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How would you go about targeting them? I mean where do you go to catch big ones and how do you rig? Can they be caught in fairly shallow water? I found some big ones in 10' sunday. Drifting over a rocky spotty bottom area. Should I have anchored and chummed them or what. Caught what I did on a 3/8 pink head with a 4" gulp new penny. Thanks.

You can find them anywhere from 5 to 50 or even 60 feet of water, with the bigger ones normally being farther offshore. Look for rocks, especially if they have a good current moving over them. You can catch them on anything from artificials to live or cut bait. They, (like every other fish in the ocean), love Gulps. I normally just use a 3/8 ounce jighead with a Gulp, but the Cajun Thunder/gulp combo works as well. I've caught them on spoons, topwaters (in shallow water), crankbaits, jerkbaits, etc.... We've even caught them on plugs trolling for grouper. A lot of people I know consider them trash-fish, but they are excellent table fare, and I never throw back a good keeper sized one. Good Luck!

We went to 30' Saturday and dropped GULP! on a circle hook and 3/4 oz sinker and caught them as long as we wanted. We kept 10 (3 people) and threw back probably 3 times as many. Those and ruby lipped snappers are quite fun on trout tackle.

Reel Cowboy wrote:We went to 30' Saturday and dropped GULP! on a circle hook and 3/4 oz sinker and caught them as long as we wanted. We kept 10 (3 people) and threw back probably 3 times as many. Those and ruby lipped snappers are quite fun on trout tackle.

Is a ruby lipped snapper the same as a Florida Snapper or a Pink Mouth Grunt? If so, yeah they are some real good-eatin. And they inhabit the same waters as the Blackfish (black sea bass).