Lutjanus apodus · Lutjanidae · predator
A Caribbean reef snapper with pale bars and yellow fins. It lives in groups near corals and mangroves and takes natural bait and small jigs. It does not occur in Brazil.
Also called: cají, cajisote, schoolmaster, schoolmaster snapper
Choose the place and the species. The index, from 0 to 100, combines weather, sun, moon and tide with each fish's habits. Up to 28 days, with each day's confidence.
Reading the weather across 3 global models and 31 simulations…
Each card shows the day's index (0 to 100) and, below it, a strip with the index for each hour, from 0h to 23h. from poor to excellent.
Choose how many fishing days. We compare each stretch by its average index, discount days with a warning or closed season, and show the 3 best.
Line: the middle value of 31 simulations of the American GEFS model. Band: where 8 out of 10 fall. Narrow, firm trend; wide, high uncertainty.
The cají, called schoolmaster in English, is a snapper of the tropical western Atlantic, common in the Bahamas, the Antilles and the Caribbean coasts of Central and South America, down to Trinidad. Adults live on shallow, clear-water coral reefs, often in still groups during the day in the shade of corals and gorgonians; juveniles stay on sandy bottoms with seagrass, in lagoons and mangroves, and sometimes enter brackish water. It eats fish, shrimp, crabs, worms, snails and octopus. It can live over 40 years. Brazilian records were confusion with the baúna (Lutjanus alexandrei), a Brazilian species described in 2007. It is good table fish and takes natural bait and small baits near reefs.
Body gray-olive to brownish on the back, with about eight narrow pale vertical bars, which may disappear in large adults; yellow fins. Long snout and a pair of large upper canines, visible with the mouth closed. A blue line, continuous or broken, under the eye, which disappears with growth. The Brazilian baúna (Lutjanus alexandrei) has a reddish body, six vertical white lines and blue spots between the snout and the preopercle.
Does not occur in Brazil's coastal waters: early records were misidentifications (Moura and Lindeman, 2007). Tropical western Atlantic, from the Bahamas and the Antilles to the Caribbean coasts of Central and South America, down to Trinidad.
Habitat: Shallow clear-water coral reefs, near corals and gorgonians; juveniles in seagrass, lagoons and mangroves.
Found year-round in the Caribbean.
Night and twilight. By day it stays still in groups in the shade of corals; it feeds more at dusk and at night.
A tropical reef fish; strong cold fronts reduce its activity.
Little direct effect.
Moonlit nights make night hunting more active.
Murky water gets in the way.
Not applicable at sea. In the mangrove, the ebbing tide carries juveniles into the channels.
Still groups scatter at the noise of a motor or an anchor.
Strong wind makes it hard to fish stationary over the reef.
Current at the reef edge brings bait and activates the school.
Shallow reefs, from 2 to 20 m for most catches.
lures
natural baits
accessories
A small natural bait at the coral edge, late in the afternoon, works better than during the day, when the group stays still and wary.
Summary of the regulations we found, with the source for each. Rules change; before keeping or transporting fish, check with the state environmental agency.
Conservation: Species outside the Brazilian fauna. In Puerto Rico it counts toward the federal quota for groupers, snappers and parrotfish.
In federal waters around Puerto Rico, beyond 9 miles from the coast, the recreational angler may keep a maximum of 5 fish per day from groupers, snappers and parrotfish combined (up to 15 per boat when there are 3 or more people aboard). The limit does not apply to anyone with a commercial license from Puerto Rico or the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Hold it by the mouth and belly, remove the hook with pliers and release it near the reef.
Good white flesh, fried or grilled. Ciguatera has been recorded in reef fish.
Length-weight relationship W = a·Lb (a = 0.01514, b = 2.97; FishBase (estimativa bayesiana, comprimento total)). It's an average: a fat or lean fish can vary by 10% to 20%.
estimated weight
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The season weights (months), the time of day and the sensitivities (cold, pressure, moon, wind, rain, tide, strong light, murky water and noise) are the app's editorial estimates, based on the literature below and on the field experience of anglers and guides. They are not official data nor a measurement made for this species, and they may vary by region and year. Closed seasons and legal rules appear in the rules section, with the norm and a link.
The weather comes from three independent global models, cross-checked hour by hour: when they agree, confidence goes up; when they diverge, the band between them shows on the chart. Beyond 16 days, we use the GEFS ensemble of 31 simulations: if 20 of the 31 predict rain, the chance of rain is 65%. Sun and moon are calculated astronomically, with no uncertainty.
The index adds up, weighted for each species: time of day (species curve anchored to real sunrise and sunset), moon (transits, rise and set, phase), pressure (3 h trend and 24 h swing), water temperature (in rivers, estimated from air temperature; at sea, estimated by an ocean model), wind, rain, clouds, tide and the month in the species' cycle.
Accuracy measured in the reference project (4 regions, 93 days, forecast vs. observed): maximum temperature is off by 0.6 °C on average the next day and 1.7 °C at 7 days; rain of 5 mm or more is detected 76% of the time the next day and 57% at 7 days. Detection isn't everything: the false alarm rate isn't published here yet, and 93 days in 4 regions is still a small sample. We now also measure every day, at the app's destinations:
Your location is saved only on this device and feeds the forecast, the map and the "today" on the home page.
