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Photo: NOAA Photo Library, CC BY 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Rhomboplites aurorubens
How to catch Vermilion snapper
Vermilion snapper feed in 64–84°F water and bite best at 68–80°F. Fish Scouter's season calendar follows them in 7 waters; in October they are at their peak in The Golden Isles, The Lowcountry, The Southern Outer Banks & Cape Fear.
15 pts · trophy at 18"Feeds 64–84°FBest 68–80°FIn season nowArtificial reefWreckLedge / hard bottom
About
The beeliner: a slim, bright-red snapper in big schools over the deeper reefs, the fish that fills the box when the red snapper are closed. Fine eating.
How to fish it
A two-hook chicken rig with squid, dropped over the deeper ledges in 80 to 200 feet. Small hooks — they have small mouths.
What it eats
squid stripscut baitsmall jigs
Live bait for it
SquidStrips on a bottom rig for snapper, grunts and porgies; whole on a deep-drop rig.
Cigar minnowsNose-hooked on a stinger rig for kings, or a 4/0 circle hook dropped to the bottom for grouper.What to fish it with
the sizes that fish itLeader30–60 lb fluorocarbon
Hook2/0–7/0
Braid30–65 lb
The rule
not confirmed hereMinimum size within the snapper aggregate — confirm at MyFWC.
The current rule →Where it is, month by month
PPeakSSpawningAArriving·AroundLLeaving
Florida
Gulf of Mexico