MONSTER HAUL OF RED SNAPPER
The “Intimidator”
EDITOR'S
NOTE: During 30 days of fishing in the spring of 2004,
more than 8,000 anglers on 95 boats participated in
the Orange Beach Red Snapper World Championship and
caught big snapper with more than 28 of them weighing
over 25-pounds each. This year’s Championship
will take place April 21 – May 20, 2005 with headquarters
at Zeke’s Marina. Total tournament monies will
be $500,000 with a $200,000 bonus if a new world ‘s
record red snapper is caught, but anglers only will
pay $5 per fisherman per day to enter the tournament.
All proceeds from the tournament will go to support
the building of public reefs and conducting red snapper
research. You can buy tickets to participate at Blue
Water Ships Stores in Foley, Ala., Outcast Bait and
Tackle in Pensacola, Fla., and in Orange Beach, Ala.
at J&M Tackle, Orange Beach Marina, Outcast Marina,
Sam’s Stop & Shop, San Roc Cay Marina, Sportsman
Marina, the Rod Room, Top Gun Tackle, Trent Marina and
Zeke’s Landing Marina. To learn more about the
Championship, visit www.gulffishing.net
where you also can see a list of captains and their
contact information; or call: (251) 981-8565; the Orange
Beach Fishing Association at (251) 981-2300; or the
Alabama Gulf Coast Convention and Visitors Bureau (www.orangebeach.com)
at (800) 745-SAND.
“We
were fishing about 50-miles south of Orange Beach on
an old oil rig that had been cut off and left on the
bottom,” says Captain Johnny Greene of the “Intimidator.”
Greene felt sure someone would take a big snapper on
this spot because last year one of his anglers caught
a 38.7-pound snapper at this same site. “I believe
that big snapper attract big snapper,” Greene
explains. “To catch really-big snapper, you can
only go to an area like this once a year, because big
snapper can’t handle too much fishing pressure.
The more you fish a spot with big snapper on it, the
less likely you are to catch those big fish the next
time you go there. The 38-pound snapper we caught off
this place in 2003 was a female. I haven’t heard
back yet from AMRD to learn the sex of the 32.25-pound
snapper we took this year to win the tournament. If
the fish we’ve caught in 2004 is a male, then
I think it will be three or four more years before another
pair of big snapper will move back on that spot and
set up residency there.”
Ty Parham of Bowman, Georgia, who caught the winning
snapper that weighed 32.25 pounds, recalled, “The
snapper took the bait very hard. The second captain
on the boat, Captain John Stockstill, was in the cockpit
with me and the other anglers when the fish hit. When
I said I had a bite, Stockstill told me to set the hook
and start winding. Stockstill coached me through landing
the fish from the time the snapper
took the bait until the fish was on the deck.”
Parham fished with the same type snapper rig commonly
used along the Upper Gulf Coast. He used 80-pound-test
main line with a 2-ounce egg sinker up the line, a 250-pound
barrel swivel tied on below the egg sinker, a 5-foot
120-pound-test monofilament leader and a No. 13 Mustad
circle hook. He baited with a whole northern mackerel
hooked from the bottom lip out the top lip. He first
dropped the bait to the bottom, before reeling it up
5 to 10 feet off the bottom.
“I caught this big snapper on the first place
we stopped on the first day of a two-day trip,”
Parham said. When I asked Captain Greene to list the
secrets to catching really-big snapper, he named five
basic ingredients. “You have to ...
* “fish where big snapper live.
* “fish 5 to 10 feet or higher up off the bottom.
I want a snapper to come off the bottom and take the
floating bait so that my angler has a little more margin
for error to keep the fish from getting back to the
bottom and into a reef or a wreck.
* “listen to the first mate from the time you
set the hook until you put the snapper on the deck,
because the first mate spends more time fishing for
snapper in one year than most anglers will in their
lifetimes.
* “start turning the handle on the reel when the
snapper takes the bait and don’t stop turning
until you’ve moved the fish about 20-feet away
from the bottom. Often a fisherman doesn’t catch
big red snapper when the fish takes the bait, and he
knows he has a big fish on because he’ll move
the rod from under his armpit to the rod-holder belt.
Instead, he needs to keep the rod under his arm and
continue to reel, even if the snapper’s pulling
drag. Then when he gets the fish high enough in the
water, it can’t go back down and cut his line
on the wreck or the reef.
* “put in rail time. Every time the boat stops
for anglers to drop their baits to the bottom, you have
to be at the rail ready. You can’t wait to see
if another angler catches a fish before you start fishing.
If you miss one drop to the bottom, that drop may have
been on the spot where a big snapper is living.”
Because Greene had entered his boat in the Orange Beach
Red Snapper World Championship, he also won $25,000,
just as Parham who caught the winning snapper did.
TOMORROW: THE “HOG WILD”
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