American Red Snapper Season is finally here! This year the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) set the 2019 Gulf American Red Snapper recreational season with opening on June 11th and goes through July 12th, with a possible fall reopening if quota is available. I know we here at Old Salt loves to catch and eat these beauties.
We set out on a hunt last week and it didn’t disappoint. We went on a charter for hire vessel – their season runs June 1 through August 1st. So we got a jump on the season. Capt. Greg Macfarlane of Pura Vida Fishing took us out into the gulf.
We fished several spots about 40 miles off the coast in about 120ft of water. Of course, the very first line dropped pulled up a very nice American Red Snapper. Our very own Lora Caddy, know as lucky lora, dropped and hooked a beauty which ended up being the “big fish” for the day.
The water was absolutely gorgeous, flat calm and crystal clear. We fished with squid, sardines and we had a live well full of pinfish. The rods were rigged with basic circle hooks (we were reef fishing) and 8oz lead weights.
After a few spots at 40 miles offshore we went another 10 miles to an epic spot that seriously everyone hooked up at once. About 140ft and the fish were chewing. We landed some very nice Red Grouper and of course caught our limit of American Red Snapper.
American Red Recipes
Now of course we LOVE to eat what we catch, check out some of our favorite recipes for these tasty fish. Pan Seared ARS in Pineapple Habanero Sauce, recipe by our very own Jim Alexander is definitely our favorite. Another great one is Red Snapper with Ancho Vinegar Brown Butter Sauce.
Here is a gallery of our fishing trip of course we are all sporting some of our favorite Old Salt fishing shirts. Dennis has on our signature ARS design. Find your favorite shirts in our store – click here.
