Red Snapper Season at Alabama's Gulf Coast
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“At this writing, red snapper season is scheduled for June 1 until June 28,” Chris Blankenship, Director of the Marine Resources Division for the State of Alabama, says. “The average red snapper brought to the docks last year was a little over 9 pounds. Our region should have another outstanding crop of snapper this year and has been trying to convince the National Marine Fisheries Service to lengthen our season. Early in the season, even the reefs only 8 miles from shore will be loaded with red snapper. To get the bigger snapper, you'll have to move out into deeper water.”
Alabama has approximately 17,000 artificial reefs in Alabama's artificial reef zone. More than 1,000 pyramid-type reefs were deployed in conjunction with the Orange Beach Fishing Association (orangebeachfishingassociation.com). More than 100 decommissioned military tanks have been converted into artificial reefs. “Liberty” ships, pipes, bridge spans, bridge rubble and voting machines have been sunk to create a trolling alley. There are plenty of reefs for everyone to catch snapper this season.
“The best baits for snapper always have been cut-up cigar minnows, cut squid, whole cigar minnows and whole squid,” Blankenship explains. “To catch bigger snapper, live croakers or live white trout may be your best baits. I can promise you, live bait won't be on the bottom long before a snapper takes it.” If you put out a drift line with a whole cigar minnow while you're fishing for snapper, you'll also have a good chance of catching a king mackerel or a cobia on Alabama's Gulf Coast in June. Too, we have plenty of triggerfish, white snapper, vermilion snapper, lane snapper and other fish to catch after you've caught your limit of red snapper.” If you're coming to Alabama's Gulf Coast for snapper season, you should see some of the most and biggest fish anglers on Alabama's Gulf Coast ever have seen and caught.
For more information about Gulf Shores and Orange Beach, visit www.orangebeach.com/fishing, our easy to access fishing information pages complete with marina and charter captain listings. For any questions, call Gulf Shores & Orange Beach Tourism's vacation-planning specialists at 1-800-745-SAND (7263). For a list of cook-your-catch restaurants, go to www.orangebeach.com/dining-nightlife/restaurants.
