During this frightfully hot August, the Trawling crew was blessed with overcast skies and a light breeze. The top three species caught were White Shrimp, Bay Anchovy, and Spade Fish. But the catch of the month goes to…. the Candy man! aka: the Lane Snapper
The lane snapper has a range that spans the Western Atlantic Ocean from North Carolina to southern Brazil. With its vibrant colors, horizontal yellowish stripes, and dark spot, the Lane Snapper is known by many names like the redtailed snapper, candy snapper, spot snapper. But anglers love them for their strong bite and sweet, delicious white meat!
Lane snappers can slightly change their body color depending on their habitat and activity level so this guy is obviously a little stressed in our photo above. These fish are opportunistic nocturnal predators that hunt for shrimp, crabs, and small fish after dark.
Adults typically live in deeper marine waters, coral reefs, and open bottom areas like the Savannah Snapper Banks miles off the Georgia coast. They prefer high-salinity marine environments and move back to coastal reefs as they grow larger, meaning you rarely find adult lane snapper deep inside low-salinity estuaries. But if you have been keeping track of our posts on our Facebook page, you’d know we are VERY salty right now! Because of the drought, we have been seeing more and more species like this lane snapper and are very interested to track this change as we start to get more rain and the salinity returns to a more normal baseline.
