Outdoors column | Fishing seasons for grouper, snapper open in Florida

Capt. Tim Noe tries to avoid red snapper most of the year. And now that the red snapper season has begun, he still finds himself trying to get other bottom species before the aggressive snapper hit his box.

“Most of the year, I try not to fish in 120-to-250 feet of water, where red snapper are everywhere,” Noe explained. “Once you go past 110 feet for the most part it’s hard to get away from them. So right now I’m not going out looking for red snapper, I’m looking for grouper. The red snapper come anyway as a result, and if we need a few more we can go get them easily.”

When red snapper and gag grouper season opened for licensed charter vessels on June 1, Noe headed deep aboard his 42-foot Freeman Catamaran, making runs past 70 miles. With six anglers able to keep two red snapper each, it wasn’t long before the fish box was filling up.

“We had our limit of red snapper within 30 minutes. Then we tried for more grouper and started using bigger baits to get past them because they’re so ferocious,” Noe said. “That’s when we dropped half a bonita and got the big bite.”

The big bite pinned Noe’s angler to the gunnel. Using 80-pound leader with 65-pound braid on a Talica 25 they were able to get the fish turned. Up came a big black grouper at 70 pounds.

“There’s a lot of luck to catching the big grouper like a black or gag. We lose at least 15 to 20 a year, they’re so hard to turn. There’s not much you can do when a 70-pound grouper decides to run. This year I’ve stepped up my drags and line and it’s made the difference.”

On day two of snapper and gag grouper season Noe was back on the hunt for more grouper to start. In 210 feet they found good sized gag, scamp and red grouper, as well as red snapper to 17 pounds. The crew headed in to 160 feet to finish off the red snapper limit and found themselves tangled up with another black grouper.

“Good luck struck twice. It was a world class day topped off with the black grouper at 55 pounds and gags to 32 pounds. There’s a lot of fish out there right now and fishing is world class.”

Recreational season for red snapper season kicked off June 4 and will end on July 28. Gag grouper season opened on June 1 for the remainder of 2021. Both fish have a two per person bag limit with the minimum size of red snapper at 16 inches and gag grouper at 24 inches.

Captain Tim Noe can be reached through Facebook.com/Captain.Noe/