Outdoors Column | Summer fishing in the Gulf of Mexico is looking strong
The time offshore anglers have been eyeing for months is finally upon us. The “real” fishing season begins June 1st, with gag grouper harvest becoming legal followed closely by a 45-day red snapper season beginning June 11 for recreational anglers. Offshore licensed captains have a longer season getting to add red snapper to their coolers from June 1 until Aug. 1.
Over the past few weeks fishing offshore has been nothing short of phenomenal. On a recent trip I joined Bob Harris and friends to partake. With red snapper still on the horizon, I did my best to avoid them by staying a little shallower and it paid off. Red snapper have seemed to be a little deeper than the previous five years where they closed in on 100 feet, and now it appears 120 or 130 feet is the prime starting area.
After loading up both livewells of Harris’ 25-foot Sea Hunt with threadfin and whitebait, we headed west about 30 miles to an area of hard bottom. When we arrived the Simrad electronics first showed hard bottom followed by schools of fish about 10 feet off the bottom.
“That look’s very snappery,” I explained. “The mangos have been active and moving around above spots.”
Harris dropped his Rhodan trolling motor to hold the spot and I pitched a freeline out back with a live threadfin before readying rods for the bottom. After a few minutes the freeline rod came tight and a big mangrove snapper hit the deck after a short fight. Not a bad start and a good sign that the mangrove snapper were being aggressive.
I tossed out another freeline rod and some live chum to go with it. Down on the bottom the bite was slow, broken up by a legal sized scamp grouper and rock hind. Off the back the freeline came tight again and another 20-inch mangrove snapper fell victim to the flatline.
The night before I rigged the flatline rod with 40-pound fluorocarbon leader, lighter than the 60-pound I normally use. It was paying off on the leader shy fish.
We chummed heavier and rigged up more flatline rods, sticking with what was working. Soon mangrove snapper were on the surface chasing chummed baits around like snook on the flats! At one point they went full airborne in chase. The excitement transferred to the rods, as the flatlines were soon going tight all around the boat.
One big mangrove snapper after another were netted with none smaller than 20-inches. Our chumming became heavier and soon a massive bust on the starboard side of the boat got our attention. A line was thrown to it and soon eaten. The screaming reel signaled something bigger than a snapper, and after about a 15-minute fight a beautiful blackfin tuna was seen.
After being gaffed and lifted in, our excitement was hard to contain!
The insane bite eventually slowed after the tuna, a dozen mangrove snapper and few grouper chilled on ice. We pushed deeper, eventually finding big red snapper and a school of amberjack that basically turned into our pets eating live chum beside the boat.
Like myself I’m sure many others have had June circled on their calendars for the best time to head out. It’s a reason to run deeper for more and bigger fish. Fishing this summer is sure to be good if momentum carries from recent offshore trips. Look for full reports in the coming weeks.