Florida Saltwater Regulations

[silverking]

Understanding Recreational Bag Limits--Tips from Florida FWC | May 28, 2013

Fishing can sometimes be famine, but on the days when it is feast, it's important to know your bag limit, aka the number of fish you can keep and take home for dinner. These limits are a useful tool in helping protect many of our recreationally important species. There are several types of bag limits and, sometimes more than one type applies. Some even vary by region (spotted seatrout, red drum, weakfish and bay scallops).

"Bag limit" is defined as the number of a particular species that an individual angler can harvest and possess in a given day. For example, the recreational bag limit for red drum in the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission's (FWC) northeast and northwest management zones is two fish per person, per day. This means that a licensed (or exempt) angler can harvest two red drum in a given day. This does not mean that you have to stop fishing after you have put two fish in the box. You can enjoy catch-and-release fishing for the rest of the day. Just make sure that you are using proper catch-and-release techniques to help the released fish survive.

Another common term is "vessel limit," which is the maximum number of a particular species that can be possessed on a vessel at any given time. Vessel limits are always used in addition to individual bag limits and do not exempt any single angler from the individual limits. As an example, the rules for red drum provide a statewide vessel limit of eight fish that is used in conjunction with the individual bag limits of two fish in the northern regions and one fish in the south region. This means that no more than eight red drum can be possessed on a vessel even if you have five or more licensed anglers on board in the north regions or nine or more anglers on board in the south region.

Let's say you are fishing in one of the two northern regions and your daily individual bag limit is two fish. If there are two anglers on the boat, there can be no more than four fish on board; three anglers can have a total of six fish; but four or more anglers can have no more than eight fish altogether.

That's pretty straightforward if you understand that both the individual bag limit and the vessel limit apply simultaneously.

One question that always comes up is, "Can one angler share his or her fish to help fill a bag limit for another angler?" The answer is no. Bag limits are individual even when an overlapping vessel limit applies. This keeps folks from taking, for example, their infant nephew fishing just so they can keep two more fish. But, you may ask, if an FWC law enforcement officer checks my cooler, how will he or she know who caught how many fish? If an officer's observations, inspection or investigation reveals you have caught more than your individual daily bag limit, you could be subject to fines.

A third type of bag limit that you will see in FWC rules is an aggregate bag limit. Like your basic bag limit, this type applies to individual anglers but instead of applying to only one species, it applies to several closely related species. Snappers and groupers are currently managed with aggregate limits in Florida waters.

Let's use snapper as our example. Currently, there is a 10-snapper aggregate bag limit in Florida waters. This means that you can harvest up to 10 snapper regardless of what individual species they are, as long as they are included in the aggregate. Keep in mind, this aggregate limit applies to most, but not all, species of snapper.

Read the regulations carefully. Vermilion snapper, for example, is not included in the 10-snapper aggregate bag limit. It has its own bag limit of 10 fish per angler, per day in the Gulf and five per angler, per day in the Atlantic. This means that if you are fishing in state waters of the Gulf, you can keep an individual bag limit of vermilion snapper plus your aggregate limit of 10 other snappers in any combination of species that are included in the aggregate.

The other nuance that should be pointed out is that some snappers that are included within the aggregate limit also have individual bag limits. For example, red snapper has a two-fish bag limit and gray snapper has a five-fish bag limit. Both species are counted as part of the 10-snapper aggregate. So, if anglers caught their two red snapper and their five gray snapper, they could still bring home three more snapper included in the aggregate, as long as the three were not additional gray or red snappers.

There are two more types of bag limits you should know about: the spiny lobster onshore possession limit and the red drum transportation limit.

The spiny lobster possession limit applies during the two-day sport season in late June and limits an individual angler to no more than a daily bag limit of lobster on the first day of the sport season and no more than two daily bag limits onshore on the second day of the sport season. This limit clarifies that bag limits are "daily" and allows folks who are taking advantage of both days of the sport season to take their two-day catch home.

For red drum, no more than six fish per person can be transported by vehicle on land. If I'm fishing with three or more of my buddies and we catch our vessel limit of eight red drum, I can take as many as six of those in my truck back to my house if I'm traveling in the truck by myself. If one of my buddies is traveling with me to my house, we can take all eight fish. (That is, if my buddies decide I should have the fish. But because I'm such a great cook, I'm sure they would.) This limit helps deter attempts to sell red drum, which can only be harvested for recreational purposes.

We hope this clarifies the various types of limits used in Florida's saltwater fishing regulations. If you have additional questions, please give us a call anytime.

Gone Coastal is one of many ways that the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission's (FWC) Division of Marine Fisheries Management is helping recreational anglers understand complex saltwater regulations and learn more about saltwater fishing opportunities and issues in Florida. We are also available to answer questions by phone or email anytime, and we would love the opportunity to share information through in-person presentations with recreational or commercial fishing organizations. To contact the FWC's Regulatory Outreach subsection call 850-487-0554 or email Alan.Peirce@MyFWC.com.

[EddieJoe]

Thanks for the information, and it's what we have to live with these days. Personally, I find this kind of approach taken by the Commission (and the feds) as confusing at best. Applying either an individual bag limit to a fish or similar types of fish or an aggregate is pretty easy to remember and understand, but mixing approaches is setting us up to fail. Combine the issue with different bags and seasons as one crosses the jurisdiction line from state to federal waters and it gets ridiculous. On top of that, the state and the feds have also implemented staggered closed seasons for fish caught in the same general area (offshore, for example), so that in June, Gulf Waters, Gags are open in state waters in the NW counties (but watch out where they are landed!), still closed federal, red snapper opens, AJ closes, other grouper open in both waters, and snapper might close at any time. It's easy to make a mistake even if totally well intentioned, and I know that at least some anglers are cheating because they think the whole thing is just dumb.

