A unique website dedicated to fishing information from Florida's Northern Big Bend. This includes the area from the Econfina River west to the Apalachicola River
Jumptrout51 wrote:I think inshore guides and their clients should be allowed to keep fish is they choose to.
Clients can keep fish, the captain / crew cannot.
Gulf Coast wrote:This is just more govt. B/S !! If the main purpose is to protect some of these fish (trout and reds) why did they up the reds to two per day and do away with the Feb. trout closer ? How much more money is this going to cost us tax tayers ? If and when these fish are listed a "Game and or Sportsfish" is it something that can be reversed when the fish are over populated ? I just don't understand how FWC can go back and forth on these issues. There are law/regulations in place now that most of us abide by....laws will never stop folks from taking more than what they should. Again IMO this is just more wasteful Govt. spending that may or may not lead to a foot hold that can't be undone.
It protects them from commercial over harvest, which means more and larger fish for you.
“Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way when you criticize them, you are a mile away from them and you have their shoes.”
Long as you can prove you've got duct tape on board for the post-filet tape-up procedure, Wevans...
"The Marines I have seen around the world have the cleanest bodies, the filthiest minds, the highest morale, and the lowest morals of any group of animals I have ever seen. Thank GOD for the United States Marine Corps." Eleanor Roosevelt, 1945
I miss the old days where they printed the regulations once each year and you could just keep the copy on the boat and stick one of those anual Law Stick measuring tapes on a cooler or your boat. Now days it is impossible to go without pretty much checking the regulations online every time and even then if you ask two game wardens you are liable to get two different answers.
The game fish status should be a great thing but I've gotten so paranoid with the state and feds that I always expect the worst now. I always find myself looking at it as the camel's nose under the tent.
Well excuse my skepticism... These agencies don't have a very good track record of having the recreational fishermen's backs lately. There was no "freaking out" on my part, just a heads up of more regulations coming at us and the need to check out what was coming up.
I don't mind the proposed "Game Fish" status. I think it's a comeback on the state's part to protect speckled trout by way of redesignation. Current laws allow for the commercial fisherman to take 75 per day and 150 per boat by net. Seems like a lot to me.
Maybe my fishing skills have diminished some this last year, but it sure seems to me that I've been catching shorter trout lately and very few over 23 inches. I don't keep the bigger ones anyway, but it sure is nice bragging rights to gather one in that's over 26.
