There are about a hundred plus species of snapper fish around the world. And the most popular among them all is the Lutjanus campechanus, typically known as red snapper fish. Even though snapper fish has a wide array of species, they don’t differ much at all. In fact you cannot easily distinguish the difference between two species if you are not really familiar with them. While red snapper fish has been famously known throughout the world especially in the U.S., there is this so called Lutjanus bohar also known as bohar snapper fish. This type of fish is not very well known due to the fact that it is not frequently caught by fishermen.
Bohar Snapper Fish’s Habitat
Bohar snapper fish thrives along the coast of East Africa and regions in Australia. It is specifically widely distributed in oceanic islands like East Africa, Line Islands, Marquesas, Mozambique, to the northern part of the Ryuku Islads, and the southern regions of Australia. It typically thrives on warm water regions and commonly seen below 3-75 m of water flourishing the reefs. They are usually found on crevices, caves, and holes of the reef.
Characteristics of Bohar Snapper Fish
Bohar snapper fish are mostly found individually. If you are going to observe their behavior, you might saw them in group but very occasional. Their primary foods are small fish but they also eat crustaceans, shrimps, crabs, and worms dwelling on the reefs. The male bohar snapper grows relatively larger than the female specie and they oftentimes hunt squids as their food. Immature bohar snapper has a good way of catching their prey. They usually mimic damselfish which is an advantage to catch their victims. The name twinspot or two-spot is because of the two round spots on their side. They name snapper is from the way it snaps its mouth when it is being caught. When not being handled carefully after being caught, this twinspot snapper fish can cut a fisherman’s finger because they have relatively sharp teeth.
Catching the Twinspot Snapper
Because of their characteristic in thriving in caves and holes, it is difficult to catch this kind of fish. But being difficult is not a problem as they can be easily caught through artificial bait like vertical jigs. Vertical jigging has been the most popular method of catching twinspot snapper fish in Southern Africa. Poppers and other surface baits are often being taken by this fish. Because they feed on small fish, baits such as mackerel, shad and chokka are the best when using bottom baits. Sardines and heads can be also used if those three are not available.
Two-spot snapper fish can weigh up to 12.5 kg. While male bohar or twinspot snapper fish grows even larger than female, their typical length goes up to 90 cm, but fishermen who goes fishing in the waters of Southern Africa says that 80 centimeter length for this fish are rarely being seen. As what the famous saying states that patience is a virtue, fishing for bohar snapper fish needs a lot of your patience.
