Memorial Weekend Pandemonium—Red Snapper, Red Grouper, a Hook in the Hand
Posted: May 26th, 2025, 4:02 pm
Carrabelle, May 25, 2025. We launched at the Carrabelle River around 7 am which was early enough to get one of the few remaining parking spots at the ramp. We headed south and fished for cigar minnows to supplement our frozen bait. Then we headed beyond S Tower and a few feet deeper than 100’ to a spot labeled on my GPS as BigRS for big red snapper.
Soon as our baits were down, fish were attacking our baits. The fish were hitting everything whether it be live bait, frozen bait, or a slow pitch jig. We were happy to release some of the smaller keepers in hopes of catching larger ones.
The guy using the jig was so successful that he caught three things at one time—two red grouper and his own hand. OUCH!! Usually the pain comes before the success, not after. The picture below is what I call “Before the Pain.” It features a 100 gram Johnny’s Jig Torpedo All Glow jig, hand-dipped in unicorn poo by Johnny himself, which was attached to two greedy grouper.
Here’s a picture that one could title “After the Pain, Crying etc., and Tetanus Shot.”
Learn from the mistakes of others because you will not live long enough to make them all yourself. Get a secure grip on your fish with some sort of fish gripper before trying to remove those crazy sharp jig hooks, or any hook, from a big fish. Don’t get hooked on fishing in the wrong way.
We left BigRS because we were out for red snapper, not so much for red grouper. At our next spot, we reached our limit of red grouper and then a few minutes later, I caught a personal best 35 inch red grouper that had to be released.
I was determined to catch a red snapper. Thinking that the fish would be higher in the water column, I dropped my bait to the bottom and reeled it up about 20 to 25 feet. It wasn’t long before a huge snapper hit. I didn’t bother to take its measurements, but it was long enough to overhang the 28” fillet table by a few inches.
Here are a few underwater photos from where we caught the 35 inch grouper and the biggest red snapper:
Notice the lionfish in between the sponges on the right of the picture above.
The pictures below show some live bottom that we found on the way back to the boat ramp. We didn’t catch anything to keep here except for a strawberry grouper, but we will be back.
Here’s the fish pile at the end of the day.
Soon as our baits were down, fish were attacking our baits. The fish were hitting everything whether it be live bait, frozen bait, or a slow pitch jig. We were happy to release some of the smaller keepers in hopes of catching larger ones.
The guy using the jig was so successful that he caught three things at one time—two red grouper and his own hand. OUCH!! Usually the pain comes before the success, not after. The picture below is what I call “Before the Pain.” It features a 100 gram Johnny’s Jig Torpedo All Glow jig, hand-dipped in unicorn poo by Johnny himself, which was attached to two greedy grouper.
Here’s a picture that one could title “After the Pain, Crying etc., and Tetanus Shot.”
Learn from the mistakes of others because you will not live long enough to make them all yourself. Get a secure grip on your fish with some sort of fish gripper before trying to remove those crazy sharp jig hooks, or any hook, from a big fish. Don’t get hooked on fishing in the wrong way.
We left BigRS because we were out for red snapper, not so much for red grouper. At our next spot, we reached our limit of red grouper and then a few minutes later, I caught a personal best 35 inch red grouper that had to be released.
I was determined to catch a red snapper. Thinking that the fish would be higher in the water column, I dropped my bait to the bottom and reeled it up about 20 to 25 feet. It wasn’t long before a huge snapper hit. I didn’t bother to take its measurements, but it was long enough to overhang the 28” fillet table by a few inches.
Here are a few underwater photos from where we caught the 35 inch grouper and the biggest red snapper:
Notice the lionfish in between the sponges on the right of the picture above.
The pictures below show some live bottom that we found on the way back to the boat ramp. We didn’t catch anything to keep here except for a strawberry grouper, but we will be back.
Here’s the fish pile at the end of the day.
