The Tampa Bay Times
Mid-December in the Gulf of Mexico has welcomed gag groupers in most of the shallow diving depths. Two to three weeks ago the gag groupers were prevalent in depths of 80’ to 50’ of water. Then in the past week, it became easier to find them in shallower depths. If the visibility is good enough, most of the divers can find gags in water less than 40’. Dive sites south of John’s Pass had better shallow water visibility and if the bait is home divers have been successful. Gag grouper season closes at the end of this month. Both divers and fishermen are hoping to get a window of good weather before January 1st to try their hand at the last of the 2022 gags. Divers and fishermen are also finding mangrove snappers mixed in with the gag groupers. Some of the more experienced spearfishermen are coming to the boat with mangrove snappers over five pounds. Mixed in with some of these mangrove snappers, some of our divers managed to spear a few small cubera snappers. Cubera snappers run bigger than mangroves and a small cubera can easily weigh over 15 pounds. These snappers are sometimes called “cuban snappers”. Adult cubera snappers average 30 to 40 pounds and the big ones can get over 100 pounds. They are often confused with mangrove snappers, as they look very similar. To know for sure which snapper you have, the cubera has a triangle tooth patch on the roof of the mouth and the mangrove has an anchor shaped tooth patch.
- Jay Mastry - March 26, 2024
- Captains Corner, Gorta - March 23, 2024
- Dave Zalewski - March 12, 2024
