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.