🌊 Best on the any💨 Likes calm wind📅 Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct
- Water temp
- 73–86°F
- Depth
- 10–49 ft
- Max weight
- 3.3lb
- Day vs night
- ☀️ 🌙
Yellowtail snapper are the slim, blue-backed snapper with a bright yellow stripe and deeply forked tail, a reef fish that shore anglers reach mainly in the Florida Keys and along the southeast coast from Palm Beach to Miami. From land they come to the Keys bridges and channels, the deeper jetties and inlets, and pier ends that reach clear water close to reef. They are around most of the year in the Keys, best in the warm months, and bite well at dusk and into the night on a moving tide. They are sharp-eyed and line-shy: chum steadily with menhaden or crushed pilchards, then drift a small piece of shrimp, squid or a live pilchard back in the slick on 15–20 lb fluorocarbon, a size 1–1/0 circle hook and little or no lead. Light spinning tackle with 10–15 lb braid gives the best presentation. They have small teeth. Excellent eating; check current FWC rules before keeping one.
Best bait for yellowtail snapper
- 1 Pilchards (Scaled Sardines)
- 2 Dead Shrimp
- 3 Squid Strips
- 4 Menhaden (Pogy)
Rigs that work
- 1 Freeline Live Bait
- 2 Split-Shot Rig
- 3 Knocker Rig
