Carrabelle Red Snapper, Gag Grouper, & Underwater Pictures
Moderators: bman, Chalk, Tom Keels
Carrabelle Red Snapper, Gag Grouper, & Underwater Pictures
On Friday, I picked up my boat from Big Bend Marine, in Perry, where I had it serviced. This was just in time to get some old friends together to target red snapper and gag grouper on Saturday.
We departed Carrabelle and went south from East Pass. The water temperature was a balmy 83 degrees, which made me think that the big fish would still be deep. (Does anyone know whether water temperatures or the calendar provide a greater influence on fish behavior? Please share your thoughts.) We were going to one of my best spots north of S Tower. On the way out, we passed small patches sargasso weed and after reaching the 80 foot depths, we started running across many large schools of small flying fish. Maybe the sargasso and flying fish mean that mahi-mahi are still in the area.
At my red snapper hole, of course, we caught red grouper and more red grouper. (I’m not sure how anyone at NOAA could decide that red grouper are being overfished.) Eventually, we put a 10.5 lb., 28” red snapper in the cooler along with a few lane snapper.
The pictures from the underwater camera showed that my snapper hole was holding a lot of snapper. Our success rate, however, showed that the snapper weren’t really hungry or that they couldn’t beat the red grouper to our baits.
Here are some underwater pictures from the deep area:
We put a 25” gag grouper in the cooler after moving around a bit. Then we fished our way back in where we added another gag grouper and a 14.5 lb. 31” red snapper to our haul.
Here are some underwater pictures from the trip in:
For baits, we used frozen LYs and a variety of live baits--sandperch, pinfish, spot tail pinfish, and tomtates. The red snapper were caught on the LYs which were secured to the hook with a little squid.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
We departed Carrabelle and went south from East Pass. The water temperature was a balmy 83 degrees, which made me think that the big fish would still be deep. (Does anyone know whether water temperatures or the calendar provide a greater influence on fish behavior? Please share your thoughts.) We were going to one of my best spots north of S Tower. On the way out, we passed small patches sargasso weed and after reaching the 80 foot depths, we started running across many large schools of small flying fish. Maybe the sargasso and flying fish mean that mahi-mahi are still in the area.
At my red snapper hole, of course, we caught red grouper and more red grouper. (I’m not sure how anyone at NOAA could decide that red grouper are being overfished.) Eventually, we put a 10.5 lb., 28” red snapper in the cooler along with a few lane snapper.
The pictures from the underwater camera showed that my snapper hole was holding a lot of snapper. Our success rate, however, showed that the snapper weren’t really hungry or that they couldn’t beat the red grouper to our baits.
Here are some underwater pictures from the deep area:
We put a 25” gag grouper in the cooler after moving around a bit. Then we fished our way back in where we added another gag grouper and a 14.5 lb. 31” red snapper to our haul.
Here are some underwater pictures from the trip in:
For baits, we used frozen LYs and a variety of live baits--sandperch, pinfish, spot tail pinfish, and tomtates. The red snapper were caught on the LYs which were secured to the hook with a little squid.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Last edited by John21:6 on September 24th, 2023, 6:27 pm, edited 6 times in total.
-
- Posts: 854
- Joined: March 3rd, 2015, 1:09 pm
Re: Carrabelle Red Snapper, Gag Grouper, & Underwater Pictures
Personally I think day length has a bigger effect, but I'm primarily inshore fishing.
Those underwater shots are awesome!
Sent from my Pixel 6 using Tapatalk
Those underwater shots are awesome!
Sent from my Pixel 6 using Tapatalk
Re: Carrabelle Red Snapper, Gag Grouper, & Underwater Pictures
doomtrpr_z71 wrote: ↑September 24th, 2023, 6:36 pm Personally I think day length has a bigger effect, but I'm primarily inshore fishing.
Those underwater shots are awesome!
Thanks. The water out deep is a little murkier than it has been in the past. Maybe there is still a bit of sediment in the water from the hurricane.
Sent from my Pixel 6 using Tapatalk
Re: Carrabelle Red Snapper, Gag Grouper, & Underwater Pictures
Great day! Get the grease hot!
-
- Posts: 103
- Joined: December 15th, 2019, 10:49 am
Re: Carrabelle Red Snapper, Gag Grouper, & Underwater Pictures
Congratulations. Thanks for sharing your experience.
Re: Carrabelle Red Snapper, Gag Grouper, & Underwater Pictures
Thanksslow motion wrote:Congratulations. Thanks for sharing your experience.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
-
- Posts: 9
- Joined: September 15th, 2023, 9:57 am
Re: Carrabelle Red Snapper, Gag Grouper, & Underwater Pictures
We went out Sunday. Pretty much the same area. Did good on gags and a few red snapper. A lot of triggers out there
-
- Posts: 47
- Joined: August 5th, 2013, 6:16 pm
Re: Carrabelle Red Snapper, Gag Grouper, & Underwater Pictures
What is the name of those small striped fish in the picture?
Carrabelle Red Snapper, Gag Grouper, & Underwater Pictures
The small striped baitfish in the underwater photos are tomtates.fishforfun wrote:What is the name of those small striped fish in the picture?
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk