Types of Grunts

Yellowtail snappers are the most popular fish to catch on the reef in Florida. This is because they are typically easy to catch and are great to eat. The method to catch them is actually quite unique and is called flat-lining. This is done cause the yellowtail snapper are suspended in the water column rather than being right on the bottom. Most other snappers and groupers are targeted with bottom fishing techniques.

The most common way to catch yellowtail snapper is to anchor the boat and put chum out. Picking a good spot is important cause yellowtail are typically located on or near reef structures. In shallow water under 20 feet, most of the yellowtail are going to be under 12 inches. In order to keep a yellowtail snapper in Florida, it needs to be 12 inches long. For this reason, anglers target yellowtail snapper in 20-100 feet of water with 40-80 feet being the most common depths.

Chum for Yellowtail Snapper

The first step to catching yellowtail snapper is to put out chum. In the picture above I am fishing a reef in the Florida keys. The chum line is full of large cigar minnow and rainbow runners right by the boat. Yellowtail snappers typically hang anywhere from 10-80 feet behind the boat.

For this reason, the bait needs to drift back with the chum in order to catch the snapper. This is called flat-lining. The bait is not supposed to be on the surface or on the bottom but suspended with the chum as it drifts back. Fishing when there is a strong current is best as not many fish feed during slack tide. Depending on the strength of the current will determine if a bare hook should be used or a 1/64 ounce jig. If the bait is not sinking with the chum then a jig should be used. When the bait is sinking too fast in a low current just a bare hook with a piece of bait should be used.

Personally, I like to use single-ground menhaden chum. This is ground bunker with large chum pieces including the heart of the bunker which can be used as bait. Yellowtail snapper will also come to oats which are commonly used in addition to regular chum. Oats are not needed but can help the yellowtail snapper stick around if there are lots of other boats in the area. Using two blocks of chum at once is another way to attract more yellowtail snapper.

In the video above I show how to catch yellowtail snapper. We were fishing a shipwreck that is also on the edge of the reef in about 100 feet of water. While fishing we also catch cigar minnows, rainbow runners, and spade fish. When fishing the reef it is also good to put out a top line with thin wire on it to try and catch wahoo, king mackerel, cero mackerel, and barracuda.

Bait for Yellowtail Snapper

Live Shrimp

Live Shrimp is one of the best bait for yellowtail snapper. It is also the most expensive bait and at times can be difficult to get. The shrimp can be hooked through the head or tail. Do not hook the shrimp in the center or back as the bait will spin in the current and it is unlikely any fish will bite. Shrimp needs to be alive or very fresh. Dead stinky shrimp that are pink will not work to catch yellowtail snapper.

The picture above is the livewell of our boat which has about two dozen shrimp. It is common to bring 10 or more dozed shrimp when fishing the reef all day. It is also good to have ballyhoo or squid as a backup bait in case you run out of shrimp. These are great baits to flat line or fish near the bottom. There are very few fish that will not eat a live shrimp as long as there is a thin fluorocarbon leader and a small hook.

Fish Hearts

Fish hearts are my favorite bait to use for yellowtail snapper fishing. They are my favorite but I do not like having to dig through the chum to find them. If you are using single-ground menhaden chum you should be able to find the heart of the menhaden fish. There are around 20 hearts in each 7-pound block of chum. After catching a fish with the heart it can typically be reused. I have caught 10 plus yellowtail snapper on a single fish heart. This helps to save bait and is a fun challenge to see how many snappers can be caught on one piece of bait.

My favorite chum is tournament master chum 5/8 inch grind size made with 100 percent north Atlantic menhaden. This will have hearts in it and double ground typically does not. If the chum bag has small holes most of the hearts should be left at the end. Otherwise, the chum block can be checked from time to time to find the hearts on the outside of the block.

Ballyhoo

Ballyhoo is another great bait for yellowtail snapper. The whole ballyhoo is too large for a yellowtail snapper to eat. For this reason, the fish should be filleted and then the filet should be cut into thin strips. Ballyhoo is a great all-around bait that can be trolled, sent to the bottom, or cast near the surface. For yellowtail snapper though a small piece is sent back in the outgoing chum on a flatline.

In the photo above I am filleting a ballyhoo. This is done just like any other fish. Once each side is cut off then pieces should be cut of the fillet. Large ballyhoo can be cut vertically while smaller ballyhoo many need to be cut horizontally to have long enough pieces of bait.

I placed a small piece of ballyhoo on a 1/64-ounce jig which is shown in the photo above. This is a great bait setup for flat-lining to yellowtail snapper. The piece of bait could also be put on a hook. Notice that the bait is hooked toward the top of the bait rather than the middle. This will allow the bait to flutter and not spin in the water.

