Fishing with snappers

[Togman316]

Has anyone had any luck fishing snappers in the ocean? Might be headed out sunday and I may try to use them. I normally just bucktail but I heard they work well. Personally I've never had much luck with them.

[reely]

Big fluke love em . Dead stick a rod with snappers and bucktail.

[rumster]

As the previous poster mentioned big fluke love them. I have used them alive and had success, but fishing them dead is a great way to go too. When I catch quite a few I butterfly them filleting them from the tail to the head and remove the backbone, but still leaving the the flesh attached to the head. It has the same profile and ridiculous action. I also sew the mouth shut and cut off the fins and tail to avoid spinning. Good Luck

[mstolte617]

Tried live snappers last week around Sandy Hook. Gave up and went to killies and gulp, after an hour. Had one big hit, and all that was left was the head the snapper. I think the snappers i was using were a tad too big. about 6" or 7"

[Gerry Zagorski]

Yep lots of big fish caught on snappers and they are best fished alive but work dead as well. Peanut bunker are starting to come around too... Much easier to catch if you can throw a cast net and much heartier/easy to keep alive in a live well.

[fishinanalyst]

any peanuts around atlantic highlands of late? thanx.

[WhaleFart]

Snappers are a great bait for fluke, weakfish and even bass. I noticed that they are most productive for me when I'm fishing in the bay or river, out on the ocean bucktails are the way to go. The only time I will use them in the ocean is when there is no drift and I launch one out on a fisher finer rig with light weight and just let him move around till something finds him.

In the bay I always dead stick a big bait like a live snapper or even a large peice of fluke belly and have caught some real pigs.