Hank49
Contributor
]Walter:It's academic, it's illegal to harvest Jewfish.
Hi Walter,
I've not spent any time in the oceans off the continental US. I presume spearing is illegal. How about hooking them?
Here in the lagoon there seems to be quite a lot of them. We catch small snappers (1/2 lb), hook them through the tail just above the spine behind the dorsal fin, and toss them back into the mangroves using 40-50 lb test line. I've heard of people landing 300 lb jewfish this way with 300 lb test hand lines. It's not easy to land them. They get into the branches under water and slice the line on barnacles. I've landed only about 1 of 8 that I hook.