Coming up on this weekend’s full moon is a good bite from one of my favorite fish to catch. The Big Bend’s inshore mangrove snapper don’t grow as big as our offshore snapper, but there are days I’ve been surprised on light tackle.  Mangrove snapper can turn on into a feeding frenzy so good you can get one on every cast – and just as soon as it happens it can shut down.  Rock piles, wrecks, markers, and springs are the best places to fish for them and mangrove snapper can be caught from three feet of water out to 10. 

Moving tide is good, but I’ve found that when the high tide come to a stand ( slack ) is the best bite. The water is generally clear so you can see the fish and I use live shrimp for bait. Pinch the tail of the shrimp and thread a 1/8 oz. chartreuse jighead into the tail. Push the point out of the bottom as the keeper part of the jighead penetrates the tail of the shrimp. Mangroves respond to chumming so use the shrimp tails to chum. If there is to much chum in the water, it draws in undesirable species like puffer fish and catfish. 

Two of my favorite ways to eat mangroves are to use pecan flour and fry the fillets, or scale, gut and head the fish. Then make two to three cuts on it’s side and marinate them in soy sauce for about 15 minutes. After that fry them in hot oil, no breading. Peel the meat off and use a peanut ginger sauce to dip it in.

High incoming tide will be in the afternoon this weekend. 

Homosassa Weekly Fishing Report from Captain William Toney

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