By DON DUBUC

The headline could have read “Ex-pro football players ravaged by rare Tasmanian species!” But to prevent sensationalism in the media, and for the sake of truthfulness Hokie Gajan and Stan Brock although pretty exhausted, were indeed the winners in their latest fishing game.

They contributed their fair share to catching 50 mangroves, a species worthy of the nickname we gave them – “Tasmanian” (as in the cartoon devil) snappers. And when Tuesday’s trip with Captain Bobby Bryan of Marsh Masters Guide Service to the Fourchon rigs in the Gulf of Mexico was over, the pair felt every bit as achy as on any NFL Sunday evening.

“The first 20 seconds, that’s what it’s all about. You’ve got to get them off the bottom,” Brock, visiting from Portland, said. “Man, they are big fighters, they’re not that big a fish but they fight so damn hard.”

“They put up a great fight. I guess for about a minute and a half, I mean they’ll wear you out!” Gajan said. “You’ve got to get ’em out of that junk down there on the bottom and you’ll work up a sweat with these things.”

Mangroves, also known as gray, black and flannel snappers can, at least for the summer months, be found fairly close to shore at rigs barely off the coast in 20 to 40 foot depths. The most popular areas seem to be Gulf waters below Grand Isle, Fourchon and Venice rigs. They are first cousins to the red snapper but unlike reds, are not pinkish.

They are a darker red, almost coppery color. They are great on the grill, baked or filleted and fried.

Catching mangroves is fairly easy. The two main factors are relatively calm seas to allow small boats to venture outside and locating rigs that are holding schools. When those criteria are met (best times are June through September are best) the rest is simple technique.

Baits, in order of preference, are live croakers, live shrimp, and live minnows, squid, dead shrimp and cut bait.

Chumming to draw the fish up and turn them on is effective for getting them in a feeding frenzy and also to determine if there are any at that particular structure.

The trick to limiting out on mangroves is once the hook is set, to get and keep the fish coming straight up. Medium weight rods and reels loaded with 50-80 pound line work best since it’s critical to be able to quickly turn a hooked mangrove and pull him up and away from rig pipes.

That may sound like major overkill for a fish that averages about 6 pounds but a favorite mangrove escape technique is to wrap and break line around rig pipes or barnacle-sharpened edges. Light tackle may be sporting but very tough to bring many to the boat. Weights from 6-12 ounces are needed to get the bait down before the current can pull the bait away from the rig structure.

Mangroves have bony mouths and 6/0 kahle or circle hooks that are easy to set and remove work best.

Mangroves can sometimes be very particular and frustrating to catch.

When fishing pressure has been heavy, mangroves will sometimes scrutinize bait so hard they will pass up anything on a hook even though it’s well hidden. That’s the same reason why some anglers will only fish for them using 30-pound test fluorocarbon leaders. Often mangroves will turn their noses up at anything attached to easily visible line.

Anglers can keep up to 10 mangroves (more than twice the limit of red snappers) at least 12 inches long in conjunction with other snappers in addition to the 4 red snappers over 16 inches. The mangrove is a coppery to red color with a dark gray or black bar that runs from the top of the head down the back to the tail fin.

While they don’t grow as large as red snappers they are much tougher fighters and generally are found in water too shallow for red snappers. Since they are often caught in relatively shallow waters, they don’t weaken during the fight from drastic changes in pressure as often happens with red snappers.

Mangroves are typically a little smaller than red snappers with the state record only being slightly more than 14 pounds but huge schools of mangroves from 2 to 10 pounds have been found in 40-50 foot depths at the rigs below Grand Isle and Venice the last few years. Not only have mangrove snappers become more abundant in Louisiana’s offshore waters, they seem to be getting bigger.

Earlier this year, a new state record was set by Erik Butler who brought in a 14.18 pounder caught near Fourchon.

Proof that bigger mangroves are being caught, none of the current top 10 state record fish were caught prior to 1996.

For information about mangrove fishing trips call Marsh Masters Guide Service at (985) 396-2411 or visit www.marshmasters.com.

DON DUBUC is the outdoors reporter for L’Observateur.