For anglers wanting a shot at one of the most fun to catch and best tasting fish, the news they’ve eagerly been awaiting came March 7 when the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries announced the 2025 red snapper regulations.
The private recreational season will open May 1 in state and federal waters and run seven days a week. The daily bag limit will be four fish per angler with a 16-inch minimum length. The 2025 allocation was set at 894,955 pounds with the season closing when the allocation approaches or reaches that amount.
With what can be long runs burning lots of time and fuel, anglers want to return to port with the largest fish they can catch each trip. That’s why it’s important to learn from fellow anglers and pros when they offer guidance.
Capt. Gavin Madden with Venice Charters Unlimited (venicecharters.com) routinely combines runs to the snapper grounds with inshore trips out of a 25-foot Skeeter. Though young by most standards, Madden, 24, is extremely knowledgeable and successful at the offshore and inshore games. In addition to guiding for Venice Charters Unlimited, he’s also worked as a deckhand for Capt. Peace Marvel and guided for sea ducks, trout and salmon in Alaska.
“When looking to put clients on snapper, I’ll stay away from the rigs and fish bottom structure such as pipelines and contour changes in the 200-foot range,” Madden said. “While some would think it’s just a pipe on the sea floor, there are lots of headers and valve clusters where pipelines intersect that are bigger and taller than the pipeline itself.”
This was something I was unaware of until watching the screen on a trip a few years ago. Keeping an eye on the depth finder while making a run offshore can pay off.
Snapper setup
When going after red snapper, my crew tries to make as many trips early in the season as possible before the fish have been hit pretty hard and also there are still plenty of the big females, aka sows. Since we’re fishing out of a 21-foot bay boat, we stay close to shore, running further out isn’t in the cards due to fuel limitations and the chance of getting caught out in rough seas. We may have to rig hop, but usually get limits of red snapper easily with some other fish such as grouper, amberjack, cobia and mangrove snapper for lagniappe depending on what’s open.
To up the odds at landing the biggest snapper, my early season go-to rod and reel set up is a lever drag/wind reel on a 6-foot heavy action rod. The business end is a Carolina rig with a 14/0 circle hook snelled to 4 feet of 100-pound mono or fluorocarbon leader with a barrel swivel on the other end knotted to 100-pound braid. Above the swivel is an egg sinker to get the bait down. I find that 6 or 8 ounces works well down to depths of 180-200 feet and when the snapper are holding shallower. Let the depth and current dictate the sinker weight and keep plenty of different weights on board.
Bait for red snapper
Madden uses a different setup for his red snapper fishing trips.
“I fish 10/0 circle hooks on a double rig with 16 ounces of weight at the bottom with a 100-pound mono leader,” he said. “When it comes to bait, frozen pogies, squid and cigar minnows are popular choices, but fresh bait holds up better and puts out more scent.”
A member of the jack family, ‘hardtails,’ aka blue runners, are usually around the rigs and easy to catch with tandem shad rigs or sabiki rigs. The plan is to fish a large bait, and shad rigs tend to catch bigger hardtails and are less hassle than sabikis.
With a large hardtail, fillet it, hook it through the thick end and send it down. The school can be anywhere in the water column, so let the electronics dictate the depth to start fishing. The plan is that smaller snapper will hit it, but the large hook makes it difficult to hook themselves. The bigger sow snapper will come to investigate and hit it. The hard part is not reeling too much until you’re sure you are hooked up, since the smaller snapper can still shake and swim with the bait. Another tactic is to hook a live hardtail through the nose or back and clip its tail fins. It will swim like crazy but won’t get too far before it gets nailed.
When asked, Madden shared his preferred baits.
“I’ll keep croakers on ice caught while fishing for trout and redfish and use them as cut bait, but also have frozen squid,” he said.
He agreed about hardtails, but since he’s not fishing rigs he has a tougher time finding them.
Getting away from the crowds
All rigs nowadays seem to hold red snapper, but close-in rigs with good populations of snapper can get crowded. While most anglers tend to fish right next to them, the fish can be a good distance off the rigs since the legs can angle out from some platforms. Making a pass further out while watching the fish finder will pinpoint them, and GPS enabled position-locking trolling motors can put the boat in the best spot, taking wind and current into effect. If they do happen to be in tight to the rig, using the trolling motor to hold up current and chumming to pull them away from the rig can also pay off and bring out some bonus mangroves.
Looking to get away from the crowds? The LDWF website has a listing of artificial reefs that gives their name/block number, distance from closest port, depth and coordinates starting at depths of 100 feet. On a trip to one a few years ago out of Empire, we boated a quick five-man limit of nice snapper with no other boats in sight.
Important requirements
In terms of what is required to be legal, each angler must have a valid state basic and saltwater license and a valid Recreational Offshore Landing Permit (ROLP). A link to obtain it is available on the LDWF website. It isn’t required for those on private charters.
Since cell service will be spotty or non-existent while offshore, a good idea is to keep a screenshot of the licenses and ROLP saved in your phone’s photo file should enforcement agents conduct a check.
Also required on the vessel is a de-venting or descending device to allow undersized or closed-season fish to recover from barotrauma and a de-hooking device. Hooks used must be non-stainless steel circle hooks.
The red snapper are thick, hungry and waiting, so take advantage of those weather windows. Make sure your boat and gear are in perfect working order and get out there. Tangling with big red snapper is a lot of fun, even though they may leave you feeling sore after. Plus, they are great any way you choose to prepare them.
