#Red snapper season florida 2021 how to#

If anything was going to make me feel better before this adventure, it was going to be drinking from the fountain of youth, so we decided to stop and give it a shot. Augustine is legendary, known as the place where Ponce De Leon discovered healing waters. I needed a pick me up and there it was, a sign from God: The Fountain of Youth. But in the back of my mind, I was worried that I could be infected with covid. I was hoping it was just dry ice gases I accidentally inhaled earlier that took my breath away. Augustine when I started to feel like I was coming down with something. Everything was underway and we were on route to St. So we packed up our spearfishing gear, put the boat on the trailer and hit the road. The weather forecast looked absolutely perfect for that weekend, so we knew that during the 3 day season for the most sought-after fish in Florida, there were going to be a lot of boats out on the water. I had the general location picked out, but how was I going to find the fish? I started studying sonar charts and specifically charts found on CMOR maps to find structures on the Ocean floor that would lead us to spots that hopefully a majority of other anglers wouldn’t know about. Augustine, which has an inlet located in between Cape Canaveral and The Port of Jacksonville, two massive ports that would surely murk up the water pretty bad. In my experience, the further away you are from an inlet, the clearer the water is going to be. I started studying maps while focusing on areas with clear water. After doing some digging, I found that they tend to be more prevalent above an area named Cape Canaveral.

Since I’ve never seen any red snappers in the areas I normally spearfish, I needed to do some research to find out where these fish were hanging out.

#Red snapper season florida 2021 how to#

And wouldn’t you know, those 3 days just so happen to fall right before the family reunion! We only had one small issue, neither Christine nor I have ever even seen red snappers while out on the water, let alone swim up to any and shoot them with spearguns! So we had some work to do to figure out how to get these fish we’ve never hunted into our boat and onto the dinner table. Meaning, we only had 3 days to hunt for these fish. Now, the American red snapper on the east coast of Florida only has a 3-day recreational season. Luckily for us, Red Snapper happened to be one of the 17 fish species we were targeting for the Florida Spearfishing Tournament so, if we succeeded, we would be killing two birds with one stone. How can you go wrong with Red Snapper? The answer is, you can't. When Christine and I were trying to figure out what kind of fish would be the best to serve the family, one particularly delicious fish came to mind, the American Red Snapper. The menu would be fish tacos, a favorite of mine and Christine, and I thought it would be really cool if we caught the fish we served for dinner. Being an amateur chef I chose to cook dinner for everyone. No pressure Christine!Īt our family reunions, everyone chips in with chores and I was given the options of cooking dinner for everyone one night or cleaning dishes. But this time was special because I decided I was going to introduce my girlfriend Christine to my family for the first time. This year was no different, there were about 40 of us that were attending the reunion. Follow our adventures as my girl, my dog and myself, experience the thrill of traveling all around Florida on a mission to spearfish the 17 biggest fish we can find for the tournament.Įvery couple of years my family has a big reunion in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina where we rent a large house and get together for a week or so. The competition lasts the better part of the year, and its competitors are only allowed to submit fish they harvested in Florida waters. In order to win, competitors attempt to harvest the biggest possible fish in each of the 17 categories of species outlined in the rulebook. My girlfriend and I are competing in what is known as The Florida Spearfishing Tournament.