Breakdown to Success
Six Secrets to Catching Big Red Snapper
Editors
Note: Brian Bracknell of Mobile, Alabama, has fished
out of Orange Beach for most of his life. Two years
ago, Bracknell got a new boat, the “Crowd Pleezer,”
and decided to make charter fishing his primary business.
One of Bracknell’s unique characteristics is that
he’s learned how to snatch victory out of defeat.
In the 2006 Red Snapper World Championship, Bracknell’s
never-say-die attitude earned him over $5,000 and enabled
one of his anglers to catch the red snapper of a lifetime.
“Although many ingredients come together to produce
a red snapper big enough to win money in the Red Snapper
World Championship, I believe there are several keys
to finding and catching that tournament-winning fish,”
Bracknell explains.
1) “The captain has to build his own artificial
reefs every year. I have
certain spots that I only fish during the Red Snapper
World Championship.
2) “You have to save some spots each year for
the Red Snapper World Championship. Some areas will
naturally produce more big snapper than other spots
will. I don’t know why; I just know it happens.
I believe that red snapper migrate. I don’t think
they spend their entire lives on one wreck or reef.
If you build an artificial reef along the red snapper’s
regular migratory route, you’re much more likely
to produce a big snapper on that reef than if you just
build a reef out in open water. The best way to save
a spot is to build a reef, and then forget it even exists
for 2 to 3 years. You don’t fish this reef, and
you hope somebody else doesn’t find this reef;
you totally forget that the reef even exists. Now, if
you’re lucky enough that nobody finds this reef
or nobody fishes this reef for that 2- to 3-year period,
then your chances are better to find a snapper on it
when you fish that reef. I like to build at least 10
to 15 reefs every year. Out of those 10 to 15 reefs,
I generally leave at least two of those reefs alone
and not fish them for at least 2 to 3 years.
3) “Once I decide to fish one of those hidden
reefs, I may or may not fish it more than once or at
the most, two to three times during the tournament.
Now, this is not an absolute. I’ve caught big
snapper on a spot that I fish regularly, which is why
I believe that snapper migrate.
4) “We usually catch our biggest snapper on drift
lines out the back of the boat. A drift line is simply
a hook with a live or a dead bait on it and no lead,
which we drop overboard and allow to drift behind the
boat. We’ve discovered that the bigger snapper
usually hold higher up in the river column than the
smaller snapper do. As the live bait swims down toward
the bottom, many times the bigger snapper will take
it.
5) “I’ll be fishing reefs that
I haven’t fished in several years to give each
one of the parties that I fish during the Red Snapper
World Championship a chance to catch a money fish every
day during the tournament. However, many times our big
fish will come off reefs that we fish regularly. The
biggest element to your success in catching and finding
big red snapper is going to be luck. Each one of the
captains fishing during the Red Snapper World Championship
is trying to catch the winning red snapper for his clients
and his boat. Remember, the boat wins just as much money
as the angler who catches the red snapper, and there’s
as much incentive for each captain to catch a trophy
snapper as there is for each angler. So, every captain
is trying to catch that big snapper every day of the
tournament.
6) “The one factor that seems to produce the
most big red snapper is reefs with or made of rusty
metal because big snapper seem to prefer those reefs
to concrete or natural bottom reefs. If two reefs sit
side-by-side, one made of concrete and one made of rusty
metal, the rusty metal will hold more and better fish.
One of the reasons that more big snapper may be holding
on rusty metal reefs is because on a reef that has rusty
metal, a big old snapper can pull that line against
that metal and usually get free. Now, if you put on
a bigger leader so that the leader won’t get cut
when the snapper goes into the metal, then you don’t
get the bite. Hooking-up a big snapper is only half
the battle of getting that snapper on the boat. Once
you hook him, you’ve got to get him away from
that reef. On our boat, we lose big fish just about
every other day because the fish break off, or they
get into the wreck, and we can’t get them out.”
To fish with Captain Brian Bracknell, you can contact
him at (251) 471-2868, or (251) 379-8099. You also can
write him at Captain Brian Bracknell, 2405 South Vaughan
Drive, Mobile, Alabama 36605, email him at brackimk@aol.com
or visit his website, www.crowdpleezer.com.
To learn more about the Red Snapper World Championship,
check out www.orangebeachsnapper.com.
For more information on the Orange Beach area, go to
www.orangebeach.com
or call the Alabama Gulf Coast Convention and Visitor’s
Bureau at (800) 745-7263.
Tomorrow: How to Hit the Home
Run on a Big Red Snapper
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