• Peak Season: Year Round
• Best Charter:Full Day Offshore
• Best Technique: Deep Dropping
• Best Bait: Bonito Chunks
• Table Fare: Excellent

Yellow-eye Snapper Fishing in Miami

Schools of yellow-eye snapper (aka silky snapper) can be found roaming deeper reefs and rocky bottom from 250-500 feet. Deep dropping is the technique used to target these elusive snapper. The most important aspect of targeting yellow-eye snapper is pinpointing areas where they congregate. To find them, you must have a depth sounder paired with a minimum 1kw transducer. While using the bottom lock setting (zoom) look for areas in the 250-500 foot depth where you mark bait and rock piles or other forms of structure. After marking an area that looks promising, the next step is getting baits to the bottom. As far as tackle is concerned, we like using 20-40 pound class rods and reels (spinning or conventional works). The important part is to spool these rods with at least 300 yards of 50 pound braid so you can get to the bottom with less lead and feel the bite. Some fisherman prefer electric reels but yelloweye snapper can be targeted in shallow enough water where you can get away with either. As far as the rig is concerned, we like using chicken rigs with 80 pound monofilament and 6/0 circle hooks. These rigs are about 6 feet long and have 5 hooks with a snap swivel on the bottom which connects to the weight. For lead we like using 2-4 pounds depending on the current. If the current is over 2 knots, we usually stick to another form of fishing entirely. We prefer small cut baits of bonito, barracuda, or squid. Technique is very simple for the angler, drop the lead to the bottom and let it sit with a little bit of tension and wait until you feel the pecks of multiple fish hitting the bait. We like to then reel slowly for the first few feet then pick up the speed as the rod loads. Snapper fishing is a lot of fun, if everything is done right you usually get bit shortly after getting to the bottom. We often catch several fish at a time and there are always a few other species thrown in such as vermillion snapper, red grouper, snowy grouper, porgys, and more. After hooking up, the next step is getting the fish past the sharks and barracuda and into the fish box. Yellow-eye snapper must be a minimum of 12" total length and they are included in the 10 snapper per angler per day aggregate bag limit in the state of Florida.