I have been snapper fishing 30 years. I've commercial fished, been a deckhand on charters, and recreational fished. I a lot of "private spots". On these private spots, I used to be able to catch a limit of red snapper with ease. Not just a limit, but usually around a 17lb average. Frozen pogeys, store bought snapper rigs... it was easy. We throw back anything under about 12 lbs. but the last 2 years it's been tough. I mean we can scratch a limit out, but it's mostly barely keeper size fish. We don't go every weekend. Really about 4 times a year usually.

I think it's declining because everyone's sonar systems are improving. And the ability to ping boats from afar. People can drive close to your spot, see it, mark it, and never come off plane. There are no private spots anymore. Everyone's spots are getting fished hard every weekend. Especially the ones 20 miles and in. I guess we are just going to have to run offshore 40 miles to catch quality fish like we used to.

Are you guys seeing the same thing at your private spots?

I saw this coming back in 2016 when I gave it up. I spent thousands putting coops out 25 to 30 miles and could do whay your talking about anytime. About 2 yrs ago a buddy called and asked me for a few numbers and I gave him 6 of the best I had. He said there were boats all over but 1 one of them and it didn't have a keeper on it. Way too many boats out there now and what everybody thought couldn't happen is happening.

We just go 30 miles offshore to catch them now.

Peach I think that's what I'm gonna start doing.

We dive the 25 miles and stuff in. We have a group of us.
We normally have no issue getting our fish 18 plus lbs. this year been a struggle bus. I can tell you how many times in twenty years we have shot fish under 10 lbs to make a limit but this year we’ve done it multiple just to scratch a limit.

Any idea why it's so tough this year?

Youtube, Facebook, etc, etc. Lots of folks after them jokers nowadays.

Crappie I've fished for snapper for 32 years. There has always been a lot of folks after them. Now there is more habitat and stricter creel limits. This has been a change in the last couple of years.

I will also say that we caught beeliner and trigger in places I have never caught them before. And I mean a ton of them. We could have limited out on beeliner at a big public spot. That population seems to be thriving.

I agree with the habitat but there's way more boats out there now than ever. If divers are having a hard time then it's not just that they're not biting.

Last two years have been awful fishing. All the fish are small. I think sonar, spot lock, and popularity all play a factor into it.

This!

Too many folks catching them.

Fishing out of Orange Beach is tough. Dauphin island is a little easier to catch quality fish, but it’s getting tough and quick..

Guys... we have been on a quota for how many years now? The number of fishing being caught really hasn't changed. We caught more fish (as a whole) when there wasn't a quota. The increase in boats the last 5 years doesn't mean we've caught more fish per se. More pressure? Definitely. I think it is more that there are no safe havens (private spots) within 25 miles anymore. Sonar and spot lock I think are the two biggest factors. Next time I go I'm running 40 miles and see if it makes a difference. I'll let yall know.

I've seen the same thing the past 2 years. Think it is worse this year. No problem getting limits but no big fish. In 6 trips offshore, I think we have caught maybe 2 over 10lbs. Live bait, dead bait doesnt matter.

2020 strikes again. I think everyone's a Catfisherman now too 🤪

How far out are yall going?

Sharks blaming it on sharks and porpoises. We need to reduce the predator #s dramatically

Maybe there are too many fish from all of the over the top regulations. They either can’t compete to get big, or more likely, you can’t get time for a big one to take your bait because there are so many little ones attacking it. Just trying to think outside the box.

My guess is same as the ones mentioned. When the weekend warrior couldn’t hold over a spot to fish but with the push of a button he can.
Smack boats wrecking the inshore stuff. I really don’t know. We are not seeing the numbers of fish from what we dive. Mostly public and some semi private. We get em. But it takes all day.
I can’t wait till pressure is off and we can dive that shallow stuff off ft Morgan. Just need everyone else to get in deer hunting mode.

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.

Well. I think it’s the most fun you can have with your clothes on.

Luckily we have a group of three to five that always dive together and
Have for years and years.

Here's some Jax Snapper fishermen right here.

https://x.com/USCGSoutheast/status/1809991974507700495

Fished a wreck Wednesday afternoon 20 miles south of OB. 95 ft of water. Could let down 25 ft and catch the snapper. 4 person limit really fast, no bigs but nice keepers. Stop back by that wreck on the way out Thursday morning, marked fish but didnt catch but one short. Went on out a little further and caught the limit. Sometimes even though your marking a lot of fish, they just dont want to eat. We caught our biggest snapper, about 15lbs on a flatline with a dead cigar minnow.

Where were yall fishing out of?

Leave out of Perdido Pass

Buddy you better not get caught with snapper in AL waters on Wednesday or Thursday. Unless I'm missing something that's illegal as heck.

If I am not mistaken they made snapper legal last week for the 4th. I know when I looked on my app it said it was Thursday.

That would make sense. Yeah I just looked and it was open all week. Filespinner was all legal!

Went this past weekend 4 man limit on snapper both days plus some mangroves one lane. Got on a few small mahi as well good trip water was perfect. Panama City

Dolphin... it's a dolphin. sorry that's a pet peeve of mine. We aren't in Hawaii.

And don't call a porpoise a dolphin... and no bananas on the boat. Not even banana bread or a yellow laffy taffy.

Also don't yell there's a ling if you see a shark or vice versa.

Dang... I guess I got a lot of pet peeves. I apologize lol.

There are ZERO porpoises in the Gulf of Mexico but there are 6 species of dolphins.

Not if you are from here. They are porpoises. Dolphins are fish. Little dolphins are called chicken dolphins. Not mahi. Big males are called bull dolphin. porpoises are mammals.

Don’t be that guy. Porpoises and bottle nose dolphins (also a mammal) are a totally different species.

