On the ride to Carrabelle, the truck thermometer gave an outside air temperature of 35 degrees. Scared but not deterred by the cold, we continued to Martin Marine where we picked up the boat. While there, we met the crew of Numbers Game. They were loading their boat for an epic adventure, too. Numbers Game, how did you do?
It was so cold when we launched the boat at the Carrabelle River. One guy, wore a $ophisticated camo jacket with a hood that seemed more appropriate for an Alaskan hunting trip than a day on the water in Florida. Another guy wore a bright blue ski mask that would be great for skiing in the arctic or robbing a bank. The rest of us wore jackets but we otherwise looked like normal people.
The conventional wisdom is that the cooler temperatures this time of year drive the red snapper to shallower water. This is why we half-intended to stay in state waters.
Although we had a lot of frozen squid strips and frozen LY’s, the sonar screen showed towering red fuzzy shapes as we sped along a few miles south of East Pass. Most of the time, sonar images like these turn out to be nothing or just weeds or grass. However, in 35’, the sonar screen lit up with tower after tower of red fuzzy shapes right below the boat. We had to stop.
The fuzzy shapes turned out to be schools of cigar minnows, which we caught on a sabiki rig. We also caught a few sandperch on double-hook rigs baited with squid. We stopped again in about 60’ and caught pinfish, pigfish, and a few more sandperch. Live cigar minnows make for great bait, but they don’t stay on the hook as well as the other baits we caught.
Our first stop targeting red snapper was inside state waters not far from our last bait spot. Right away, a decent red snapper that was caught on live bait made it into the cooler. After that, live baits caught red grouper and gag grouper, and the frozen baits caught grunts.
The pictures below show grunts and red grouper on the bottom in state waters.
We got annoyed by catching so many grouper that had to be released, and we decided head well out into federal waters. Once we were on the first federal spot, the water temperature was about 72 degrees, and we were finally warm under clear skies and bright sun. Two of other guys were mostly using live bait and not catching much, but I was catching red snapper and mangrove snapper. The snapper preferred my freezer-burned LYs which were secured to the hook with a little piece of squid. Additionally, we caught most of our fish right on the bottom or close to it. The snapper did not seem to be higher in the water column like in the warmer months.
The guy using slow pitch jigs quickly caught a nice mangrove snapper. Except for that, he was losing jigs left and right. Perhaps he was catching snapper and getting sharked. Fortunately for him, JohnnyJigs’ Black Friday Sale is going on now.
The pictures below are from my visit to JohnnyJigs in Pompano Beach a few weeks ago. The staff there were friendly and helpful in separating me from my $.
Eventually, everyone caught keeper-size red snapper and we made it back to the boat ramp early with our limit of fish.
The big red snapper for the day was about 28” long. Another was close in size.
In between dropping baits to the bottom, I was managing the rod with the GoPro. I just have to see what’s below the boat. Here’s what’s on the bottom at some of my spots in federal water:
The amberjack above followed the GoPro as I lowered it to the bottom.
Here are the fish that made it home:
