getting a lot of pressure & will get even more now that the Federal derby is over.


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## Nitzey (Oct 9, 2007)

Smitty81 said:


> Nice fish. We couldnt find a red snapper on Saturday either. We fished hard for 7 hours over public and non-public numbers and got one rs between 4 guys. Live, frozen and jigs, tried everything but struck out. Oh but we did have to release a monster gag ( that wouldn't revive and likely became shark food) and a keeper size AJ. Slightly frustrating when seeing all the snapper at the cleaning table and in reports!


That is really disappointing. I wonder how this could happen? Lionfish invasion?


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## chad403 (Apr 20, 2008)

Well the current was ripping and the didn't seem to attack the bait Saturday. Our limit was tough.


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## fishsticker (Jan 11, 2009)

I'll trade a limit of snapper 10x over a couple nice mangroves. Nice fish.


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## evacuee (Oct 16, 2007)

Nitzey said:


> That is really disappointing. I wonder how this could happen? Lionfish invasion?


 So far, posters have blamed lionfish and drones for not catching ERS, but no one ever questions technique. We left at 8, got a three person limit of ERS, three jacks and vermillion snapper on rotten bait and were back in for lunch. Other guys cleaning fish at Bahia Mar had even bigger fish than we had and left abut the same time. We have more red snapper in the freezer now than ever before and have yet to leave state waters. The ERS are out there in big numbers and are good sized. We need the damn government to get realistic and open the season much more. Nice black snapper, though.


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## SoCal619 (Nov 18, 2011)

Don't know how much difference it makes in regards to technique but we had major difficulty over the past few days gettin snapper to eat our live baits so we decided to butterfly em and it immediately turned on. This happened everyday we fished last week and this past Thurs and Sun.


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## Smitty81 (Sep 19, 2012)

evacuee said:


> So far, posters have blamed lionfish and drones for not catching ERS, but no one ever questions technique. We left at 8, got a three person limit of ERS, three jacks and vermillion snapper on rotten bait and were back in for lunch. Other guys cleaning fish at Bahia Mar had even bigger fish than we had and left abut the same time. We have more red snapper in the freezer now than ever before and have yet to leave state waters. The ERS are out there in big numbers and are good sized. We need the damn government to get realistic and open the season much more. Nice black snapper, though.


I am not blaming anything. I am just saying I was disappointed in my day because I will not have another opportunity to go fishing for a while. I have been catching RS my entire life and don't think the issue is with my technique. However, I do think intense pressure in a short amount of time negatively effects the RS bite.


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## WhyMe (Apr 21, 2013)

Nice report. Great fish.
WhyMe 
Mako my Dayo


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## sniperpeeps (Mar 5, 2011)

Smitty81 said:


> . However, I do think intense pressure in a short amount of time negatively effects the RS bite.


I agree with this. I fish only private spots for snapper, however some are more private than others. There is definitely a difference in how aggressively they bite at spots that have seen more pressure vs spots that I have not hit yet or have only hit once or twice. Sometimes if they won't eat our regular bottom rigs I will free line a live cig with a small piece of split shot about 4' up the leader to help get it down. They will usually bite that when they won't bite anything else. Sometimes they hit better on artificials also. My thinking is that if they have been seeing cigar minnows all season, sometimes changing it up a bit can make a big difference.


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## Benw86 (Aug 16, 2011)

We've got a 5 man limit every time we have been out so far (6 times) with the exception of one trip and we got side tracked on a mahi bite, and on every trip we have been coming through the pass by 12 or 1. Bait was tough a few times and caught them on rotten frozen bait from last year! All have been in shallow water 60- 100 ft. Went out to 165 ft one time and wound up coming back to state waters. All on live bottom.


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