Ron Anderson turns his boat, the Ranger, back toward home after bad weather and bad luck conspired to net him 600 pounds of red snapper, less than a third of his legal limit. Fishing often involves long, grueling hours of work and trips to sea for days at a time. Exhausted mate Darrell Taylor tries to catch some sleep. During the summer, he trolls with two lines off the back of his boat, each with a sparkling silver lure. He pulls in king mackerels and fat bonitos hand over hand, hoists them from the water with a jerk of his shoulder, and watches them writhe and shudder on the deck as they die.
Red snapper are different.
They can be caught quickly and their per-pound value is high. Told the snapper season would be opening late last year, Anderson readied his 55-foot Ranger. He hired a mate, and even had an observer working for the National Marine Fisheries Service on board and ready to go. After a false start, Anderson delayed his departure eight hours because he was worried about the rough seas and the Ranger's wooden hull. The boat has reels a foot in diameter, called ''bandits'' in fishing lingo, mounted at intervals around the rail.