Squid

Squid is an easy bait to use for yellowtail snapper. A 1-pound box will have 6-12 squid depending on the size of the squid. For mahi-mahi pitch baits a whole squid can be used. However, for snapper only a strip of squid is needed.

The squid should be sliced open and the ink sack should be removed. If the squid is still partially frozen it is easy to remove the ink sack. It looks like a minnow in the center of the squid. Once it is removed the flesh of the squid can be sliced into strips. About a 1-inch thin strip is perfect for yellowtail snapper. Just place it on a small hook or small jig just like the strips of ballyhoo.

In the video above I show how to cut up squid for bait. We actually caught a 38-inch cobia on a small piece of squid. Using squid for bait we also caught lane snapper, yellowtail snapper, grunts, grouper, catfish, and a pufferfish.

Sargassum Weed

When snorkeling I took this picture of about 10 yellowtail snapper biting into sargassum weed. There are seeds in the weed but this is not what the fish are trying to eat. Sargassum is often full of small crabs, shrimp, and small fish trying to hide in the weeds. It is actually surprising how much life is found in sargassum weed. The fish bite into the weed hoping to catch fish and bait that have camouflaged themselves in the weeds. Fish species like the sargassum fish actually look just like a piece of the weeds. I have found these fish in the stomachs of mahi-mahi.

How to Clean a Yellowtail Snapper

In the video above I show how to clean yellowtail snapper. The fish are easy to clean using a basic fillet knife. If you have lots of snapper and grunts to clean an electric filet knife can speed up the process. The snapper can also be scaled and then gutted to be cooked whole. This allows for the most amount of meat to be harvested. The fillet is nice white meat with a neutral not fishy taste.

Yellowtail Snapper Fishing Regulations

In Florida yellowtail snapper is open 365 days a year. Each angler is allowed to keep 10 snappers per day. However, this limit is for 10 total snappers. That is 10 total not ten of each type. Snappers that are included in the 10 per day limit are mangrove, mutton, cubera, schoolmaster, vermilion, black, wenchman, queen, blackfin, silk, dog, and mahogany.

Some of these snappers such as the mangrove, mutton, and vermilion are only allowed 5 per day depending if they are caught in federal or state waters. Red snapper has a bag limit of one per person in federal waters and 2 per person in state water. It is important to not reach a limit and then fish in waters with a lower fish limit as you can get a ticket for that. Read the regulations on the Florida Fish and Wildlife website for more information.

How to Measure a Yellowtail Snapper

Measuring a yellowtail snapper is easy with a fish ruler. These are sometimes called golden rulers and have the front bent to allow the mouth of the fish to press against it.  This fish has a fork length of 12.25 inches and a total length of 15.5 inches. The 12-inch length for yellowtail snapper is a 12-inch total length and the tail can be pinched together during the measurement.

In this photo, I show the proper way to measure a yellowtail snapper. Place the front lip of the fish against the ruler and then pinch or squeeze the tail. The length of this snapper is 15.5 inches. It is common to catch yellowtail snapper from 8-22 inches. If you are going to keep the snapper it is a good idea to bleed the fish by cutting a gill and then quickly placing it in a cooler full of ice.

Fishing the Reef

Fishing for yellowtail snapper should be done with a light spinning rod and an ultralight spinning reel. This makes it fun to catch them and allows the fish to put a good fun fight. Pound-for-pound yellowtail snappers are very hard-fighting fish. Big yellowtail are called flags and get this distinction if they are over five pounds. The IGFA world record yellowtail was 11 pounds.

These fish are leader shy though and if you can see them and they are not biting going to a thinner line is a good idea. A 20-pound line is on the heavy side, a 10-pound monofilament line or fluorocarbon line is perfect. If a braided line is used make sure a fluorocarbon leader of at least 6 feet is added to the line.

When fishing the reef it is very likely that much larger fish will bite but these should be caught on heavier gear. On the surface, it is good to have a large live bait out for mackerel, wahoo, and barracuda. On the bottom, bigger rigs can be set up for sharks, grouper, and mutton snapper. In the middle water column, there can be spadefish, amberjacks, almaco jacks, jack crevalle, yellow jacks, and permit. Which such a large range of fish that can be caught it is good to be prepared with good bait and strong tackle. If all the tackle is too heavy though lots of cool fish that could be caught will be leader shy and not bite.

Other target species to catch when fishing with the light yellowtail snapper setup are rainbow runners, blue runners, hard nose jacks, spadefish, bonito, and other types of snapper.

The picture above shows a shark swimming with a school of around 100 yellowtail snapper. It is actually common to fish for these fish around goliath groupers, sharks, barracuda, and king mackerel. This means that when you are fishing for yellowtail snapper there are lots of other larger fish to catch as well.

The video above shows a large shark swimming with tons of yellowtail snapper.  The shark also has some blue runners and a remora swimming with it. It is common to catch blue runners, remora, barracuda, mackerel, and sharks when fishing the reef.

There are 113 different species of snapper. However, there are only about 10 that are commonly caught in Florida. This article shows pictures of snappers in the water and out of the water to help anglers identify different species of snappers. Most snappers can be caught in the Atlantic Ocean or the Gulf of Mexico but I will provide more details on that when talking about each type of snapper.

The photo above shows two lane snappers on ice in a fishing cooler. Lane snappers have a large black dot on its upper back between the dorsal fin and its tail. However, once the fish is on ice the dot becomes much less visible. It is important to properly identify the type of snapper before keeping it. This is because different types of snapper have different size limits and bag limits. Florida Fish and Wildlife have fishing regulations for each type of snapper. It is important to notice there are different regulations for the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean.

Yellowtail Snapper

Yellowtail snappers are an easy fish to identify because of the bright yellow tail which is also called the caudal fin. The eye, dorsal fins, adipose fin, pectoral fins, and pelvic fins are also yellow. There is also a long horizontal yellow line that runs the length of the fish. Juvenal and adult yellowtail snapper look very similar.

The upper back of the yellowtail snapper is light gray with yellow spots. Below the pectoral fin and the belly of the fish is white. In the water and when the fish is first caught the fish is mostly yellow and white. Once the fish is placed on ice, it turns pink, yellow, and white. In the photo above the fish is cold which is why it has a pink appearance.

The teeth are sharp and pointy so do not try to lip a snapper like largemouth bass. Fishing for yellowtail snapper is pretty easy as they are attracted to chum. In Florida, this type of snapper needs to be 12 inches long to keep and 10 fish can be kept per day per angler. This does count toward the 10 total snapper aggregate daily limit.

In the photo above is a yellowtail snapper that is about 12 inches in length swimming in the water. This is on a coral reef in the Florida keys. Notice the snapper is mostly yellow and white.

Yellowtail snappers are almost always in schools. This means that if you catch one you can usually catch more. Also if you catch a small fish most of the other fish will likely be small. For this reason, it is common to try multiple spots when yellowtail snapper fishing to try and locate a school with large keeper-size fish. This type of snapper lives near the bottom structure but will come up in the water column when feeding. For this reason, most yellowtail snapper spots are on structure but the bait is set at a mid-depth.

In the video above my dad and I show you how to catch yellowtail snappers. This is done using ballyhoo and fish hearts for bait.

Lane Snapper

In the photo above my dad caught a lane snapper in the Gulf of Mexico off the Florida keys. He is on a flats boat in shallow water.

This fish is pretty easy to identify but is commonly mistaken as a mutton snapper cause both have a large black dot on their upper back. The easy way to tell the difference is that lane snappers have yellow pelvic, anal, and dorsal fins. Lane snappers also have yellow horizontal lines. Mutton snappers have all red fins and vertical stripes.

Lane snappers are a smaller type of snapper. The IGFA world record for lane snapper is 8 pounds 3 ounces. In Florida lane snappers only need to have a total length of 8-inches which is a shorter length than most other snappers. Just make sure it is a lane snapper and not a small mutton snapper which must be 18 inches long to keep.

This is a close-up view of a lane snapper that was just caught on a small jig. Notice the unique colors. It has mostly yellow fins with a red tail. The fish is mostly white with yellow horizontal stripes. Also, it has a large black dot on the upper back behind the dorsal fin.

Mangrove Snapper

Mangrove snappers are the most common snapper in Florida. These fish are everywhere from in the mangrove in 6-inches of water to under deep ledges on the reef. In the photo are some mangrove snappers my brother, nephews, and I caught in the Florida keys fishing at night in kayaks.

In Florida, mangrove snappers need to be 10 inches long to keep in state water and 12 inches long to keep in federal waters. The IGFA work world record for gray snapper which is a mangrove snapper is 18 pounds 10 ounces. That is correct mangrove snappers get quite large and I even mistake them for mutton snappers sometimes when seeing them under a ledge when snorkeling.

Fishing for mangroves is super fun for kids cause they are plentiful and easy to catch. In the photo, my nephew Jesse caught a small gray snapper using a white jig with a small piece of bait.

