Northeast Florida Red Snapper Report

We went snapper fishing again this past weekend. We had a great bite last week at the turtle grounds area about 37 miles off of Mayport so I figured we would trying bottom fishing there again.

Finding live bait was a little tough but we ended up with a decent amount of Cigar Minnows, Sardines and hardtails that we caught with our sabiki rigs at nine mile and EF.

Once at the turtle grounds I immediately noticed that I wasn't getting quite the show of fish of the Furuno fish finder as I was last week. We started fishing anyways and it was much slower. We were able to caught about 2 dozen good size vermillion snapper to 4 pounds but only 1 keeper red snapper at 22 inches. We then moved offshore to the 21 bottom area.

Our first spot was loaded with Amberjack but patience paid off. John Porcella caught a nice 20 pound red snapper and Steve Croix followed it with a 17 pound red snapper. They were only biting on live bait!

Good luck!

Nice Red Snapper


Our red snapper and vermillion snapper catch:

7/19 Bottom Fishing report - Red Snapper!

We went searching for the endangered snapper today. Caught some decent bait at 6 miles and at BB and headed out to 110ft to find some fish. Started fishing at 9am and had a 5 person limit of Red Snapper at 10:30am from 8 to 15 pounds. On top of that we had a nice mango, BIG beeliners and a lot of big jacks. Had a great day. It's a good thing they are shutting snapper down because they sure are hard to find.

Help us stop them from shutting down Snapper fishing!

****Message From Ms. Becky Hogan****

Hello To Everyone:

Most all of you know me through the Mayport Princess, but many of you are also friends and family. Please take 15 minutes out of your week (and try to get at least 5 or 10 other people to do so) to comment on the potential for closing the red snapper fishery for a minimum of 25 years. In some way or another, whether you fish or not, the closing of this fishery will impact all those who live in the states of FL, GA, NC and SC in excess of 8 billion dollars loss of revenue. There will be NO recreational or commercial harvest of red snapper if approved by the Secretary of Commerce, beginning in October 2009 and going at LEAST 25 years!! No fishing in Florida means no tourists dollars (our biggest source of income), no fresh fish (imported farm raised will be on your menus), no one purchasing boats, trailers, fuel, ice, bait, boat insurance, etc. Imagine the trickle down effect from such a massive closing of such a critical species to the fishing industry.

If you are a bottom fishermen in the state of Florida, you know how greatly the red snapper stocks have improved over the past 17 years since the regulations were changed in 1992. However, many environmental lobbyists in Washington, D.C. (paid for by large seafood importers of farmed raised fish) have convinced our Federal government that our red snapper stocks are no longer sustainable at the rate we are fishing them. Sort of like we import our oil (BECAUSE ITS CHEAPER)!! In fact, its EXACTLY the same process. The small businesses account for nothing, and BIG business has all the power to change the laws to improve their bottom dollar.

You have until Aug. 5th to make a comment by logging ontohttp://www.keepoceanfishing.com. I set this web site up for computer dummies like myself, so that you do not have to try and navigate the Federal Register. Click on write a comment and just fill in the blanks and hit send. Your comment will go directly to the appropriate place in the Federal Register. There are over 1000 charter boats who rely on bottom fishing in the state of Florida alone, and your comment WILL MAKE A DIFFERENCE.

THANKS A MILLION FOR TAKING THE TIME TO WRITE YOUR LETTER TO LET OUR NEW SECRETARY COMMERCE (Gary Locke) KNOW WHAT AN ECONOMIC DISASTER THIS WILL HAVE BECAUSE THE FISHERMEN THEMSELVES DO NOT HAVE MILLIONS OF DOLLARS TO LOBBY FOR THEIR RIGHT TO FISH. DO THIS TODAY, NOT TOMORROW AS SO MANY LIVELIHOODS DEPEND ON YOU.

Becky Hogan
Owner
Mayport Princess

We had a great day bottom fishing yesterday. We found our best bait 6 miles offmayport - cigars, sardines and some live squid. We couldn't find any decent sized baits from BB on out.

We had an easy limit of snapper to 15#, 4 or 5 mangrove sbaooer's to 7#, a lane snapper, scamp and plenty of jumbo 3-4# beeliners. We brought home a 40# amberjack for the smoker but there were thousands more of those if we wanted them. They were inhaling the big vermillion snapper if we didn't get them up fast enough. I topped it off with a nice African Pompano as well. We had a cobia at the boat but couldn't get him to eat.

The snapper bite was the best in about 115ft east of mayport near the Turtle Grounds. We caught the bigger fish in 90ft near the Harm's Ledge area. Big beeliners, jacks, pompano and a couple mangos from 125ft. The mangrove snapper were biting much better on 30# leaders with small hooks.

Great day!

Trolling out, Bottom fishing in

Unless you like to kingfish (which I don't) now is the time to bottom fish off Northeast Florida. Mangrove snapper, red snapper and vermillion snapper are all over live bottom from 90-160ft of water. Light line, live bait fished at elton bottom right now should do great for the mangroves. Keep a pitch bait ready for a Cobia too!

Red snapper are anywhere from 60-180ft with some scamps and gag grouper mixed in. Watch out for the afternoon thunderstorms!