Fishing with Captain Maurice Fitzsimmons
Big Snapper Bait
 Editor’s
Note: On the last weekend of snapper season, I went
fishing at Orange Beach, Alabama, with Captain Maurice
Fitzsimmons on his 100-foot long charter boat, the “Miss
Celeste” - the biggest and fastest charter boat
in Orange Beach. The seas were rough, and only two boats
were able to get out in the water at 7:00 a.m. However,
because of the size and the speed of Captain Fitz’s
boat, we were able to take 18 people out for a day of
snapper fishing, limit out on red snapper and return
to the dock by 4:00 p.m. We also watched any college
football game we wanted on the boat’s wide-screen
television with satellite hookups, while sitting in
comfortable, overstuffed couches and eating all of our
favorite foods. Life doesn’t get any better than
this. Captain Fitz was also the creative mind who came
up with the Red Snapper World Championship (RSWC), which
has been responsible for one of the largest public artificial-reef-building
programs in the nation, and has one of the strongest
sportsmen’s lobbies in Washington. This week,
you’ll meet Captain Fitz, learn how and why the
RSWC began, and how to catch big snapper.
 Question:
What bait do you use to catch big snapper, and why do
you use that bait?
Fitz: We use northern mackerel, Boston mackerel, cigar
minnows and squid. We use both dead and live bait. There
are days when live bait is better than dead bait, and
other days when dead bait is the most productive. The
northern mackerel has been the most-effective bait we’ve
used in recent years.
Question: Why are you using single-hook rigs called
sow rigs, instead of double-hook rigs like most traditional
bottom fishermen?
Fitz: Because of the weather being so rough to the east
and to the south of Orange Beach today, we had to go
to the west to places I’ve created primarily for
snapper. If we could’ve run to the south or to
the east, we would’ve caught a wide variety of
fish, including mingo snapper and triggerfish. When
we get into those varieties, we use a double-hook rig,
and we use cut bait like cut cigar minnows and cut squid.
When we’re fishing for big snapper, we’ll
usually fish with only a single-hook rig.
Question: What’s required to catch a really-big
snapper?
Fitz: A lot of luck. To catch that very-big snapper,
you’ve got to have the right bait, be at the right
spot, at the right time and have the right tackle and
the right angler. 
Question: How do you get a really-big snapper on the
deck?
Fitz: You’ve got to make sure there are no nicks
in the line, and you’ve got to have an angler
who keeps the snapper’s head pointed-up and continues
to wind the reel from the time he hooks the fish, until
he gets the snapper up to a point where the first mate
can gaff him. There’s just an incredible amount
of luck and a lot of things that have to happen the
right way to get a big snapper to bite, get him hooked,
pull him all the way to the surface without his getting
off the hook and put him into the boat. If big snapper
were easy, every body would catch them every day. This
is the reason that the Red Snapper World Championship
(RSWC) is one of the fairest fishing tournaments. On
any given day, anyone has the chance to win. We’ ve
had many anglers lead the tournament and win who’ve
caught 20- and 30-pound snapper on a 6-hour trip fishing
a public reef. We’ve had other fishermen who didn’t
pay $5 for a ticket to enter the RSWC who would’ve
won the whole tournament and $25,000 cash, if they’d
just bought a ticket. We also have a rodeo in October,
and this year, the first two big red snapper that were
brought in that would’ve won the tournament. However,
neither angler had bought his $5 ticket. Both these
red snapper were 30-pound fish, which are huge red snapper.
Those anglers would’ve won $2,500 for the October
tournament, which is a pretty good return for a $5 investment.
When fishermen understand that $5 not only goes toward
prize money, but also enables us to build more public-fishing
reefs and lobby for better sport-fishing laws and regulations,
the $5 entry fee shouldn’t be a problem for anyone.
You can’t get more bang for your buck than when
you enter the RSWC.
Question: We’ve talked a lot about red snapper.
But you catch plenty of other good-eating fish, don’t
you?
Fitz: Sure we do. We catch cobia, amberjack, triggerfish,
vermilion snapper, white snapper,  all
the groupers and king mackerel. There’s plenty
of good-catching, good-eating fish off Alabama’s
Gulf Coast. But our fishermen are primarily known for
their red snapper. That’s the reason we’re
concerned about the possibility of the red snapper season
and the number of red snapper that our fishermen can
catch being reduced.
To find the locations of Alabama’s public reefs,
visit www.outdooralabama.com/fishing/saltwater/where/artificial-reefs/.
To learn more about the Red Snapper World Championship,
go to http://redsnapper.orangebeachsnapper.com/.
To fish with Captain Fitz, you can reach him at (251)
626-9437. To learn more about the Orange Beach/Gulf
Shores area, check out www.orangebeach.com, or call
– 1-800-745-7263. For more information on the
Orange Beach Fishing Association, go to www.gulffishing.net/.
Tomorrow: Orange Beach Fishing
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