46 Big Game Fishes 
and the red snapper as far north as Fernandina. 
The latter is a deep-water fish, found at vari- 
ous points in depressions in the bottom, and 
is not available for the rod unless one wishes 
to reel in a fish in water from seventy-five to two 
hundred feet in depth. With the hand or cast 
line it proves a hard-fighting and gamy fish. I 
have had excellent fishing for the red snapper 
north of Middle Key, Florida reef. The line was 
rigged with a heavy sinker, the hook with a 
strong six-inch leader being two or three feet 
above it, the reason for which was that if the 
sinker entered coral or gorgonias, the bait would 
swing clear above. At various points along the 
Gulf coast off Florida and off Fernandina, the 
mouths of the St. Johns and St. Marys, red- 
snapper banks are found, being well known to 
local and professional fishermen. The so-called 
red-snapper banks are met with all along the 
Gulf coast around to Texas and beyond. The 
“banks,” which are really depressions in the 
sandy floor of the gulf, range in depth from 
ninety to two hundred feet. On the outer reef 
conch was a favorite bait, but the fish are by no 
means epicures, and fish bait is the ordinary lure. 
Off Middle Key fish were found in spawn in 
