St Marks trout thrashing

[ugadawg]

I thrashed the trout again Saturday at St. Marks. This thread changed my fishing style though, I made sure that I only caught keepers!! It was interesting though, while we were catching keeper trout almost every other cast, most of the boats around us didn't seem to be catching that much at all. I think it having a very particular bait mattered.

[onefishtwofish]

(5) “Harvest” means the catching or taking of a fish by any means whatsoever, followed by a reduction of such fish to possession. Fish that are caught but immediately returned to the water free, alive, and unharmed are not harvested.

That is from the Florida rules.

Reduction to possession is defined as putting it in a livewell or cooler.

[onefishtwofish]

The problem is, all leo’s May have a different “ interpretation” of the law. If It’s not in writing, it isn’t going to hold up. I wonder if “ a guy on the forum said he spoke with a Leo and he said it was ok” is something that will get you out of a ticket. Doubt it

Oh, I can tell you from first hand experience of several brushes with LEO that I have had from "officer's interpretations", one involved an arrest. I follow the letter of the law now, not what an officer tells me. I was even called to a meeting with 2 GW and their Lieutenant (they all knew me as I did a lot of work, both paid and volunteer with FWC and they knew it) and we hashed out what the wording of some regulations were in regards to a local WMA. Oddly enough, the way they said they interpreted it and the way it is again being enforced (which is back to the correct way IMO) are different! They did admit that they understood how we read it, but they were going to write us a ticket if we continued. We told them we were cool with that, that they were wrong but we would not fight it, as it was about hunters getting an edge on other hunters and we were tired of getting left on the short end.

I would like to see where it is written as such. I believe that officer is correct, but I would want to see it before I violated it.

[flatsbroke22]

I made sure that I only caught keepers!!

I'm curious how you went abou this?

[Apalachee Inshore]

Dude, no one has deck hands on trout charters. If you have such a problem with the current laws of charter captains keeping their limit I hope you voiced it at the meeting as that was one of the bullet points of discussion. I don’t know which meeting you were at but I was at the Tallahassee meeting and it was only discussed briefly. I personally would have no problem with guides not being able to keep their limit on charters but as it stands now the law is what it is.

[Gulf Coast]

I have reached out directly to FWC and hope a LEO will chime in to clear up the confusion.

SK, Anything on this ?

[Apalachee Inshore]

I made sure that I only caught keepers!!

I'm curious how you went abou this?

Lol, me too.

[silverking]

These are the replies to my query from Alan Peirce of the FWC Marine Fisheries Division Management office. His responses are underlined:

Rule 68B-37, F.A.C. provides that the daily bag limit and individual possession limits for spotted seatrout as follows: Southeast and Southwest regions is 4 fish, Northwest region is 5 fish, and Northeast region is 6 fish. Because each of the four spotted seatrout regions is defined as “all Florida Waters” between specifically defined boundaries, the possession limit for spotted seatrout applies only while you are on the water.

Once the fish have been landed, there is no possession limit, so an individual who fishes multiple days can accumulate (off the water) and possess spotted seatrout in excess of the daily bag limit. Recreationally caught spotted seatrout that were legally harvested and landed, can be given to a client by a charter captain as long as the charter captain receives no compensation (monetary or other) for the fish.

So the trout rules have been revised so there is no possession limit? You can have as many as you like in your freezer as long as each batch was caught on separate days? Yes

Can you point out the statute on culling? Ch. 379.2421(4). F.S.

Can guides on paying charters keep trout under their individual limit and then give them to the clients? Yes, as long as this does not occur on the waters of the state where possession limits apply.

Can anglers keep on fishing for seatrout as catch and release after their limit is filled? Yes. With that said, FWC would encourage the angler who has kept a bag limit to target an alternative species to support seatrout conservation.

Some of the posters on the forum are talking about different species and in the Keys. I would like to be able to post clear and decisive answers to these questions in terms of spotted seatrout only. Yes, the answers above apply to most species but there are exceptions. Example 1: the possession limit for red drum applies on the water and also applies in certain locations on land. Also, there is an individual possession limit during transport that applies with red drum. Example 2: In the case of snook, the captain and crew of a for hire vessel has a bag and possession limit of 0 fish.

[Gulf Coast]

So that seems to be answered,if I were someone that this applied to, I think I would print this out. Thanks Dave

[onefishtwofish]

Thanks silver. There are the answers! in the F.A.C.

[Live Bait]

These are the replies to my query from Alan Pierce of the FWC Marine Fisheries Division Management office. His responses are underlined:

Rule 68B-37, F.A.C. provides that the daily bag limit and individual possession limits for spotted seatrout as follows: Southeast and Southwest regions is 4 fish, Northwest region is 5 fish, and Northeast region is 6 fish. Because each of the four spotted seatrout regions is defined as “all Florida Waters” between specifically defined boundaries, the possession limit for spotted seatrout applies only while you are on the water.

Once the fish have been landed, there is no possession limit, so an individual who fishes multiple days can accumulate (off the water) and possess spotted seatrout in excess of the daily bag limit. Recreationally caught spotted seatrout that were legally harvested and landed, can be given to a client by a charter captain as long as the charter captain receives no compensation (monetary or other) for the fish.

So the trout rules have been revised so there is no possession limit? You can have as many as you like in your freezer as long as each batch was caught on separate days? Yes

Can you point out the statute on culling? Ch. 379.2421(4). F.S.

Can guides on paying charters keep trout under their individual limit and then give them to the clients? Yes, as long as this does not occur on the waters of the state where possession limits apply.

Can anglers keep on fishing for seatrout as catch and release after their limit is filled? Yes. With that said, FWC would encourage the angler who has kept a bag limit to target an alternative species to support seatrout conservation.

Some of the posters on the forum are talking about different species and in the Keys. I would like to be able to post clear and decisive answers to these questions in terms of spotted seatrout only. Yes, the answers above apply to most species but there are exceptions. Example 1: the possession limit for red drum applies on the water and also applies in certain locations on land. Also, there is an individual possession limit during transport that applies with red drum. Example 2: In the case of snook, the captain and crew of a for hire vessel has a bag and possession limit of 0 fish.

I know Alan Pierce personally, very knowledgeable guy. I would take his word as gospel on this subject. He is also a writer and biologist for the FWC. Thanks for posting this information SK.

[silverking]

Apologies to Alan, I misspelled his last name and corrected it his response post. That's the reason for the edit.

[flatsbroke22]

Appreciate that! Finally in writing! Screen shot it so it'll be on me at all times