When using squid, Mickley will often lop off the head of the bait and use only the head and tentacles. When after the larger snapper, he'll rig a whole squid on each hook of the chicken rig, running the hook and leader through the top of the mantle once or twice before burying it in the body cavity. Rigged this way, a bait will display a swimming motion on the drop and as it hangs in the current over the bottom.

This angler is happy with her prize catch.

Unlike Mickley, David King on the charterboat Little Adam fishes only large live baits when pursuing red snapper. King says the live baits will lure the larger snapper to his rods, so he spends less time venting and releasing fish that might not make it past the barracudas and back onto the reef.

"I also don't use squid, because I found that 60 percent of the undersized fish brought to my boat hit squid," noted King, who admits he will occasionally pull the head off a squid and stuff a cigar minnow into the body cavity then hook the bait through the skin of the squid and the eyes of the cigar minnow for a bait that puts maximum scent into the water. "I rely on live bait to avoid catching sub-legal snapper. You don't catch as many fish, but you also throw back fewer," he said.

King uses as little hardware as possible, insisting the fish will see the bulky swivels in shallow water, and shy away. Instead, he rigs a 6- to 10-ounce barrel sinker above a swivel, attached to a 60-pound monofilament leader. King will only use pink Ande line on his rods and leaders, which has proven to outfish even fluorocarbon leaders on bottom fish.

"You can have regular clear monofilament on one rod, and pink on another, and you'll catch most of your snapper on the pink line," he said. "Try to keep the rig simple, without a lot of hardware. If you're going to use a chicken rig, use dropper loops and one snap swivel on top."

Over time, King has found a live sardine or cigar minnow to be his best red snapper baits, usually hooking the bait through the nose or eye socket on a 4/0 or 5/0 bronze livebait hook. When these baits aren't available, he'll go to a threadfin herring, pilchard or even finger mullet.

"I just use what's available, and don't go out of my way to catch one bait," he said.

The important thing is that the bait is fresh, not frozen. They'll even hit a half a blue runner if it's fresh.

"Red snapper fishing is pretty easy. When they're hungry and feeding, they're an easy fish to catch," said King, who over the last few seasons noticed that his best days are during calm weather, which allows a better presentation of the bait. "The key to catching these fish is to find them. Once you mark them, you can usually get them to eat."

Occasionally, King will mark a good school of snapper, but can't get the fish to feed. In these cases, he's noticed there's usually a southerly current, which tends to stir up the bottom and run against the natural lay of the reef.

In March, April and May, King plies the reefs in 75 feet of water with great success on red snapper, but much of the early winter he spends in 90 to 100 feet. King says you can target and catch snapper year-round in 145, 160 and 180 feet of water, but he likes the shallow reefs because he prefers to anchor and work on one school of fish at a time.

"The natural reef lines are in 90 and 145 feet of water south of Fort Pierce Inlet," said King, who emphasizes that it takes time to learn the topography of a reef over any given area. "Go to any offshore ledges and work with your recorder running a zigzag pattern, looking for a pyramid on top of the reef, but never far away from the reef. Red snapper will mark anywhere from two to 20 feet off the bottom."

Once King marks fish, he'll throw over a marker buoy and drift the area a few times. If he finds fish, he'll anchor up. If King can catch one fish, he can usually get a few limits of snapper from the same spot. During the course of a day, King will visit only four spots on an average.

Red snapper travel in schools, but never mingle with mangrove or yellowtail snapper on the reefs, according to King. The three species may be on the same reef, but the mangroves and yellowtail will hold on one side of the structure, while the red snapper hold on top.

King insists the artificial reefs are too shallow to hold red snapper, and many of the spots he's located over the years he found when traveling from one spot to another. For this reason, he keeps his bottom recorder on at all times, and checks out any solid-looking bottom.

Big grouper and amberjacks are an incidental catch when chasing red snapper, since these species inhabit the same structures and feed on similar baits. On one trip last summer, King watched jewfish swimming around the reef on his recorder. Every time he hooked a snapper, two or three jewfish would follow the snapper out of the school, and grab it on the way up. King released jewfish up to 400 pounds on that trip.

Over the last several seasons Treasure Coast anglers have noticed a growing number of red snapper on the offshore reefs, and fishing is now to the point that anglers can target these fish on most trips. The fish that were 17 or 18 inches three years ago, are now topping 30 inches. As long as there remains a 20-inch minimum and 2-fish limit, the red snapper resurgence should only improve.

Chicken Rig

Mickley's chicken rig goes on the 60-pound rod, snap swiveled into a 3-way swivel. Another snap swivel leads from the second loop of the three-way swivel to 8 to 12 feet of 40-pound monofilament leader, the length dependent on water clarity The bottom loop of the three-way swivel leads to the next three-way swivel and leader, with that bottom loop holding the 18- to 20-ounce weight.

"I like to use a leader line that's lighter than my main line," noted Mickley. "The fish may see the heavier main line, but they usually won't see the leader. If you catch the hook or weight in the reef, you can break it off, but you only have to rerig that one line, instead of the entire rig."

The snap swivels are essential to ensure the baits don't twist up the leader on the drop, and a loop at the end of the weight line allows the angler to change sinkers quickly by simply slipping the loop through the hole and around the body of the lead.

Fishing Around the Oculina Bank

Mickley's deepwater rockpiles and reefs run along a line that swerves within a mile of the popular Oculina Bank Coral Sanctuary. Bottom fishing is closed in this area, but surface trolling for ocean pelagics is allowed.

Known as The Peaks by anglers fishing out of Fort Pierce and Sebastian Inlets, the Oculina Bank is a reef system existing along a 90-mile bank of reef supporting the only known area of Oculina (ivory tree coral) in the United States. This fragile, branching coral forms massive contiguous colonies in deeper water (70 to 100 meters), where in shallow water it only forms small discrete colonies.

Oculina coral distinguishes itself by forming delicately branched bushes one to two meters tall and hundreds of feet long.

The 4- by 23-mile stretch of water ranging from 30 to 75 fathoms was designated a Habitat Area of Particular Concern (HAPC) by the South Atlantic Fisheries Management Council in 1984. HAPCs are areas that contain an outstanding example of a coral community, holds a rare coral species, or contribute to a unique biological or ecological condition.

In June of 1994, the SAFMC decided to close the area known as the Oculina Bank to all grouper and snapper fishing, as well as bottom longlines, dredges, traps, pots and bottom trawls. Any boat, whether trolling or drift fishing through the closed area with grouper or snapper on board, will be considered fishing for grouper or snapper in this closed area.

The Oculina Bank off Fort Pierce and Sebastian is a rectangle bordered by the west at 80-00' W and on the east at 79-56' W. North/south boundaries are 27-53' N and 27-30' N, respectively. Anglers should be aware that this zone could be expanded soon, as the federal government is proposing an additional two-mile closure, which would prohibit anchoring, while allowing recreational bottom fishing on each side of the Bank. Call the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council at (803) 571-4366 for the latest updates.