Mangrove snappers are gray, brown, and light green in color. They also have a dark brown diagonal stripe on the front of the head near the eye. The stripes on gray snapper run vertically. The dorsal fin, adipose fin, and caudal fin are all gray or light brown. While the pectoral fins, pelvic fins, and fins have a shade of red.

In the water, mangrove snappers look light gray and have a pronounced horizontal stripe on their head running through their eye. In this picture, there are two large mangrove snappers feeding on some small minnows on the reef.

Mangrove snappers spawn late in the summer and there can be tens of thousands of snappers in one place on the reef. The spawning season is from early July through September. This makes for easy fishing if you find a location where mangrove snappers are spawning. This can be at depths from 20-80 feet. Many anglers will target them during this time of year during the day and at night.

In the video above Captain Aaron Young from Key West Waterman free dives with a large school of mangroves snapper. This gives you an idea of how many of these snappers can be found on the reef during the spawning season.

Mutton Snapper

Mutton snappers are one of the larger species of snapper. The IGFA world record is 30 pounds 4 ounces and was caught in the Dry Tortugas which is around 70 miles west of key west. These fish must be 18 inches long in order to keep them in Florida. Five mutton snappers can be kept per angler and this does count toward the 10 total snappers limit per angler per day. The snapper I am holding in the picture was caught in St. John in the USVI.

Mutton snappers are known to be leader shy and noisy tackle shy so typically a 20-plus foot 20-pound fluorocarbon leader is used. These fish can be found under ledges or in the flats around shipwrecks or large structures. Muttons snapper fishing is typically done by drifting with live bait rather than anchoring with chum.

Glasseye Snapper

The glasseye snapper is also called the toro snapper, or bigeye snapper. Technically it is not in the snapper family but is called a snapper. It is not in the Florida fishing regulations but I am pretty sure you can keep them it just counts toward your snapper limit. I am not positive about that though. People do keep them to eat and say they smell bad but taste alright.

It is not a common fish to catch but can be found on the reef or near the bottom of deep water. The glasseye snapper I  am holding in the photo was caught in St. John in the United States Virgin Islands. They can also be caught in Florida and up the Atlantic coast. It has a large glass-like eye which is where it gets its name. It is pretty much all red in color including the fins and body.

Queen Snapper

Queen snappers are found in deep water. In the Florida keys, these are targeted near ledges in 700 to 1,000 feet of water. This fishing method is called deep dropping and is also used to catch snowy grouper, barrelfish, and tilefish. In Florida, each angler can catch 10 of these fish per day and there is no size limit. The 10 fish does count toward the 10 total snappers that can be kept per angler.

Queen snapper can be quite large and the IGFA world record is 28 pounds. Fish this large are probably caught frequently but do not count as a record if an electric fishing reel is used. Common baits are bonito strips, chunks of barracuda, and squid.

The fish has a similar color to red snapper but is a longer more slender fish. Queen snapper are red and pink in color with a lighter shade of pink and white on the belly. The dorsal fin and adipose fin are separated on a queen snapper. On a red snapper, the dorsal fin and adipose fin are continuous.

Red Snapper

Red snappers are a sought-after type of snappers for their size and taste. Their season only lasts about 2 months from mid-June to the end of July. The IGFA world record is 50 pounds 4 ounces. In order to keep a red snapper in the Gulf of Mexico, it needs to be 16 inches, in Atlantic waters it needs to be 20 inches long. This snapper has the same shape as mangrove, mutton, and lane snapper. The difference is this snapper is red. It is common to travel 20 miles out or further in the Gulf of Mexico to catch red snapper in water deeper than 80 feet. It is important to have a fish descender to send fish that will be released back to depth safely.

Cubera Snapper

Cubera snappers are the largest of the snapper species. The IGFA world record for Atlantic Cubera is 124 pounds 12 ounces. For Pacific Cubera the record is 78 pounds 12 ounces. In Florida, in the Gulf of Mexico, and in the Atlantic ocean the snapper needs to be 12 inches in length to keep and the angler or boat can only have a maximum of two Cubera over 30 inches onboard.

Vermillion Snapper

Vermillion snappers are red and have large eyes and a round head shape. In order to keep a vermillion snapper in Florida, it needs to be 10 inches in the Gulf of Mexico and 12 inches in the Atlantic ocean. The shape of the head, more slender body, and a more forked tail are what help distinguish the vermillion snapper from the red snapper. Queen snapper also looks similar but will have an even more forked tail and the dorsal fin and adipose will not be connected.

Schoolmaster Snapper

Schoolmaster snappers are light brown, gray, and have yellow fins. The vertical stripes are white. To keep this type of snapper in Florida it needs to be 10 inches in length. It can be caught in the Atlantic Ocean and in the Gulf of Mexico.