Red Snapper A Saltwater Gamefish
Over time seasons come and go. The time is ever so present that fishing Daytona Beach near Port Canaveral for red snapper has its season. There seems to be an abundance of red snapper in our waters, and most fishermen in this area feel these fish have always been protected and well managed. With our deep sea fishing trips, we find it very difficult to focus on targeting red snapper since the Federal Government closure of this species back in 2010.
On occasion, while trolling we do catch a red snapper that has come close to the surface for some odd reason. If it’s not during the open legal few days, we properly take the fish off the hook and send them back to the depths of where they come from. Each year there is usually two, three-day weekends that red snapper fishing is open. Those weekends are typically in August which is a great time of the year to catch red snapper. Keep your eye out for the annual designated open days on the East Coast. Make sure to book your Port Canaveral fishing charters trip in advance for some fabulous bottom fishing with us.
Red Snapper, American Red Snapper
Snapper is an important commercial fish that is superb on the dining table. Snapper has semi-mild white meat that can have a slight seafood taste to the palette. Most anglers hook snapper while bottom fishing with live or dead bait, you can catch them with an assortment of artificial tackle.
Red Snapper is found OFFSHORE on the continental shelf, more plentiful off the panhandle than in south or middle Florida. However since snapper regulations have tightened in the last few years, reds had become more abundant and more significant than when they declined in the previous few decades.
Remarks
Red Snapper is a brilliant Color of pinkish red over their entire body, whitish below; long triangular snout; anal fin sharply pointed; no dark lateral spot.
Juveniles occur over sandy or mud bottoms and often found in shrimp trawls; adults may live more than 20 years, and attain 35 pounds or more; sexual maturity attained at age 2; spawns June to October; feeds on crustaceans and fish.
The federal government closed red snapper fishing in 2010 on the Atlantic in Florida. Lagooner Fishing does not endorse this particular government mandate, or it’s staff because we believe that red snapper is not in peril and can be managed effectively with harvest quotas.
Regulations
20″ Atlantic Ocean; 16″ Gulf of Mexico minimum size, 2 per angler per day.
NOAA Fisheries Service has announced that effective January 4, 2010, all recreational and commercial harvest of red snapper in Atlantic federal waters is prohibited. This period will be well over a twenty-year closure. Florida Red Snapper Regulations
State Record
46 Pound Florida Record