Red snapper season ends, nearshore fishing begins. There’s plenty of action

As July comes to an end so will end the recreational red snapper season for the summer of 2022. When that happens, many deepwater-chasing anglers will turn their focus to other targets in search of dinner.

On Wednesday, I joined Capt. Carlos Boothby to see how the nearshore fishing in the Gulf is. The plan was to work slowly out from 10 to 20 miles aboard his 24-foot bay boat if the weather allowed. I gathered a variety of baits from frozen squid and sardines to live shrimp that joined pinfish and whitebait after a morning of bait catching. As we headed west into the Gulf, the weather was beautiful with a one-foot southern swell.

The first stop was a ledge in 50 feet. The bite started slow with triggerfish and grunts. After a bit, I could see snapper rising up on the Lowrance electronics so I rigged a 1/16-ounce jig head with shrimp. After a few missed bites, I finally added the first mangrove snapper to the box. Their quick and subtle bite is easily able to steal bait, but when the technique worked we duplicated the slow drop. Over the next half hour, we landed about 10 more before deciding to move on and explore elsewhere.

The next stop was in about 60 feet of water. Another small ledge that I was hopeful would produce more mangrove snapper, scamp grouper and maybe a gag grouper. Boothby hit the bottom with a 1.25-ounce pink Hogball and shrimp. I stayed with a 1/16-ounce jig head.

After about a minute on the bottom he had a slight bump and set the hook. The fight swam sideways as he worked it up off the bottom. I didn’t want to say what I thought it was. But when I looked down in the water, my suspicion was confirmed - a hogfish, and big one at that! I grabbed the net and swung it in the boat.

It was the first hogfish I can remember catching in July. It’s normally a target saved for cooler water months, not the 88 degrees we were seeing that day. Maybe it was a one off, but still impressive.

On my next drop, I came tight to a fish as the jig head slowly worked down. With the fight of an old boot, I had a feeling it was a grouper. That was confirmed, and my favorite scamp grouper at 18 inches was added to the 20-inch hogfish and snapper in the box.

The bite quickly went dead and we bounced around more ledges in the 60- to 70-foot range. We’d get a couple bites on each spot before needing to move for more action. Trying to catch gag grouper on small pieces of bottom I instead landed a 200-pound goliath grouper and a 20-pound goliath grouper. They’ve expanded territories taking over many ledges and areas of rocks as well as wrecks and reefs. Eventually, I landed a keeper gag grouper on 20-pound leader and a jig head after working it out of the bottom multiple times.

More impressive was that we landed three more hogfish on the day by fishing shrimp on the bottom! By the end, we had a variety filled box.

Moving on from red snapper will have many anglers wondering what the fishing is like closer to shore. Based on how we did, it should provide plenty of options for anglers who enjoy action and eating.