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.

Whether it is worth it is going to vary person to person based on motivations.I am a meat man and was an offshore fishing fool for about five years before they started really reducing limits.We bottom fished almost exclusively and were quite good at it. Won some tournaments and there were very very few trips we did not cover all the trip expenses, plus some, as well as take home plenty of filets to eat.I quit when it got to the point we were killing dozens of fish a day we could not legally keep and the limit/season restrictions got to big a pain to deal with.Took my wife over to the port I used to fish from last year and stopped by the cleaning stations to see what was happening. When I saw most of the fish being cleaned were what we used to use for bait I knew I made the right decision..

2, u kidding right? If you go fishing one time a year the limit should be 10 at least. I got happy a few months ago when they extended the season thinking I might even try this offshore thing. But to to catch 2 no way! Waste my money elsewhere.

We just bought a 23t cape horn! It definitely was not for the snapper, but my son loves fishing. Not sure how long we will keep it, and it will sit pretty much through hunting season. Those times we can get out and catch snapper, etc. make it worth it. I honestly got tired of waiting on others to want to go in their boats. I am off all summer and plan to go quite a bit.
We caught quite a few 20-25lb snapper last year, and really could of targeted other species as well. My wife loves the island life, so it was a win/win.

I have done a couple Venice Tuna trips, and trust me it is a meat haul, especially if you hit it right and the mahi are on the rips. You get snapper, mahi, and tuna. Venice is a blast and worth the drive and stay. your looking around 400.00 per person if you have 6 people. I will post a video of one of our trips from october this weekend.

If someone here has some turkeys left gobbling id be willing to trade out a snapper/fishing trip here in MS for my son a bird!

I'm gonna pull my bay boat down to Venice next year and give it a go. Hit the close rigs (weather cooperates) and then target redfish is the plan

They are catching Red Snapper regularly off the Gulf pier during the summer. With all the artificial structure if you dont catch 500-1000 pounds of fish in any weather or sea conditions your CAPTAIN SUCKS. We fished from flat to 10 plus foot seas and have always loaded the boat. Now it is harder with differing limits but the reality in our Gulf you should be sick of catching fish or you need a different boat.

What we typically caught on Chippers Clipper.
[img]http://imgur.com/a/LoCMONd[/img]

i like the way you think but you can keep the wasabi. ill just take some eel sauce and soy sauce.

You just have to love it. And that doesn't matter if you live 4, 7 hrs or 30 minutes. But it's no different from deer hunting. It ain't much fun if ain't catching fish. But when the feds choke you to death with false data you have to adapt and turn your attention to other catches. And try to get the bang out of your hard earned fishin hobby money.

I love it

👆👆

You go with Capt Jab and I guarantee it's worth it. I don't go to not catch fish.

JC that 's a nice catch but yet a dated photo from a trip with Chip. He has been gone from Zeke's for years and years

I sold my boat and live 30 minutes away, not worth it to me especially now that they just reduced the trigger limits too. Much easier to go with a buddy and let him have the upkeep of an offshore boat.

I have a few spots west of Pensacola where the triggers are so thick you can’t catch anything else. Ridiculous


BradB, what size snapper are you talking about that you used to catch?

This! I've wanted to do a tuna trip for 2 years now

Worth every minute of it. If any of you need a captain for your snapper or tuna trips let me know! I know a guy...

We went today and caught a few trigger and beeliners. Once the turkeys quit gobbling I could go everyday. Who fishes because it's worth the money? Who owns a boat because it's a good investment? Its FUN!! I fish all summer and have enough fish to eat all through the winter. It takes a lot of people to eat 2 fillets off of a 25# snapper.