It has nothing to do with “being from here.” You think you’re the only one that likes getting salty? LMMFAO

I didn't mean to come across as that guy. I was just saying that is what people here call them. I didn't say it was correct. But if you grew up fishing offshore around here, everyone calls them porpoises so they don't get it confused with the fish dolphin. No one called a dolphin a mahi until people on fishing shows and restaurants started calling it that. That is the Hawaiin name. They call it that because people would get it confused with the mammal dolphin in restaurants. Most boats down here, if you are offshore, and you say look there's a dolphin... someone is gonna grab a rod to pitch at it. And then when they see you're talking about a mammal dolphin, they are gonna say no that's a porpoise.

Sorry if I came across as that guy.

Guess we can all talk about it when we fish in the ocean ( Gulf of Mexico) together.

I was supposed to go today... backed out due to the rain... it was a beautiful day offshore I heard

I dint even care nothin about red snapper…we catcb a box fulla beeliners an go catch something with slick skin…last several times we went all we caught was throwbacks..didnt catch a keeper til we went 30 miles or so…id way rather hunt a cobia an troll for kings…my brother an some buddies caught 4 limits friday an snagged a few more critters..idk how far they were but i bet it was 20+….we quit hitn numbers under that..seemed like a waste of fuel. Now..we ustah go outa port mansfield towards south padre island in texas…we chummed 20lb fish to the top 10 miles out an snobble cigar minners…an just crushed them in 18ft of water..i aint ever done that here.

You mean when we go deep sea fishing?

Yep. That’s what I meant. 😂

I'll eat teh hell out of some dolphin.

Add another pet peeve to the list... deep sea fishing. That sounds like something someone from Michigan would say.

A little pissy, eh?


Don’t be hating on the Yoopers.

Just read through this entire thread....a couple of thoughts...

1. This entire thread has almost the exact same vibe as reading threads about duck hunting in Arkansas the last 10 or so years. You could literally substitute duck/snapper and Arkansas/Gulf and leave the rest virtually word-for-word

2. between apparent downward trend in decent fish, increased pressure, super tight regulations, etc....are snapper really that much better eating than other more common, easier-to-catch fish that it's even worth all the trouble and expense to catch them (the good ones), compared to other stuff?

No. And catching 6 lb snapper is nothing to bitch about.

🤣 yeah I got buddies from up there. They've been down here for 45 years but I still make fun of em.

Name these more common easier to catch fish you speak of?

Trigger... tightly regulated
AJ... harder to catch and screw fighting with them. They don't taste good
Grouper... eh better tasting but not easier to catch by no means
Beeliners... much much smaller fish but easier to catch and they have liberal limits.

It is when you are used to catching a 15lb average.

I don't have any experience with this...only what I read and watch on the innerwebs. It just seems like snapper are one of the more tightly regulated as far as seasons/limits/etc and it seems like you have to go to more trouble to catch decent ones than with other inshore/nearshore stuff.

Gomer... definitely more trouble than inshore stuff. Totally different kind of fishing though. I would still rather go offshore but you are right.

Well. Here’s my after the rodeo update. We didn’t dive deep yesterday so we could do a lot of diving.
Each group dive 8 times.
Pyramids and tanks. All public. Tons of bait on every spot. I’ve never seen the amount of bait everywhere. Cigs
And mini Hard tails. Man it what thick. Most the spots had hundreds of snappers. The issue is all were tail pinches at best.
I didn’t see but one other fish that was over 12 lbs and I passed him on first dive.
We didn’t even get our full boat limit. I shot an 8 pounder just to get mine. Shot my biggest at 25.9 gutted. I didn’t think
It was that big when I shot so gutted on way up. We did shoot four fish over 20lbs
But that was pretty much it. Little snappers everywhere. And didn’t see any more to get. Usually we get a limit of nice ones and have that many get away too. And short triggers everywhere. Did Nick off some lion fish too.
But. Next year crop looks great. Water is hot 80ft or less. So if you are fishing. No way I’d hit the public stuff 60-80ft. We did dive a rig close close that was covered in snapper and a guy in a tiller handle boat caught two fish we’d would have love to have. He was live baiting on super light line. Picked his gaff up on the bottom to and have it back. Also got a limit of decent flounders.

We found some good snapper in 110 feet of water last Saturday

Yea. We really wanted to dive a lot instead of a little or we would have went deeper. We thought for sure we could find a limit of triggers and snapper close.

We used to catch 15 to 20 lbers just off the beach a few years back on some structure my brother found. Unbelievable. He says it is tough now. Used to be you could dive those pyramids and almost each one would have one big snapper on it. We would pull up and go down and have one guy drift the boat as we went down shot the fish and then he would pick us up when we surfaced. Would do it all morning on several different pyramids. Easy pickens.

That’s what we are used to. And shooting good ones. Drop down. Shoot it if it’s there and surface. Didn’t happen a couple days ago. Maybe they still in shock after the rodeo. I know in a month or so when it cools down if will get better. Maybe they’ll
Open a fall season.

They say divers are the problem. Taking out the big sows from the reproductive stock.

Could be. Very well might. But 25 years of it and then this the first year that’s off. Nah.

Two weeks ago was no problem. I imagine every shallow spot got hammered from the rodeo and it usually takes a month to get back. They’ll come.

Just stirring the pot.

Didn’t go last year, just wasn’t feeling it. Haven’t been fishing this year yet, few issues with the boat but all those are resolved but, now it’s just too hot to go. Been going for 35 years so the interest is not what it used to. Hopefully can catch a few if the season is still in after the weather breaks

Maybe they should push the season back 10 days and not allow decoys for the first two weeks.
That would prevent the dominant males from being harvested too early.