Aldeer.com Forums Alabama Deer Talk AL Fishing Talk Red Snapper

If anyone is considering making a trip out of Orange Beach during this "special" snapper season, you need to go. The snapper fishing is the best I have ever seen in 20 years, and probably the best ever.

It's tough to catch a big fish because you can't keep the 8-15# snapper off the bait long enough for a sow to find it. If you go try a whole fillet off of a 10-12# bonito or king mackeral or a large (like 1# plus) live bait.

A 12" de-boned split mullet is perfect for a big sow.. Also, have you ever seen some of those huge squid they get at Joe Pattis? No small snapper will inhale that. But, you only get one drop if you have triggers or sharks around. Joe P's throws away the almost perfect serious bottom fishing baits everyday.

Some buddies of mine went out of D.I. last Friday about 28 miles and caught an 8 man limit and they said they were culling 12-14 LBers.they had several close to 20 lbs with most being between 15-18 lbs.

Mine didn't average that big, but it was the best average I have ever caught. I've caught a 2 fish limit that weighed over 40#s, and a 4 fish limit that weighed over 60#s. But then all the other small fish brought the overall boat average way down. But this past weekend we caught a limit of 20 fish that weighed over 200#s. That is better than a 10# average, and we've never done that on 20 fish. We couldn't catch any big fish, though we did break a few off. Our biggest fish was only 15#, but we had a mess of them between 10-15#s.

we dove out of dauphin island this past saturday and i will tell you what i saw. between me and 3 others, we dove 10 public spots and on every one were snapper, and bunches of them. we would see small fish then on that same reek full of small fish there would be one or two pearl belly snappers over 25 lbs. other spots we dove would have a large average of 18 lbers and then that would be it. it may be a 100 that big but nothing usually bigger than 5 lbs of the average. the big ones are out there, you just have to wait them out. hope fully i can get back out there and get them before it gets to cold. we did see two that were over 30 lbs but they were always showing up when you where wrestling another fish. oh well, good luck.

I meant to say octopus, they stay on the hook much better. Squid obviously work but just not as hardy.

Question..when was the usual snapper season? Reason I ask is because this isn't the first post about the snappers being huge and "the best" its been in years. Those fish didn't grow 10 pounds in 6 months, and this years hatch wouldn't have made a diff would it? I'm just wondering if its because we're fishing at a time that we're not usually been fishing??

It started out year round, then went to an Apri 21 - October 31st season. Then if I remember correctly, it ran from June 1 - September 30. Last year's was the shortest ever, June 1 - July 25.

Fishing in September and October is usually a little better than it is in July and August.

But, what's making the fishing so good is that the gulf has been closed to snapper fishing for over a year, and all fishing for 6 months (at least the waters off of Alabama). There are more snapper out there than I have seen in my lifetime. In addition, because it has been closed, the fish aren't picky. Snapper will get pretty smart pretty quick. We use to fish long leaders, and drop down in leader size when the fish got tough. But, they haven't seen any hooks in six months, and not many in 14 months. That has made them dumb. Plus, without the fishing pressure, fish have moved around a lot and had time to stack up on spots that usually get fished out pretty quickly. A good private spot will always have good fish. But right now, everything has good fish, at least everything I've fished.

Ok, that makes a little more sense. I just knew that the fish didn't magically grow 10 extra pounds because we haven't fished them in 6months. Wish I could get down there!

It's one of the few little tiny not so bad things that came out of the oil spill. Will never be a good thing, but that's what happens when you give things a break.

Imagine what would happen if Alabama went a year with a doe only season? Same results.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by SnapperSlapper:
It started out year round, then went to an Apri 21 - October 31st season. Then if I remember correctly, it ran from June 1 - September 30. Last year's was the shortest ever, June 1 - July 25.

Fishing in September and October is usually a little better than it is in July and August.

But, what's making the fishing so good is that the gulf has been closed to snapper fishing for over a year, and all fishing for 6 months (at least the waters off of Alabama). There are more snapper out there than I have seen in my lifetime. In addition, because it has been closed, the fish aren't picky. Snapper will get pretty smart pretty quick. We use to fish long leaders, and drop down in leader size when the fish got tough. But, they haven't seen any hooks in six months, and not many in 14 months. That has made them dumb. Plus, without the fishing pressure, fish have moved around a lot and had time to stack up on spots that usually get fished out pretty quickly. A good private spot will always have good fish. But right now, everything has good fish, at least everything I've fished. [/QUOTE

EXACTLY WHAT HE SAID!