Snappers, snappers, and more snappers! With grouper out of season, the primary objective on our drift fishing trips is to go after snappers. On our daytime trips, we drift over the reefs. When drifting, it feels like the boat is stationary, but the boat is actually moving with the wind and the current. Rather than just fish one single spot, drift fishing allows us to fish the entire length of a patch reef. That’s why it’s important to keep your baits streamlined so they do not spin. I like a nicely manicured strip of squid or a streamlined ballyhoo plug as bait when drifting. You want your bait to glide along the bottom, almost if it was a trolling bait. That’s the secret to drifting for mutton snappers. Muttons are smart. They have probably seen a thousand hooks dragged past them in their lifetime. You have to present your bait as naturally as possible if you are going to outsmart these wise fish. Muttons are very challenging and a prize to any angler who lands one.
Night fishing is a different story. While snappers typically hide in their holes during the daylight hours, they get very brave at night and come out of their holes to wander the reef in search of food. This is why we always anchor at night. We plant the boat in a stationary spot with the anchor, and then chum the water to draw the schools of snapper right to us. Chum and they will come! They hone in on the scent and swim up current towards the smell until they find the source. It’s like ringing the dinner bell. Yellowtail, mangrove, lane and schoolmaster are just some of the snappers we will catch this month using this technique. Anchoring and chumming is one of my favorite techniques of fishing ever since I was a kid. It’s very effective and it can yield big numbers of fish as well as a wondrous variety of different fish species.
I hope everyone fishing our drift boat trips this month has good luck and even better catches. I’ll sea ya on the water!
Capt. Paul Roydhouse
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