Florida Snappers by Ed Valitutto

My wife and I arrived in Florida on January 3rd and although the weather has been warm, the winds have been fierce blowing 20 – 30 mph. When they dropped below 20, I decided to do a trip on a local party boat – The Blue Heron – an 85′ boat making two 4 hour trips each day for $50.

Since they drift over a reef, fishing is done on one side only. Our trip had 13 anglers – one more than the 12 minimum required. Despite the small number of anglers, tangles and snags were common. Fortunately, the mates and the captain immediately undid tangles, tied on weights and hooks, rebaited with a sardine and unhooked your catch. I’m not used to that kind of service!

Overall, the catch was decent with almost everyone taking home some fillets. Along with several shorts, I had the three keeper snappers in the photo. That’s a mangrove snapper on the bottom, a yellowtail in the middle and a vermillion snapper on top. Especially exciting was the appearance of several 8′ reef sharks swimming alongside the boat and taking their share of the catch!

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