By: Capt. Lawren McCaghren
Your kids get excited about Christmas morning or the last day of school, but my dive buddies and I start losing sleep in anticipation of June 1st. With this season promising higher fuel prices, stricter creel limits and an abundance of nice red snapper on every site, most won’t have to travel far from the dock to fill your two fish quota. If you are like many gulf coast fisherman, who target the red delicacy, the sport of fishing isn’t really much sport anymore. The only way to stretch your fishing day to lunchtime is to cull fish all morning. These comments may surprise fisherman from other areas of the country that have heard we have a shortage of Red Snapper. Ask any Alabama fisherman and you will hear stories of limiting out in just two drops to the bottom.
Because of the restricted limits and high fuel prices, many anglers have turned to spearfishing to fill their fish boxes. It is the ultimate in selective fishing, because you are eye to eye with the fish. It is easier to target a particular fish and you don’t spend all day culling rat snapper. Many fishermen complain of not getting their bait through the small snapper to reach the bottom for that big sow snapper, scamp or triggerfish.
Fuel prices are always a summer concern and with marine fuel at a premium price, running all over the gulf can be a costly technique.
I’ve been spearing on the Alabama gulf coast for over 20 years, and sat and watched many bottom rigs bounce just off the bottom with a hundred 5lb. snapper staring at it while the big un’s hang outside the commotion, exhibiting the wariness and caution that allowed them to get to 30 lbs.!
Spearfishing is also a much more comfortable way to spend the hottest months of the year on the coast. I feel sorry for the guys I see tied to a rig, catching nothing, with sweat droplets dripping off their nose, as we hand nice fish over the gunwales to our dive buddies.
As spear fishermen, we almost always come back to the dock with full creel limits on all the usual suspects, and an average aggregate weight higher than on the fishing boats. Our two red snapper are the first targets, and then we shift our attention to the plentiful triggerfish. A good spearfisherman will always be glancing in the distance for a nice amberjack or curious cobia to swim along. While cruising along the reef, wreck or rig, I am always scanning the sand for the faint outline of a flounder. Most sites will only have 1 or 2 nice grouper eyeing the action, but mostly not participating. The aggressive red snapper bully them away from the angler’s bait, but avoiding our spear tips isn’t as easy.
In order for anglers to target the variety of species that we fill our coolers with every weekend, they would have to take every piece of tackle in their garage. With just one spear gun I am ready to harvest whatever species is home when I visit the site. Lockjaw because the tide isn’t right is never a problem, they may not be biting…but they are still home.
Call Gulf Coast Divers and ask about dive training and spearfishing. Training can be completed in a couple weeks and you can be geared up and ready for this Red Snapper season. A good scuba system costs about the same as a set of golf clubs or that custom rod with a new gold reel you’ve been thinking about. So don’t keep saying, “One day I’m gonna try diving.” Make that “One day” this year.