Snapper fishing reports from Orange Beach/Perdido area

Fished Ft. Morgan area (public numbers) a few Friday's ago. Picked through about 70 short fish to keep a 4 man limit. Biggest fish was 21"
Probably hit 20-25 different sets of numbers to pick away at a limit. As far as I can tell the last 2 years all the public numbers are hammered to death with nothing but shorts. I won't be wasting my time chasing snapper anymore unless I get some non published numbers. I'm sure the numbers down towards OBA are in about the same shape.

quote:

---

Fished Ft. Morgan area (public numbers) a few Friday's ago. Picked through about 70 short fish to keep a 4 man limit. Biggest fish was 21"
Probably hit 20-25 different sets of numbers to pick away at a limit. As far as I can tell the last 2 years all the public numbers are hammered to death with nothing but shorts. I won't be wasting my time chasing snapper anymore unless I get some non published numbers. I'm sure the numbers down towards OBA are in about the same shape.

---

I go once a year with a group that has been going together for about 20 years. If it weren't for that group and the good time we have off the boat I wouldn't bother bottom fishing at all in the Gulf or the Atlantic. First off I am not convinced that releasing short fish caught in 75 feet or more of water is actually helping anything....and there is a significant amount of data to back that up, anecdotally the number of short fish released you see floating belly up. Even when done with surgical precision the odds of a fish making it back to relative safety after fighting to the surface, being handled, released and making its way through a myriad of sharks and barracudas in a compromised state are slim, I think. Second of all the crap one has to put with from the states to bottom fish is just off putting for me. Low bag limits are the final straw. Its just not worth the effort, at least for me. I can spend the same amount of time and less effort and catch snook, mangroves and tarpon with far less interaction with regulations and when I release a fish I think its survival rate is a little higher. Thats not counting the trout, redfish, flounder and the like. Offshore king fish, dolphin and sailfish are more fun and again do not require me to retain an attorney and there is always the shot at Cobia and wahoo. Bottom fishing, for me, is just not worth the effort.

quote:

---

We had a dolphin stay with us for at least 3 hours as he followed us over the course of 10 miles or so from spot to spot. He ate every fish we threw back in that time. I would guess we fed him no less tahn 20 15' fish. Released fish had zero chnce of survival.

ETA: We fished from about 70' out to about 105' in shite weather. Broke my trolling motor and a leg on the bimini top from all the beating.

---

Exactly. The "season" also forces anglers to push the decision to go versus staying on the hill in "iffy" conditions, especially for charter boats where the money plays a roll.


I have found that damned dolphins are more problematic than sharks. I don't know that I have been fishing in the last 5 years (unfortunately only about 30 or so trips) in or off shore where there wasn't at least one encounter with a damned dolphin looking for an easy meal. Those recently released short snapper aint avoiding a dolphin in open water when they are 100% healthy, they sure as hell ain't doing it about half dead from fighting, being handled and released. The demise of the snapper is not as dramatic as it generally is when the tax man calls but the end result is exactly the same.

A buddy and I were fishing the Indian River 5 years ago and catching nice trout, monster Mangrove, redfish and mostly short and slot snook on white bait like crazy cause that's what white bait is all about. A mature female dolphin and an infant moved in and they immediately started in with their BS. We moved a half a mile and within 30 minutes they showed up again, exactly the moment we had doubled up on short snook. We could not release them, they would have been eaten immediately. We put them in the live well to transport away from the dolphin. I mentioned this to a Florida FWS agent a month or so later and he told me we had broken the law by putting those short snook in the live well LOL. I told him he'd have to catch me in the act, that I would do it as often as necessary. That'd be a helluva way to get a ticket but technically they would be right to do so...otherwise every short snook in a LiveWell would be there to save it from a dolphin.

We on em down here baws!!

We were there last week with my boat. Hit some spots about 20 miles out. Caught b liners, lanes, triggers, small reds. Kept plenty of legal fish to eat. Biggest red snapper 17” lol. Kid had a great time. All fish caught on squid on dropper rig.

Tried live bait but nothing. Kept the boat at the caribe.

Thanks to everyone that was able to chime in and for the info and updates...

Not 1 Red snapper. We have caught mahi, wahoo, scamp, almaco, huge black snapper.
No Red snapper. Only went a couple times out on Pensacola. Yellow Gravel is where we did the best.