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ANGLER'S GUIDE TO FISHES OF THE GULF OF MEXICO!
This book is a given for recreational and commercial fishermen as well as anyone who loves the outdoors! Since most anglers identify their fish by reviewing illustrations rather than using scientific keys, the authors have succeeded in making fishing easier by providing superb illustrations and detailed diagnostics for fish identification. A valuable, one-stop reference tool for everyday anglers, fisheries experts, biologists, and outdoors writers, this guide includes intensively researched information on 207 species of saltwater fish, essential data on each species’ habitat, identification, typical size, and food value. By Jerald Horst & Mike Lane, illustrated by Duane Raver. 207 species. |
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| Other Names : | Bee-liner, Mingo, Bastard Snapper, Vermillion Snapper | | Range & Habitat : | Gulfwide in waters 80 to 350 feet deep. They often form large schools, suspended off of the bottom over large, rocky, bottom protrusions called “lumps” in the northern Gulf of Mexico. When near the bottom, they prefer a rocky bottom, although they can be caught at offshore oil and gas platforms. Although vermilion snapper are found Gulfwide, most of the recreational catch is made in the eastern Gulf by Florida and Alabama anglers. | | Identification & Biology : | Body color is a vermilion red above, fading to pink on the lower sides, then silver on the belly. They have fine diagonal to horizontal yellow stripes below the lateral line. It has a more streamlined body shape than most other snappers.
Vermilion snappers feed very little on bottom creatures, preferring tiny pinhead-size plankton such as copepods, amphipods, and larval stomatopods, crabs, fish, and shrimp. Vermilion snappers spawn repeatedly between late April and the end of September. Each female is estimated to spawn 23 to 93 times per season. The number of eggs varies with the size of the fish, from about 20,000 for a 7-inch fish to 350,000 for a 15-inch fish. They are small snappers and relatively slow-growing, reaching only 5-7 inches by age 1. Sexual maturity usually occurs in their third or fourth year at 10-12 inches although some mature in their first year. Their growth rate is quite variable, with fish of the same age being of dramatically different sizes. Vermilion snappers can live to 21 years old. | | Size : | Averages 1-2 pounds, occasionally over 5 pounds. | | Food Value : | Excellent | | Description by: Jerald Horst, Associate Professor, Fisheries - LSU AgCenter |
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