Inshore Snapper?

[JDgator]

So I live in Mobile, Al. We fish for trout holding on submerged structures in 15 or 20 feet of water when it heats up. Usually we offer them live croakers for bait. We are at most 2 or 3 miles out. All summer long I've been catching red snapper and grouper fishing this way. This is the first time in all my years of fishing the northern gulf coast that I am reliably catching reef fish so close in.

Anybody else catching them in shallow water? Anybody else even heard of that?

These guys are mostly juveniles. But they are so plentiful that they'll eat all my bait before the trout ever get a chance. And then I go home without trout.

[hntrpat1]

I do it in La all the time

[duramax]

When you said inshore, I thought you were talking about in the bay. What you are doing is pretty much what they do around the 30A area of Florida east of Destin. You don't need to go much over a couple miles to near shore wrecks to find red snapper. Sounds like a good problem to have if you can find them at the right size and in season. I'd take snapper over trout any day for the cooler. To get larger snapper you may need to up your size of bait a bit.

I'm still waiting to hear people talk about catching more lion fish. From what I've read and seen videos of, the bottoms just off of Destin is littered with those things. I wish the local fish would adapt to eating them (sharks/grouper/big snapper).

[JDgator]

Actually Duramax, i think i overestimated the distance. I mean the inshore side of Dauphin Island. It's a 2 or 3 mile run from where I launch the boat at Bayou La Batre. Sheltered water. I can run 16.5 foot aluminum boat out there safely because it's usually slick. Kayaker are out there all the time. It's just funny since I grew up making long runs to get to 100 feet of water for bottom fishing. Now it's redfish, trout, and gag grouper in the same area!

[duramax]

May need some GPS coords to take my 1860 flat bottom next time I make the haul down to the coast

[deltadukman]

Probably because the "endangered" red snapper fishery is overpopulated due to the Federal Government playing politics and shutting down the recreational fishing and it has them spread out and moved in some. Just a guess, and an opportunity to complain about them being idiots when it comes to recreational snapper fishing and playing to the commercial fishermen.

[matador1]

caught them in P'cola bay this year in 28 foot of water. Not a lot of size but plenty of them.

[olemissduckhunter]

2-3 miles out of Bayou La Batre wouldn't put you much past Coffee Island, you must be fishing out in the channel if you are finding water deep enough to hold gags and snapper. You sure you aren't catching Mangroves? We used to catch them all the time on the rigs in the bay. BTW, shoot me a PM if you are interested in new areas around Mobile that are accessible by aluminum boat. I have put a couple people from here on fish while they were down on the coast. Lived in Mobile for 5 years until I moved to Baton Rouge for school, and fished 3-4 days a week. have some great spots off DI and Ft Morgan. Trout should be up in the Raft River by now, big schools under the birds.

[mshunter77]

[JDgator]