I’m no red snapper expert but on Friday I took the kids offshore for some bottom fishing aboard our 24 Whaler the Bare Necessities. Although it was red snapper opening day I had multiple goals in mind : #1) try to put them each of them on a red snapper, 2) catch an assortment of hardbottom fish, 3) explore the 21 fathom area and try to develop some hardbottom numbers and 4) find some ledge numbers for further exploration for the upcoming lobster season.
We left early at the crack of 8 am…..(no worries)
Running the ditch with neighbor Nathan and my son Casey plus…….
(jig on a small rod in case we find a tripletail)
my daughter Kaitlyn (she’s a trooper)
The night before I had put together a game plan with 3 different areas to stop and play/develop. First stop would be 25 miles offshore at the Intruder Airplane area, 2nd stop would be further offshore in the 21 Fathom area, and third would be to look over the Capo area.
Seas were small with a southerly breeze. On the way out there were boats on all the inshore wrecks I have numbers for plus boats on some other spots I had no idea what was there. Twenty-five miles offshore at the Intruder spot in 100 feet I was surprised (but maybe should not have been….) with 7 boats in the small area-some anchored, but most drifting. I had been here once before and had marked good structure but the boats were on these numbers too. I asked one boat captain if we could drift in with them and they didn’t mind and gave us the thumbs up (thank you). We did a few drifts using squid, dead sardines and 6 inch live mullet but didn’t pick up anything but would reel up with bare hooks indicating small fish (nothing hit the mullet). I began to wonder if live mullet make good red snapper baits? Another boat came up and started drifting with us too and at that point I decided I wanted a bit more privacy so we headed east to the 21 Bottom area.
At 21 Fathoms (~120 ft) we slowly drove around a bit before finding our first number. In the distance a significant storm was approaching so we kept an eye on it. Drifting over this number the kids started picking up beeliners and triggers. About the third drift I grabbed a rod and was lucky enough to catch a nice red at 15 lbs.
Lake Atlantic (before the storm…..)
After boating a few more beeliners, porgys & triggers I drove around the area some more marking different spots and fishing some of them. A couple were obvious ledges and we fished those catching more beeliners and triggers. Once we finished our beeliner limit we kept at it picking up more triggers and porgys (but no red snapper).
Nathan
Having fun with chicken rigs
(storm in background)
At one point we had a remora and a legal cobia swim up and off the stern we saw a LARGE shark at about 9 feet long. The shark circled the stern a bit but we didn’t really make out what species (except that it was large) probably on account off trying to entice the cobia. Trying to motivate the cobia we threw it whole squid, cut squid, and sardines plus a jig and a rubber eel but it wasn’t interested in anything and left. In the back of my mind I was thinking about putting together a bow-fishing rig like I used to shoot rough fish in Wisconsin as a kid……
Stopping to take a break and re-confirm the fish count
Iced down
Casey with a porgy
Beautiful fish
The kids caught a lot of fish and we had pretty good weather despite it picking up a bit later. The ocean was beautiful & alive with mola molas, leatherback and loggerhead turtles and with the exception of my not finding enough red snapper for the kids to tangle with it was an excellent day on the water with some good kids!
A not so serious moment…..
Hoo Yah!!
Brian
