# St. Joe snapper and robbery report



## ABBYS DAD (Jun 27, 2011)

Went down for my very first time to fish with my friend who has a place in Port St. Joe. We went out Friday aboard his Edgewater to try our luck on some artificial reefs about 17 miles out. My buddy sent down the first cigar minnow down into the depths of the gulf and returned to him the first red snapper. Big smiles for me when my rod tipped bent just a few seconds later with my very first salt water fish ever, a nice dog snapper. The next drop, another fish was on my line, we were on the fish! That's were the happiness ends....... Upon reeling my next catch of the day to the surface, the line tightened and the rod was almost ripped from my hands. Being my first time out, I had no idea what I had on the other end. I was shouting for my buddy to come over to my aid. This is when the culprit, showed itself.......flipper. We had a pod of dolphins that surrounded our boat. One of them had my snapper. The snapper broke off the line and a free meal for flipper and his pards. We thought that this was just a one time deal, we were wrong. Every time we dropped a line, we had snapper. And every time we brought it up, the dolphins would take off with it, breaking or line or just taking the whole fish. All in all it was a fun time, but how do you get to keep some fish down there when the theiving dolphins take your catch away? My buddy who has been fishing there for 20 plus years tells me he's never seen that happen before. Oh well...... can't wait to go back, but hope flipper and his gang leave us alone!


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## stev (Jun 27, 2011)

Its a rare occasion for flipper to bite your hook or bait .in my 30 yrs of salt catching ive had 1 flipper caught .actually fowl hooked in the dorsal.
sounds like u had a good time 
now you are hooked for life.get yourself prepared for your new adventure.


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## PROLINE JIM (Jun 27, 2011)

I fish that area often and the Dolfin are getting to be a big pain.Once they show up, you can forget getting a fish to the boat.They are worse than sharks,a shark will leave you alone after a while but dolfin never get full.I was in East bay trout fishing, catching short trout about every cast, and a baby dolfin was in there too. Every one I caught and threw back the dolfin would gobble it up. I had to leave. Had the same with Snapper, and Spanish mackeral. All you can do is leave and hope they don"t follow you.


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## CAL (Jun 27, 2011)

Dang,this is new to me.been fishing salt water for some 60 years and have never experienced this.Have experienced the dolphin stop the fish from biting.


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## KLPAUL (Jun 27, 2011)

I can relate.  I actually had a momma teaching a baby dolphin how to steal the meal off my line.  Taught him well too.  Grab but don't gulp, don't pull just let your body weight and a little resistance pull the fish lest the line break and you have to deal with that pesky hook.  At least they gave us a nice flipping jump show as they left full and happy.


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## OleCountryBoy (Jun 27, 2011)

In the middlegrounds pulling in big mangos one after the other one night, a few flippers showed up and ended the fun, after feeding them about 10 snaps we tried to move to another spot and they followed us a half mile, we had to stop fishing for about an hour b4 they left.  As long as you continue to fish they will hang around.


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## FishingAddict (Jun 28, 2011)

Yeah, I've heard about this new "trend" with dolphins. They learn from seeing, and the problem is getting more widespread. As some one noted, they learn to eat with out getting the hooks.


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## bird_dawg (Jun 28, 2011)

Had this happen a few times. Might as well move when they show up.


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## Hooked On Quack (Jun 28, 2011)

FishingAddict said:


> Yeah, I've heard about this new "trend" with dolphins. They learn from seeing, and the problem is getting more widespread. As some one noted, they learn to eat with out getting the hooks.






This has been going on for years, more than one boat Captain has gotten into trouble for shooting at dolphins.


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## ryanwhit (Jun 28, 2011)

yep, they can be a real nuisance.  I have not had them eat fish off the line, but have had them eat released fish.  My brother in law hooked one a few years ago...if I didn't see it, I wouldn't have believed it.  It ate a pilchard or it was foul hooked, but the "strike" was like it ate.  Took about 75 yards in less than 3 seconds, and broke on the third jump.  Unbelievable.

I propose a season.  Shooting them off the bow while underway could be entertaining.

No, but seriously they are becoming a problem to fisherman.  I read somewhere where a guy was netting bait and dolphins were stealing bait out of the net...and destroying the net.


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## grouper throat (Jun 28, 2011)

Keep your nuisance porpoises over there near PCB/Port St Joe then lol


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## swamp hunter (Jun 28, 2011)

Happens down here as well. All You can do is quit Fishin till They leave. Sure is a Edited to Remove Profanity ----Edited to Remove Profanity ----Edited to Remove Profanity ----Edited to Remove Profanity ----Edited to Remove Profanity ----Edited to Remove Profanity ---- when You can see Them under Your Boat just waiting. Big Sinkers thrown at Them don,t do any good. At least thats what I hear.


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## Fishdog31024 (Jun 28, 2011)

This is a recent phenominon that we can thank the eco nuts and dolphin tours for its beginning. Dolphin catch on fast and will hunt in packs until they find an easy meal. I had a dolphin eat a 38 pound king mackerel during the Hog's breath tournament at Key West a few years back. Even though I caught the fish, Ms. Dolphin broke its neck and disqualified it from competition. I was very upset, to say the least.

Please obey those signs that say, "don't feed the dolphins."


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## handfull (Jun 29, 2011)

Here's a tip that usually works for me.  Dolphin grab the hooked fish and use their weight and resistance to pull it off the hook.  When one grabs your fish, put your reel in freespool.  Without the drag, they cannot pull it off the hook and are too smart to try to eat it while hooked.  90% of the time they will drop it.  Reel it up, sometimes have to repeat this a couple of times, but it does work.  Of course, you may have a descaled snapper by the time it makes it to the boat, but at least you save your tackle and lots of times the fish is in good shape - good enough to eat anyway


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## Trizey (Jun 29, 2011)

I've had dolphins and sharks eat my released redfish at St.Andrews.


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## freecountry (Jun 29, 2011)

dolphins were stealing fish offshore destin, first time i had seen this.


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## GONoob (Jun 29, 2011)

Barracuda's do this as well.


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## jimboknows (Jul 2, 2011)

they were eating our short grouper last year off of clearwater.  I'd bounce a grunt off of the outboard and then sneak the short grouper back in off the bow.


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## Scout'nStripers (Jul 3, 2011)

I knew a few Captains out in Calif. that used M-80's and Cherry bombs to deter those pesky fish grabbers when they showed up.


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## Johnbob_3 (Jul 3, 2011)

It is not new at all.  I have had that experience on and off out of Destin for the last 10 years or so.  It may becoming more widespread, but it certainly is not new.  I think explosives of any type in Florida will at the very least get you a citation with a hefty fine and at the most a stay in the pokey and loss of a lot more than just a fist full of money...


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## Six million dollar ham (Jul 3, 2011)

Good report thanks.

The one time I fished out of PCB 5 years ago this happened.  They were almost everywhere.  Including the one secret spot we drove 20 miles to fish on.  We managed to hook one by accident.  I felt sorry for the stupid thing when we saw it jumping, trying to shake that 6 oz weight.


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## trial&error (Jul 3, 2011)

Been seeing this for nearly 30 years in the gulf.  Only 2 solutions 
1 stop fishing
2 find someone else for them to pester.

That's why when someone idles over you pull up your lines and talk.  Don't keep fishing and attracting their pests or competition.


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## lxbowhunter (Jul 3, 2011)

when they show up, reel your lines in and go slow by another fishing boat , then put the hammer down, flipper will stay with them.  It's kinda dirty, but how do you think we learned that, we have hadem dropped off to us b4.


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