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Photo: Clinton & Charles Robertson from Del Rio, Texas & San Marcos, TX, USA, CC BY 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Lutjanus griseus
How to catch Mangrove snapper
Mangrove snapper feed in 68–90°F water and bite best at 74–86°F. Fish Scouter's season calendar follows them in 17 waters; in October they are at their peak in Tampa Bay & Sarasota, Charlotte Harbor & the Islands, The Ten Thousand Islands & Everglades.
15 pts · trophy at 18"Feeds 68–90°FBest 74–86°FIn season nowArtificial reefWreckBridgeDock / pilingsMangrove shorelineLedge / hard bottom
About
The gray snapper: red-brown, a dark stripe through the eye, and the sharpest eyes on the reef. Small ones on every dock and mangrove; the big ones on the nearshore reefs and wrecks, spawning in the summer.
How to fish it
Light leader, small hook, a free-lined bait in the chum slick. They see 30 lb fluorocarbon; go to 20, then 15. Night on the bridges in summer is the best snapper fishing there is.
What it eats
live shrimpsmall pinfish and pilchardscut baitchum, and then whatever is in the chum
Live bait for it
Live shrimpUnder a popping cork or free-lined, hooked under the horn on a #1 to 2/0 circle hook; on a jig head for the bottom. The universal inshore bait.
Pilchards (whitebait)Free-lined or under a cork, hooked through the nose on a #1 to 2/0 circle hook. The one bait that catches everything inshore.
PinfishHooked through the back ahead of the dorsal on a 2/0 to 4/0 circle hook; the small ones free-lined, the big ones on a fish-finder rig.
SquidStrips on a bottom rig for snapper, grunts and porgies; whole on a deep-drop rig.What to fish it with
the sizes that fish itLeader15–30 lb fluorocarbon
Hook#1–2/0
Jig head1/8–1/4 oz
Braid10–20 lb
The rule
not confirmed hereMinimum size and bag limit within the snapper aggregate; confirm the current numbers at MyFWC.
The current rule →Where it is, month by month
PPeakSSpawningAArriving·AroundLLeaving
Florida
Gulf of Mexico