Rockefeller and FWC 6/26 and 6/27

[zthomas]

First of all, thanks again for all the advice. Our first trip down from Arkansas was a ton of fun, definitely a learning experience, and we even caught a few fish.

Pulled into Kaplan late Saturday afternoon, went to Gulfway tackle for licenses and charts, and stayed at the Sunnyside motel.

Sunday morning, launched at 6 at the landing in Rockefeller WR between Rollover and Grand Chenier. Gulf was whitecapping and snotty with a solid 3-4 foot chop. The two guys with us who had never been on saltwater before were a little nervous with the spray and the pounding, but we headed on out to the rigs 5 or 6 miles off.

Picked around inside 10 miles for a couple hours catching hardheads and eventually a bunch of little blacktips that everybody had fun pulling on. One of the guys by then was chumming pretty heavily, but the wind had laid down some and we decided to work our way on out.

Finally hit some cleaner water about 15 miles off, and found a rig around 18 where we got a bunch of nice grade Spanish mackerel, and a ton of bluefish, which were at least fun to play with on Krocodiles and bass gear.

Monday decided to try Freshwater City for the shorter drive. Launched at 6 again, hoping for calmer conditions, but it was every bit as rough. The chummer had switched to a different medication, though, and skipped the sausage biscuit for breakfast, so he was way better. So the plan was just to pound our way out until we found the clean water.

Ended up eventually around EC 109, about 33 miles off, soaking wet and pretty well beat up. But then my father in law got maybe a 12-pound snapper on his first bait, and we forgot about the boat ride pretty quick.

Unfortunately, that was the only keeper snapper of the day. We broke off a good half dozen more decent-feeling fish in the rug legs and caught 6 or 8 shorts, and a few more Spanish, but that was it.

Sure wish the weather had been better, but it was a lot of fun overall, and nice to be back on the water after so long.

So, some questions:

How do you rig for snapper? The nice one we got was on a free-lined dead Spanish sardine. It seemed like I was getting bit best, though, with a 3-oz egg sinker. Problem was I couldn’t keep them out of the rig with 20-lb. gear (heaviest we had) when they’d bite down deep. We were using 2-ft dark-colored wire leaders with 6/0 hooks through the nostrils of the sardines. Were we just using too light a gear? Did we need longer leaders? Do you normally catch them on freelines, or fishing vertically? Does braid make it easier to yank them out? Are other baits a lot better?

[Top Dawg]

Too light of gear most likely. I use a pretty stout rod wit shimano tekota 700 reels wit 60# mono usually wit a 200# mono leader when fishing around the rigs. Braid is even better. U can catch all the snapper u want wit an 8-10 oz weight droppin to the bottom but I prefer to fish wit 1-2 oz bucktail jigs wit a whole porgy and drift line them next tothe rig. Tend to catch bigger ones suspended. From the looks of it y'all were under geared. Come back and get u some tho

[Opinions_Vary]

Use heavier takle... 60lb test 8 oz sinker rigged carolina style... cut pogy (sp)... If you have a fish finder make a few circles around the platform until you get a return, pay attention to the depth of the return and drop bait down to that depth... I'm pretty sure that you guys should have caught your limit if y'all caught that one, unless the sharks were thick.

[zthomas]

Yeah, with the right gear, I think we could have limited too. No sharks on the rigs where we found the snapper. I was marking good fish suspended about 40 feet down in 65 feet of water, and that's about where most of my bites were coming. Dang--will bring the big guns next time. So they'll still bite even with 200-lb. mono?

[Dink]

If you got Porgy on the hook....they'll eat it.

I use #9 hooks, or wide gap #6 circles.....regular #6 is hard to get a big bait on.

Your tackle was way to light.....only way to do it with that is when you get hooked up, motor away from the rig and fight it in open water

[meaux fishing]

you can chum em up to the surface and pitch baited hooks at em too

[gckid]

carolina rig with 2 oz weight. 60 to 80 lb line. drop to count of ten. stop. no bite. drop to fifeteen keep doing little counted drops until you hit bottom or fish bites. then drop back down to same count. Drift line with a steel leader. snapper, ling king makeral, shark are all possible. pogey fish whole or cut up, cigar minnow, all good bait

[Opinions_Vary]

Originally Posted by zthomas

Yeah, with the right gear, I think we could have limited too. No sharks on the rigs where we found the snapper. I was marking good fish suspended about 40 feet down in 65 feet of water, and that's about where most of my bites were coming. Dang--will bring the big guns next time. So they'll still bite even with 200-lb. mono?

Snapper will bite a steel leader on 1/4 inch rope!

[zthomas]

one more cast-netting shot

[Top Dawg]

Originally Posted by zthomas

Yeah, with the right gear, I think we could have limited too. No sharks on the rigs where we found the snapper. I was marking good fish suspended about 40 feet down in 65 feet of water, and that's about where most of my bites were coming. Dang--will bring the big guns next time. So they'll still bite even with 200-lb. mono?

Next time u go out of FWC let me know. I'll bring my gear.