This Gulf catch is ‘back with a vengeance’ after hurricanes, angler says

For me, yellowtail snapper has been one of the most consistent catches over the past 10 years offshore fishing between 120 and 160 feet of water.

Before then, they were a bit more hit-or-miss unless fishing bigger wrecks or springs. On those bottoms, they were almost always prevalent, and getting them chummed to the surface made for a good day.

In recent years, we would often see more on ledges and other hard bottoms. Catching a few yellowtails while red snapper fishing wasn’t as much of a surprise the last few summers.

But after the hurricanes last year, yellowtails weren’t caught with nearly the same frequency. A few here or there, but not quite like the years prior. This past summer, the yellowtail snapper seemed to “thin” out even on the normal spots from 120 to 200 feet of water that were historically good.

I just about gave up thinking the storms might have negatively changed the fishery that was so good.

But on my last trip, they came back and with a vengeance. Following the closure of gag grouper and red snapper seasons (except for weekends on red snapper), a weekday trip to explore some nearshore structure was in order for me. The target was going to be mangrove snapper, or so we thought. With calm weather, the first stop was in 75 feet on a ledge that always had mangrove snapper.

I fished light, 20-pound leader with an 1/8-ounce Hogball on a 4000 spinning setup doing my best to slowly work baits down from live shrimp and half shrimp to live and cut whitebait. A little chum was supplied every now and again, which helped raise fish in the column. The others fished the bottom, where grunts and undersized grouper were caught.

I kept working the light stuff, eventually dialing it in after a few missed bites. With the help of Cheater Line, I noticed the bait was getting eaten about 10 feet off the bottom each drop. The next fish I caught was a yellowtail snapper — about 14 inches.

Drop after drop with the help of my setup, I began getting yellowtail snapper. It was quite the surprise in only 75 feet, with many of them 16 to 18 inches.

The Cheater Line is a color-changing braided line that distinctly changes colors every 33 feet. I would get through two sets of colors, which would put my bait about 66 feet, just off the bottom, avoiding any bites from grouper and grunts.

I would slow down and be ready to get a bite. It was almost instant, drop after drop. After catching about nine snapper to their one, the other two anglers decided to mimic my setup and instantly joined in on the catching.

When it slowed at one ledge, we went to another. There, more yellowtails awaited, and on the first drop, we hooked up once again. Another 10 were added to the box along with a 19-inch mangrove snapper, and we approached our three-person limit of snapper.

We visited a third ledge nearby, and more snapper were found. After having a triple header, we kept the biggest two yellowtail snapper to finish our limit, letting the third go.

It wasn’t even noon, and we accomplished our daily goal. We then came into shallower water and began to fish for hogfish. To our surprise, we were getting even more yellowtail snapper right on the bottom. We couldn’t seem to get away from them between any of the four spots that were miles apart.

With yellowtail and mangrove snapper in abundance, it makes for a good day with fun fishing in the Gulf. We didn’t encounter any sharks either, a rare sight in today’s offshore fishing when you are chumming and trying to get fish in the column.

As we deal with a strong eastern windy pattern, most boats won’t be venturing offshore, but when it calms, it looks very promising. A strong east wind is great at cleaning up the nearshore waters.

We saw plenty of bait and pelagic life, so it won’t be long before kingfish and mackerel are here for their fall runs. Along with excellent snapper fishing nearshore, it should be a great fall for fishing inshore and off.