Robert caught this awesome Red Snapper and was all excited until we told him we had to release it. It’s a crying shame because after putting him back in the water, sad to say, he didn’t live. It seems so wasteful. These new laws are causing us to unintentionally kill fish that aren’t going on the table. These laws need to be rethought.
Capt. Steve Fralin
Ugly Ducklin Charters
The Longest Established Inshore Fishing Guide at Edisto
Edisto Island, SC 29438
843-869-1580
843-908-2071 http://www.edistofishingcharters.com
I fully agree the closure of red snapper is ridiculous. It’s my favorite fish to fish for, and it really REALLY bothers me when I have to avoid them now when I see them every trip. It bothers me even more when people can’t keep the trophies that roam around by themselves in deeper water or are in shallow water in the summertime. Big red snapper are not easy to catch by any means. Totally different type of fishing to get them…
What I’ve been doing - when I see that it’s a red - is letting the fish stay 15-20ft under the boat before bringing it all the way up. While there for a minute or so we get the vent tool and dehooker ready. I vent the fish then put it in the water with the hook still in. I then put the dehooker (I use the type that’s got a circle on the end instead of just a U) on the leader, slide it down to the hook, and push the fish downward under water with a jerk to dehook it. As the momentum from dehooking pushes the fish’s head down it keeps going 9 out of 10 times even in 220ft of water.
What I am always surprised to hear about is how somebody (not the capt here in this report) will float a line of snappers off the stern as they try to “fish through them” for grouper. Does it really take that much effort to go to another spot? Can you really not use a different bait to be selective? If the snapper are that numerous and hungry then why are you wasting time fishing near them?
Ugly Duck had a charter and took a picture of a client’s nice fish. Probably the least he could do for the client when the fish had to go back. It’s not like the fish are truly in trouble around here, so I hope ugly duck doesn’t get the impression that posting pics and stating the reality of fishing offshore on the www is frowned upon by us…
If anything, this report gets people to think about what can happen if they aren’t prepared to catch and release and also what can happen even when you do the best you can. Like I said, one out of ten won’t make it no matter what you do… same as most other species.
Let’s not make the fisherman into the bad guy here. The federal government and those controling its decisions are the bad guys.
I will agree that we shouldn’t make other fishermen look bad, but I don’t see the point of posting someone holding up a fish for a picture and then saying it was a shame that it died… That sounds a little hypocritical… I’ve caught tons of them and I can’t remember more than 1 or 2 that actually floated back to the top. We return them to the water immediately though.
And to be honest, I wouldn’t even give a **** about this if the SAFMC didn’t try to shut down our entire fishery just a year ago because of red snapper barotrauma fatality. What on Earth do you guys think the eco-freaks think when they read posts like this? They will use it as a form of validation in their next circle jerk.
me doing a videophotorantreport solely about catch and release red snapper this spring when we cannot keep anything other than triggers and pinks… (and the fishing reports section here is on life support)
We had one Sunday that a rookie tossed back in as I was going for my venting kit. He was swimming in circles and we kept an eye on him. He made it under but who knows if he lived. We were on a ledge of about 110 feet, so we were not ultra deep. That’s a good tip Wes.
