The Snapper Banks off of Savannah are home to a huge population of fish that get comparatively light fishing pressure. Not many recreational anglers will make a trip that far, and certainly won't make it on a regular basis. So we have a few charter boats that make the trip from Savannah and a few more that operate out of Brunswick, Georgia. The fishing out there can be good - really good!
We arrived over the live bottom area that runs about ten miles wide from forty to fifty miles offshore. The area also runs from about Brunswick on the south to Charleston on the north end. Ledges, humps, and all variety of marine life populate this live bottom area that would otherwise be a vast sandy bottom, void of living creatures. A prominent part of this area is the seventeen square mile Gray's Reef National Marine Sanctuary.
The water here runs from about 80 to 120 feet deep. This time of year, the red snapper have just moved onto the area from deeper water and we found them in water about 110 feet deep. As soon as we stopped the boat and dropped some whole squid baits, we got hook ups. Two real nice snapper made the ice chest, and we dropped our baits again.
We caught a good number of snapper, most of them just an inch or less short of the 20 inch minimum length. Later in the spring these fish will be legal harvest size. It was amazing that the fast-action snapper fishing only lasted for about an hour. After that, we caught the requisite black sea bass, vermillion snapper (Beeliners), and other bottom fish, but the red snapper seemed to just quit.
Captain Steve Amick from Amick Charters, our host on this trip, explained that the snapper feed really heavily on the slack tides, either high or low. We had arrived and started fishing just before the high slack, and the fish were turned on. As he explained it, the snapper were still there, just "hunkered" down to avoid the bottom current. A fairly significant current runs the bottom in this area.
I have some advice for any of you that would like to plan a private trip looking for some very good red snapper and grouper fishing. First, don't go alone. At the very least make sure you have a long range antenna and minimum 25-watt VHF radio on board. Second, plan your fuel to cover about 120 miles in your boat. The run out and back is 90 miles, and if the seas pick up, you burn lots of fuel getting back. Third, pick a good weather day. Don't chance it this far offshore. Squalls can come out of nowhere, leaving you as a statistic!
Give the Savannah Snapper Banks a try this spring. It's a perfect time to hook that big red snapper or a trophy sized gag grouper. The best bet on your first attempt is to give Captain Steve Amick a call at 912-897-6759. He can take you on a great snapper trip, and teach you how to catch them. Tell him I sent you!
