Trip to FH-2 with Luke, Pam, Britt, and June on August 14, 2022© Photos Posted by Mark Primo Miller © Hi-Res Source
Red Snapper season just reopened and the weather was looking decent, so we left late and went out to some close-in spots to see what we could find. Onboard was Pam, Luke, Brittany, and June. We tried our hands at Fishing but all we seemed to catch was undersized. So Luke went in Freediving with his Pole Spear and up comes a nice Mangrove Snapper. He repeated this several times at a couple different locations and ended up with a total of 5 nice Mangrove Snapper. He reported that the Red Snapper were very skittish. He probably could have had one early on, but right after he shot the first Mangrove, the Red Snapper scattered and would not come back in range. The water was typically oreo, with a murk layer at the bottom. He said he would dive under the murk and come up thru it to surprise the Mangroves. We threw back around 22 juvenile Red Snapper, the largest measuring 15.5". Other Anglers have reported a similar experience. Some anglers have a hypothesis that commercial anglers are targeting closer structure and since they have a 13" size limit, it damages the recreational population that need to be 16 inches. Anyway, we did not need Red Snapper anyway. Five large Mangrove Snapper worked just fine for Supper. We stopped at Horn Island on the way in to top off the day and weekend. It was a memorable trip that encompassed 58 miles, 30 gallons of fuel, and 6.5 hours. Water was around 55 feet deep and 83 degrees.
|
