# Ft. Pierce Inlet Mangrove Snapper 4/18/10



## SnookMook (Jan 7, 2004)

This past weekend I made a trip over to the Atlantic side to spend a little time with my Pop and attend an informal bash with some good fishing pals I met through the forums.

Well you just know I was going to end up doing some fishing. Early Sunday afternoon, I made it out to south jetty at Ft. Pierce Inlet. 

While out scouting on Saturday, I saw a few usual suspect 24 inch size snook caught. Nothing to write home or the Internet about, I decided, so I figured I’d leave the snook alone.

I had received some good reports of mangrove snapper hitting around the inlet. It was a good outgoing tide so I decided that was my target species for the day. 

I loaded up with some live shrimp from one of the area bait shops and hit a few of my go to spots out there. Over the past few years, I’ve had good success at these spots. However, on Sunday they yielded nothing, but short, baby grouper and small toadfish. 

These toadfish were relentless and ate through more shrimp than I’d like to admit. Needless to say, it took some moving around before I found a good school of mangrove snapper. 

I moved all over the place and hit the jetty from the inlet side and the ocean side. I also worked the “T” and finally found some snapper all the way out at the end in swift moving current on the inlet side. 

The first snapper I caught was an 11 inch keeper, and I proceeded to catch a good dozen or so after that. 










Most were just legal at 10 inches and the biggest went 12 inches. I ended up keeping my limit of five going 11-12 inches for dinner that night.

Five small mangrove snapper make a fine meal for two people. Especially when one of them, that being my father, has never had them before. 

I think he’s a fan now too. On my way out of town today he asked if that was all the fish I’d caught this weekend.


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