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
The new rule installed this year states that the tail should be pinched when measuring I will look it up and post it, I recommend that you print it and keep it with you to educate the FWC officer when he measures it without pinching it
“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.”
"Total Length Max is measured from the most forward point of the head, with the mouth closed, to the farthest tip of the tail with the tail compressed or squeezed."
“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.”
We were checked recently and i asked the officer about it and he told me, he would let me show him how i measured the fish and he would try and do it the same way, trout / reds you can move the tails to make the limit, forked tail fish , measure to the fork. Don't forget fish on ice a long time will shrink some and sometimes are hard to get straight, give yourself some margin for safety. Basically at the beginning of the day don't start throwing 15 " trout in the ice if your fishing all day !
“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.”
For what it's worth, I'm kind of slowly coming back around to my old personal rule of don't measure. If it looks close, it's short (or big, as applies). If it looks legal, it is.
It's been said before, but I'll reiterate. Don't trust the inches as they're marked on a popular brand of cooler lid. They get increasingly shorter.