How to Target Whipper Snappers for Great Offshore Fishing

Mention “snapper fishing” to most saltwater angling enthusiasts, and odds are they’ll call up visions of red snapper big enough to be considered sows or a mess of 5- to 10-pound grays (aka mangroves or mangos or mingos). Aiming high and thinking big is natural. But for their numbers and availability, smaller species such as lane snapper, vermilion and yellowtail—all colorful and singularly tasty—are a welcome part of any day’s catch, even as they’re widely taken for granted.

SAFETY WEEK TIP

DON’T LET CARBON MONOXIDE SNEAK UP ON YOU

Install detectors on your boat to sniff out any buildup of carbon monoxide gas. Avoid running engines or generators while anchored or stopped for extended periods.

That being the case, here’s a bit more information on these three species, all of considerable importance and value to Florida’s recreational fishery.

LANE SNAPPER (Lutjanus synagris)

• IGFA all-tackle world record: 8 pounds, 3 ounces from the Horseshoe Rigs off Mississippi, August 2001.

Distinguished by pinkish-red back with eight to 10 yellow stripes along sides; a dark spot as large as the eye on each side just touching the lateral line; and a rounded anal fin (in the somewhat similar, small mutton snapper, the anal fin is pointed).

• Gulf regulations: 100 pounds daily bag limit in state waters; 20 fish (as part of 20-reef-fish aggregate) in federal waters. Minimum size 8 inches total length.
• Atlantic regulations: 10-fish (as part of 10-snapper aggregate) daily bag limit. Minimum 8 inches total length.

Lanes are one of the most numerous snapper species of nearshore reefs often in 50 to 100 feet as adults. They’re taken deeper, but only rarely at depths over 300 feet. Found off both the Atlantic and Gulf coasts, in numbers and size, lane snapper populations along Florida’s east coast remain pretty much as they’ve been historically. However, the story off Florida’s west coast seems to be markedly different.

“Lane snapper are a huge resource for us vs. what they used to be,” says Capt. Dylan Hubbard, owner of St. Petersburg’s Hubbard’s Marina in Madeira Beach. Hubbard’s runs several open-party boats on fishing trips ranging from five hours to 44 hours with most of the emphasis on fishing the bottom, targeting snapper and grouper species.

As expected, Hubbard has an excellent handle on what these boats bring in. “We used to catch relatively few lane snapper and most were pretty small” (Florida law allows keeping them as small as eight inches). These days we may catch 150 to 200 lanes on a 10-hour trip.” Hubbard cites trips where “we can’t get [down] past the lane snapper.” In fact, the species has become abundant enough that at NOAA fisheries meetings, Hubbard has been an advocate for increasing the minimum size to 10 inches in Florida state waters and 12 inches in federal waters.

Hubbard says the lane snapper is certainly increasing its size as well as spatial distribution. “Now we catch them in 120 to 200 feet on our 39- and 44-hour trips. It’s amazing how much deeper we catch them than we used to.” And they’re bigger. Until recently, Hubbard says, “most of our lanes were 10 to 12 inches. Now we regularly catch 20-inch lanes.” Those are 3- to 4-pound fish. One Hubbard’s Marina angler caught a 24 ½-incher recently.

The lane snapper story is much the same elsewhere on Florida’s Gulf coast. “In the past couple of years, we’ve caught a ton of lanes,” says Capt. Clay Shidler at Hang ‘Em High Sport Fishing in Crystal River. And, again, they seem to run deeper and larger; Shidler cites “lots of fish at least two pounds.”

On the other side of the state, lane snapper remain abundant but also smaller, particularly on shallower reefs (70 to 90 feet), where they’re most often caught and typically run nine to 10 inches for Capt. Joey Spoerle at Canaveral Kings Fishing in Port Canaveral. But when lanes are taken from deeper reefs—27 fathoms and more—“we can get two-pounders regularly.”

Lane snapper are a great fish for family fun, Spoerle says, the colorful little snapper popular with kids. That sentiment is echoed by Capt. Trent Shapiro of Catch of the Day Charters in Stuart. He says lane snapper are a major part of their catch out to 80 feet, particularly in the summer. “They’re great for kids—catching fish they can actually take home and eat.”

And like most reef skippers, Shapiro cites lanes as unparalleled for their superb meat.

When it comes to methodology, the fact is lane snapper are caught by anglers fishing for smaller reef fish in general on a variety of cut or small live baits fished on various bottom rigs. In deeper Gulf waters, lots of bigger lanes are caught on small chunks of threadfin herring or live shrimp, Hubbard says.

Shidler, out of Crystal River, is all about fishing them with relatively light spinning gear—Shimano Stradics spooled with 15-pound braid, his go-to rig for lanes and all smaller snappers as well as hogfish (which are an important part of his anglers’ catch along with snapper). “We’re pretty much fishing them on seatrout tackle,” he says. While most lane and small snapper species are caught on chicken rigs with dropper loops on three-way swivels, Shidler’s boats have enjoyed the greatest success on simple knocker rigs, letting a 2-ounce egg sinker slide down to a single hook. (At times, the conditions mandate a 3-ounce bank sinker below the hook, he says.)

VERMILION SNAPPER (Rhomboplites aurorubens)

• IGFA all-tackle world record: 9 pounds, 4 ounces from Keaton Beach, Florida, October 2022.

Distinguished by uniform red-orange color fading to white on belly; large red eyes; often with yellow streaks below lateral line.

