Florida just announced a 40-day red snapper season. Alabama's probably will be similar, I'd have to think.

Given the short seasons, the length limits, and if you live 4+ hours from the Gulf - is it worth it to you for the expense involved to drive down, stay, and fish for snapper?

I realize you can also combo, with a good captain, for maybe some grouper, beeliners, cobia or other stuff, too.

Going in June to LA. Told the captain we wanted a meat haul trip. We'll be targeting mangroves, cobia and blackfin. He doesn't think it will be too hard to fill our red snapper limit as "by catch", provided the season is open. I wouldn't make the trip alone for just red snapper.

It's 7.5 hours from my door. I hope it's worth it.

We fish the gulf both offshore and inshore quite a bit. We target species such as king, tuna, wahoo, dolphin, almaco jacks, scamp, cobia, etc... On our way in, we stop and pick up our limit of snapper. I wouldn't drive down just for snapper. If you can find Mangrove snapper, they are just as good eating and you can keep five per person.

If I lived within 3-4 hours, and had a boat or a good captain, then a trip like you described, Peach, would be fine.

Driving 6-7 hours or more and hoping the weather is good, and the fish bite, and it all comes together, and then if it doesn't you say "Eh, well, that's fishing" is horsechit to me. I'm not doing that for hope and fun. I want meat if I'm heading down there. A trip like you describe sounds cool.

Of course, I'm the same with hunting. I ain't going for hope and whimsy. I want meat on the tailgate.

i've got 3 trips planned this summer with my boat. Looking forward to each and every one of them.

the limits suck. A buddy and I rode to a spot 12 miles out last year, both caught our 2 in 2 drops. Was done in less than a few minutes and rode back in.

That's going to be our primary target. We can keep 10/person and there will be 5 of us fishing. Anything on top of the snapper will be lagniappe, although he (the captain) didn't sound interested in stopping with a limit of mangroves. From that point it sounded like we're going to find a limit of something else. I anticipate having some worn out boys on the ride in.

But like Clem said, that can all change with a 15-20kt wind.

In other news, NOAA has given all 5 gulf states the ability to set their own limits for state and federal waters for the next two years. This is a huge deal that will be a win for states rights if allowed beyond 2019.

Hell yeah it’s worth it.

Not to me

What is “worth it”?

Financially?

No. You can go to publix and buy snapper cheaper than you can go catch it. (Just like buying ground beef vs all the costs of deer hunting)

The actual fishing is some of my favorite days of the year, so yeah, it’s worth it

All 20 or so minutes of it to catch 2 snapper after a 3+ hour drive pulling a boat?

We will go Thursday through Sunday two trips.

I’ll snapper fish Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

One trip we are doing Thursday through Tuesday, so I might take a day off from early morning fishing

I enjoy all of it, the ride, the catching the fish, listening to good music, the ride back in

It’s actually nice to get back early and clean them and get the women to Robinson island

Not worth it for me.

I’d rather inshore fish.
Really, I’d rather stay home and fish Gville.

hell yeah it’s worth it.

That's pretty much it. I've been going down for the last 5 years, or so, and we usually bring back 2 full bags of fish apiece, including the RS. It's more about the enjoyment and camaraderie than the cost vs. benefit. The Feds have screwed it up for the little guys while allowing the commercial Chinese boats to set offshore and get their fill.

This is an archaic argument. Even when limits were higher on all fish, It was never an economic break-even deal to go offshore. Even if you do the Cajun kill everything trip, still not a wash.
It's the same argument as killing 1-2 deer per year and asking is it worth it.
IT IS ABSOLUTELY WORTH IT....IF YOU CAN AFFORD IT AND YOU ENJOY IT...THAT'S ALL THAT MATTERS! And if you get some fish for the family, count it as a bonus not the measure of the trip's success.

And ...not a lot of Chinese nationals hold reef fish permits and/or snapper quota....we've created this monster ourselves without any foreigner's hacking the system.

It's not worth it for me for just 1-2 deer a year, either. My point of hunting or fishing and basis of success is to kill something or catch something, not go for boat rides or walks in the woods without seeing anything.

Kansas non-resident tag is $555 this year. Cost of going would be another $1,000 at least. That's $1,500 for one buck and maybe a doe. That's fuc*king stupid. Kentucky's the same way. The cost v. benefit most definitely has to factor into the equation.


I'm glad some of y'all enjoy spending a lot of time and money to take boat rides with friends and catch a couple of fish. It helps keep the economy going.

It has nothing to do with the cost, everything to do with the experience. If we based our time outdoors in terms of return on investment, no one would hunt deer. My bucket list is a tuna trip. I'm going to board the boat with a quart of wasabi, and a gallon of soy sauce.

It is absolutely worth it. Granted the last few years we have mostly just caught red snapper when the season lined up with another trip we were doing i.e.overnighting at the rigs, daytime swordfishing, or doing some deep dropping.

That said, with the longer season I hope we get a chance to spend one day just targeting big snappers. I like to fill the livewell up and hop around and hit 10-12 spots in day and try to get one or 2 real nice fish off each. We've done this in the past and end up with a really nice grade of snappers and some misc. stuff to throw in the box as well.