Either it is done because none of the regulators fish or they aren't thinking clearly. Either choice isn't a recommendation for them.

EJ

[Rhettley]

How could it be possible to even attempt to keep track if you were poor and didn't have internet access?

As it stands you pretty much have to print the regulations off before you go fishing and take them with you.

[charlie tuna]

I didn't have a smart phone or computer sixty years ago, but i knew what the limits were on snook!! This is a good read, and explains the reasoning behind the limits and how they are set up! Sportsfishermen are "the first line of defense" in conserving our fisheries. Certain species have increased in numbers over the years, which proves this works, but it only works if(?) people go by the rules. Not "their" rules, or "their boat rules", but by the rules designed to protect OUR fisheries.

[silverking]

How could it be possible to even attempt to keep track if you were poor and didn't have internet access?

As it stands you pretty much have to print the regulations off before you go fishing and take them with you.

Many of the marinas/tackle shops have free copies of the regs or they are available at FWC offices. They are updated January 1 and July 1 for simplification unless there's a special rule (like the NW Florida gag season). And to quote more than one FWC LEO, "Ignorance is no excuse."

I am very familiar with the rules, but I still keep copies in zip lock bags in my tackle bags for reference and if there's ever any doubt I double-check before anything goes on ice.

[EddieJoe]

Yep, and that is what I do. Of course the Officer will say that "ignorance is no excuse" as he writes you up, and so it is, if you want to avoid a violation, which most people do. His job is not to determine what the regulations should be, only to enforce what the Commissions pass.

My comment is meant to complain about the regulatory approach that complicates fishing so much, and in my view unnecessarily so. It's just stupid management and tunnel vision, as if considering a regulation on one species is totally isolated from all of the rest out there, and that ease of compliance is not important at all. It should be, as managers like to assume that their regulations will be followed, because without reasonable voluntary compliance a regulation will not protect the fish. They are not thinking, or they don't fish much, as I wrote before.

EJ

[cotton]

Fish more often. You will find the limits are meaningless and you'll have twice the fun!

[charlie tuna]

"Either it is done because none of the regulators fish or they aren't thinking clearly. Either choice isn't a recommendation for them."

You make it sound like these laws are actually set up to pick on fishermen. Our country's entire coastline has limits set up by people who determine fish counts, and where in the "food chain" they they need to be increased and decreased.

If(?) you read the article it explains, by a few examples, of why they are writen in such a way. Like the redfish possesion law during transport. It is really to deter people from selling redfish. This article didn't explain EVERY law, but just a few to explain the logic behind them and why they exist.

[silverking]

Charlie,
Ed spent his career in fisheries management and knows the process intimately. I agree with him that it would be better if the rules were uniform across state/fed lines to make it easier for public interpretation and enforcement. But when you have different segments clamoring for regional rules, such as the NW gag provision, it makes things very difficult.

Not trying to argue with anyone, just posted this as a public service announcement. From recent events/threads it's obvious the rules aren't fully known and even some who should know better have been in violation.

[charlie tuna]

Couldn't agree with you more Silverking! As these rules are writen and formulated, changes are many times included to meet the demands of the sportsfishermen, and that kind of throws a curve into set limits. Example is the Seatrout "one over twenty inches" rule that allows the sportsfisherman to keep one trophy fish. It would have been a lot easier to follow Seatrout rules if it was just a certain number of fish between a set slot. Although the rules are confusing, there IS a reason for it, and that was the idea of this article. Thats all i am sayin!

[EddieJoe]

Couldn't agree with you more Silverking! As these rules are writen and formulated, changes are many times included to meet the demands of the sportsfishermen, and that kind of throws a curve into set limits. Example is the Seatrout "one over twenty inches" rule that allows the sportsfisherman to keep one trophy fish. It would have been a lot easier to follow Seatrout rules if it was just a certain number of fish between a set slot. Although the rules are confusing, there IS a reason for it, and that was the idea of this article. Thats all i am sayin!

I appreciate both of what you guys have written. The article was probably authored by a FWC outreach staffer trying to make the state regulations easier to understand and interpret. They didn't try and deal with state vs. fed, which is worse. As it is, that is a task that shouldn't be so difficult, which was my point. The "1 over 20" state waters sea trout rule" isn't hard to follow, or understand, but a bag limit that is both individual and "aggregate" (or not, depending on the species), that varies between federal and state waters (i.e., cobia - 1 in state waters, 2 in fed; red drum - 2 in state waters, none in fed; mangrove snapper - 5 in state waters, 10 in fed; etc.) snapper and grouper seasons that are different between federal and state waters, ad nauseum.

Fact is, the same people sitting on the FWC participate and are often members of the Federal Fisheries Councils. They should (IMO) do a better job of considering their regulations as they apply to a real world angler, and how the entire body of regulations affects fishing pleasure, and the efficacy of regulations themselves. If regs become nonsense, they tend to get ignored.

[JCC]

So I can't keep a redfish then run into federal waters to try for grouper. I did not know that. Now that I do know that, it makes no sense.

I also did not know that I could go into federal water and keep 2 cobes. I just thought it was one.

I agree EJ. Who comes up with this stuff.

Thanks