Serious red snapper fishing swings into full gear next Friday along the Gulf Coast. For only a $5 entry fee Gulf Coast anglers can enter to win up to $25,000 in the Orange Beach Fishing Association's Red Snapper World Championship.
This year marks the third annual installment of the tournament, which begins Friday, April 21st and runs through May 21st. The tournament is hosted by the Orange Beach Fishing Association, a not-for-profit corporation whose objectives are promoting Red Snapper research, deploying artificial fishing reefs in the Gulf of Mexico and supporting organizations dedicated to saving the recreational fishing industry along Alabama's Gulf Coast. The Alabama Marine Resources Division, for instance, gets $50,000 from the tournament. They will use the money, along with $150,000 in matching funds from various federal programs to undertake various habitat enrichment projects along the Gulf Coast.
If you're in the Alabama Gulf Coast area on vacation take a day or two and go fishing. Your fishing excursion might win you a nice payoff. Gulf Coast charter fishing boats all know the GPS coordinates for the reefs which hold the big red snappers, so the best way to find one of these artificial reefs is simply to hire a charter boat. Just pay your $5 to enter the contest and have them take you to the ones they think are the best for finding the big ones. The more enterprising fisherman with his or her own boat and GPS will want to download and print out a map and the all the GPS coordinates of the artificial reef locations for himself.
Either way, be sure not to forget to enter the contest. According to the Mobile Register story the biggest red snapper caught last year was by a fellow who had not entered the contest. I guess you could say that fish cost him $25,000 - about $600 per pound. Ouch.
Prizes:
New four-wheel drive Nissan Titan Pick-Up for the largest new Alabama State Record Red Snapper
$500,000 for the largest new World Record Red Snapper