In Search of a Bahamas Mutton Snapper

Image by Jeremy and Christine via Flickr

A fish that was always a reliable option for flats anglers in the Lower Florida Keys before the 1990s, the mutton snapper has always been a highly prized fly fishing catch. But overfishing reduced Keys populations, and now the Bahamas seem to be the best place to pursue them. In today’s Miami Herald, Susan Cocking writes about her attempt to hunt up a mutton at South Andros Island.
“For a very fleeting moment, I forgot where I was. A sand flat, yes, but there — about 50 feet away — waved the diaphanous pink tail of a happily-feeding fish. A pretty nice-sized happily-feeding fish. And if I had been standing in Snake Bight at Flamingo, or along the western shoreline in south Biscayne Bay, I would have sworn it was a 10-pound redfish digging up crabs and worms from the bottom.”