• Gulf regulations: 10-fish daily bag limit (not counted in 10 snapper aggregate limit) in state waters; 10 fish, but counted within 20-reef-fish aggregate daily limit in federal waters. Minimum size 10 inches total length.
• Atlantic regulations: Five-fish daily bag limit in state and federal waters (not included in 10-snapper aggregate). Minimum size 12 inches total length.

The lovely, streamlined vermilion snapper is known to the majority of fishermen as a beeliner. This schooling species is found all around Florida and most of the tropical Western Atlantic, Gulf and Caribbean. Vermilions prefer water somewhat deeper than lane snapper. While taken in less than 100 and as deep as 400 feet, 180 to 300 feet seems to be the prime depth.

Catch of the Day Charters in Stuart relies heavily on vermilions. A seamount off St. Lucie Inlet in 300 feet of water is one of Trent Shapiro’s go-to spots for vermilions. Here, schools stack up in the water column, a function of the species’ inclination to form large schools, often occupying mid-depths well above bottom.

In Gulf waters, Hubbard Marina boats rely heavily on vermilions also. For Shidler, vermilions of a pound or two are the norm, with the larger fish taken in the dark. That’s why “we often leave early, to fish the hour before daylight, while it’s still mostly dark.”

A species which is schooling by nature, of small size and highly sought for food, invites the use of multi-hook rigs. Most commonly, anglers employ two-hook chicken rigs with dropper loops. Shapiro uses 65-pound braid for his main line with 50-pound mono leaders on which he rigs 2/0 to 3/0 (requisite) circle hooks (or somewhat larger if the fish are running large). He sticks with two or three, taken down with 8- to 12-ounce bank weights.

For bait Shapiro goes with bonito, bonito or bonito. Nothing else compares for vermilions, he explains. Shave off most of the flesh from a fillet of bonito (little tunny) so a layer of only ¼-inch meat remains atop the skin. He cuts this into 1 ½-inch strips then cuts the strips into triangles about an inch wide and an inch-and-a-half long. This streamlined design drops efficiently. This is heavily salted and frozen. In use, it stays on the hooks tenaciously.

YELLOWTAIL SNAPPER (Ocyurus chrysurus)

• IGFA all-tackle world record: 11 pounds from Challenger Bank, Bermuda, June 2004.

Distinguished by the bluish body with the prominent, brilliant yellow stripe that runs from the snout to the large, elegant, deeply forked tail, which is also bright yellow.

• Gulf regulations: 10-fish daily bag limit counted within 10-snapper aggregate. Minimum 12 inches total length.
• Atlantic regulations: 10-fish daily bag limit counted within 10-snapper aggregate limit. Minimum size 12 inches.(Note special regulations for Biscayne National Park).

The yellowtail may be caught as far north as North Carolina but is primarily a tropical species most abundant in the Caribbean, particularly around Florida and the Bahamas and throughout the Gulf, around reefs from nearshore to 300 feet deep. Often yellowtail schools form well above the bottom.

Ryan Van Fleet with Good Karma Sportfishing in Key Largo says his anglers can’t get enough of the rapid-fire action for these zippy, gorgeous fish. Northern Keys populations are healthy and offer anglers good catches. Farther north, in the Gulf off the St. Pete area, yellowtail—much as lane snapper—have become increasingly numerous, particularly in 120 feet or deeper, says Dylan Hubbard. But they’re also being taken shallower: “These days we frequently catch them as shallow as 60 or 70 feet.”

“The Middle Grounds has a ton of yellowtail,” agrees Clay Shidler. “Especially in the summer, we can catch full limits, fishing rigs with dropper loops or just freelining shrimp on light jig heads” in 80 to 100 feet. “Often the yellowtail are staged in the middle of the water column.” Shidler eschews chum since in that area, “You’ll soon have sharks eating all your fish.” These yellowtail average 2 ½ to 3 pounds; Shidler’s biggest Gulf yellowtail last year was 8.6 pounds.

For Van Fleet, light tackle is key. That doesn’t mean ultralight, however, with 20-pound braid a good choice when fish are deep or a copolymer line of that strength when they’re near the surface. However, when the shark show begins, Van Fleet will “beef up the tackle.”

Ideally, he’ll anchor in 20 to 100 feet and chum (finely ground sardines and herring, or Killer Bait chum). Then, typically, it’s a waiting game, the captain says. “Sometimes we wait a good 40 minutes for the fish to ‘get comfortable’ and start swimming up into the chum.” Then he’ll have anglers start freelining back baits.

At times, Van Fleet will fish deep, not so much for numbers as for flags, as the largest yellowtail are called. In fact, it’s not unusual to hook trophy-size yellowtail (four to five pounds or more) while dropping for grouper, Van Fleet says.

THE GOLDEN EGG

“Catching a schoolmaster snapper (Lutjanus apodus) is like finding a golden egg. They’re around but to catch one is rare,” says Capt. Trent Shapiro in Stuart. Golden because they’re a bright yellow-brown in color. Schoolmaster prefer nearshore, shallower reef areas. Similar to a dog snapper (L. jocu), their canine teeth are enlarged so are visible when the mouth is closed. The IGFA all-tackle world record is a whopping 13 pounds, 4 ounces from Key Largo in 1999—but don’t expect to catch anything close to that: The feisty (and of course, tasty) little schoolmaster is commonly a pound or two.

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• This article was featured in the May 2024 issue of Florida Sportsman magazine. Click to subscribe

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