I went out from Dauphin Island with some family a couple of weeks ago. I told them that the Gulf is just like Lake Martin - full of 12-14" fish.

We probably caught 60 snapper and got 2 that were barely over 16". We didn't go out but 15 miles, but there must have been 100 other boats that also didn't go any further than that. It was a calm day, but it still beat me up and I took days to get over it. That was likely my final trip; good luck to all of you!

Have owned a 28 foot Offshore boat for 18 years. Caught a LOT of Reef Fish through the years out of Destin and Fort Morgan. Boat hasn't been Offshore this year and is for sale. I'm 66 and all the Prep./Effort it takes to do it just ain't worth it any more....I'm over it. Have circled back to my young days with Branch Minners and set-hooks on th' Creek....a WHOLE LOT easier and still fun!!

Giving up fishing all together, or going to stick to inshore. I like chasing reds and flounder better anyway.

I can't stay away from it. Something about passing the lighthouse and heading towards those ships makes me feel like all is right in the world.

But... using a dehooker 250 times on 14" snapper will make it all wrong again lol. I won't give up off shore reef fishing but I won't be fishing those 20 mile spots again. I'll be going 40 from now on and just catch beeliners when we get back to those reefs

Last time I was snapper fishing was 8 years ago and we friggin hammered em. Big fish too. What could happen that quickly to ruin it?

People throwing back 10-12lb fish all day to try to catch something bigger. Just feeding the porpoises and sharks.

MAYBE if they are hurt but 10-12 lb fish can get away from porpoises and sharks all day long. If you've ever dove a reef before you would see this. Sharks don't even try to feed on them. It's the ones being reeled in that the porpoises and sharks feed on. I've been diving while guys in the boat fished. 99% of the fish they threw back swam right back down to the reef and were fine. They don't die like a lot of people say they do. Every once in a while one gets foul hooked in the gills, or a hook gets deep but since everyone started using circle hooks it rarely happens.

That's what I've seen anyways. Heck I watched one 14-16" snapper get caught 3 times in a row.

I do agree that spot lock has a lot to do with it too. People don't realize how bad they are killing the fishing on a spot when they drift over it like some do. They pull fish off the spot. Especially if someone hooks up and has to fight a fish for a few minutes. Those fish follow those baits, or a fish being caught. After 4-5 drifts most of the fish are spread out 200' around the reef and are just swimming back to the reef. Snapper are school feeders too. Once you get a few caught and they all start feeding you can really turn the bite on. A lot of times you won't catch those bigger sows until a frenzy starts. That's why it's important to keep baits in the water. Get that bite turned on and keep them feeding. And stay over the spot.

Diving a spot while a couple of boats are in it will tell you a lot.

I went out for the first time in two years Sunday. Since the season was open I insisted on at least trying to put a few red snapper in the boat. We were running from OB to the steps so there were plenty of public spots in 120-170feet which is where I usually target decent sized snapper. Out of 8 spots we tried fishing(pyramids and such) we not only didn’t get a bite we didn’t even mark fish. We headed on out to the tile grounds and did okay despite my buddy having forgotten the power cables for the electric reels. We hit an old public spot in 365 feet on the way in and caught two reds off it. One short and one 18” along with a snowy grouper. I feel like I should not be catching these species in the same location and especially not undersized red snapper there.

That is puzzling Mdees

Same problem as freshwater fishing and hunting these days -> too many people

And ffs.

Most of them don’t eat the fish or game. Kill and waste mostly.

We went offshore again today. Caught a 7 man limit of snapper but no big ones. Biggest was maybe 12 lbs. half the keepers were 18" fish. Plenty of trigger caught. It hurts my heart so to throw those back. And did good on beeliners again. We had to go 40 miles south of fort Morgan to get those snapper though.

Is it possible that there has been a die off similar to what happens in areas of overpopulated deer? Some kind of fish fungus or something? I don't know if that is even possible with fish spread all over the gulf.

Well. I can tell
You. We got a limit yesterday diving again of big ones.
6/8 came off public spots. Just West of the ships. Shot
2 over 22 on one pyramid. But there wasn’t anymore fish.
We dive a private spot and another boat ran up on us.
It was someone we knew. I can’t answer if we got it as a run over
Or what but he said they been fishing it for 20 years. It’s had the most
Fish I’ve seen on a spot this year. Small mediums and big ones. Along
With blacks.

It's really puzzling to me country. We are marking fish in some spots. But it's like the bigger fish just don't eat if they are there like you say they are. I even made up some 6' leaders thinking maybe they were there and just leader shy. Didn't seem to help. Tried live bate today too. Didn't see a difference at all

Three of the snapper had hooks/leaders in there mouth. Did not see the amount of fish again for that one spot.
Did see some small schools though. We did 12 separate dives total. To get the eight fish. The last couple spots we let some
Shooters swim since we had the limit already. I will say the leaders they had in there mouth were super light.
We also dove a rig. It ha an 18lber on it we could have shot easily. There was two other people fishing the rig.
There were catching 10 inch red snappers every cast.

Did get a limit of flounders too.

I haven't dove in 20 years but you make me want to get back into it.