Judge Jackie

[Salty Gator]

Fish that can be sold, not small ones that have to be discarded!!!!!!

If they can sell trout and redfish by catch, then it reasons they could be targeted. We all know large trout and redfish hang with mullet. If they gill a school of reds then oh well I guess we have to sell them( I didn't think that was legal in fl), how unfortinate( sarcastic tone implied). What do y'all think this will do to the redfish population? This whole issue seems to be the needs of the few outweighing the needs of the many.

[MudDucker]

The fishery is booming because they cannot use those outlandishly large nets, like they used to. If folks would just think about it, instead of just listening to all the net haters, they would see the truth of it!!!

What I say is based on my personal observations, not what a bunch of "other" net hater say. I hate nets because I personally watched our fishery be driven to hell in a hand basket. It started initially with the factory boats scooping up all of the mackerel. One of those boats tried to encircle me one time off of Fernandina, but found that bolt cutters will wreck their draw line. Then I watched the numbers of netters inshore explode. I watched them clean out whole large areas of all available trout and mullet inshore and reds offshore. They also tore up large amounts of habitat.

If we have to have nets, I am for raising the size of the mesh. However, I've been hearing of netters trying different things to get around the size limits and that makes me want to back a true net ban!

[EddieJoe]

The fishery is booming because they cannot use those outlandishly large nets, like they used to. If folks would just think about it, instead of just listening to all the net haters, they would see the truth of it!!!

What I say is based on my personal observations, not what a bunch of "other" net hater say. I hate nets because I personally watched our fishery be driven to hell in a hand basket. It started initially with the factory boats scooping up all of the mackerel. One of those boats tried to encircle me one time off of Fernandina, but found that bolt cutters will wreck their draw line. Then I watched the numbers of netters inshore explode. I watched them clean out whole large areas of all available trout and mullet inshore and reds offshore. They also tore up large amounts of habitat.

If we have to have nets, I am for raising the size of the mesh. However, I've been hearing of netters trying different things to get around the size limits and that makes me want to back a true net ban!

Mud, the Amendment was not written as a net "ban", but it does limit nets severely. The guys that wrote the language wanted to allow (size limited) cast nets, small seine nets, and shrimp nets, and that's all. Without some allowable nets we would not be able to cast net bait, trawl for shrimp (food and bait), or pull a small beach seine. A small (500 sq') gill net for mullet was never to be allowed, period, and Florida voters wanted (and want) gill and entangling nets kept out of our waters. As enforced for many years now, the amendment has done a good job of restoring inshore fish populations, as it was intended to do. This did put a stop to the annual use of gill nets hammering the mullet migrations, and some commercial fishermen suffered for it. This is not an uncommon outcome when someone makes a living by exploiting a common property resource, and gets to believing they have an inherent right to continue to do so on their terms. It happened to plume hunters in the Everglades, and it happened to commercial duck hunters also a century ago. It happened with commercial fishing for red drum.

BTW, your observations of gill netting are accurate. They also killed lots of juvenile turtles with them, particularly during mackerel season on the east coast. Governor Chiles reamed me out personally for supporting net limitations by rule to protect sea turtles prior to the passage of the amendment, but he was wrong on that.

EJ

[Mister Mullet]

Still waiting on word from the court. Meanwhile, I'm guessing it will take several days for the out-of-state netters to get permits and such before they start pillaging our fish. Maybe a ruling will come down by then.

[Rhettley]

So one staged trip out on a net boat makes this lady judge an expert. She overturns FL law. FWC appeals her decision so by law there is a stay on her ruling. She publicly states that she doesn't think the FWC will win it's appeal so she refuses to acknowledge the stay placed on her ruling. It seems to me this judge has violated several laws and her oath of office but then I'm no lawyer or legal scholar. She evidently does think she is a biologist now though.

So here we go with netting full steam ahead during the "roe season". Any other species this would be called spawning. To top it off we've reportedly got netters flooding in from far away states to a very small area.

I wonder how many years it will take the area to come back after this. Here we are just coming out of a record breaking long term drought and oil spill and like the oysters that were all pulled during the oil spill, here we go with the mullet and bycatch.The greed and old fashioned ideas are literally killing this area.

That's my thoughts on the matter for what it's worth.

[wevans]

You wanna pull some other BS outta yer a$$ MM, ta go with this!!! I'm through with this thread. It's more than obvious that most just don't want to share the ocean with anyone besides their fellow recs., 'who outnumber the coms. by the thousands and kill more fish the the mullet fishers even think about"!!!!!

[Rhettley]

I don't recall ever having a problem in the last few years find mullet in restaurants, stores, or frozen for bait. I'm fine with commercials taking a few fish. I AM NOT in favor of the way the huge nets were run before the net ban. I fished during that time and it sucked. The shorter more regulated nets seem to be keeping the commercial market stocked.
My main gripe is the manipulation of our legal system by this local woman judge. How the heck can she avoid the stay placed on her ruling by saying she doesn't think the FWC will win on appeal??? Did she study the constitution with Obama???

[Mister Mullet]

Wevans, sometimes the truth hurts. Get over it.

[MudDucker]

With Florida's automatic stay rule when orders are appealed, I suspect FWC will be arresting netters and piling up boats in the impound yards.

[Gumbo]

Courts take a harsh look on appeal when a trial judge relies on a personal view as part of reaching a decision. While the appellate court can look at the exhibits, court filings and the transcribed testimony to determine whether the ruling was correct based on that record, it has no way of knowing exactly what she saw on the field trip and, perhaps more importantly, no way to determine whether that view influenced the weight that was afforded to record evidence. I would not be surprised to see this ruling overturned on that basis alone.

And I wish this issue could be worked out once and for all. I don't know the best answer but I do know that fishing has improved since the constitutional amendment - could be the size of the nets, could be the size of the mesh, I have no way to know. And I also know that too much time and money has been spent on the fight instead of some solution.

[reelbad]

I remember going to the seinyard ( NOT THE RESTAURANT ) in Panacea years ago when you could buy roe mullet right on the beach. I don't recall seeing trout or reds being pulled up on the beach by the hundreds. I have also fished with Jonas Porter and WT Marks of Marks Roofing Co. many a night at Goose Pasture and have had hundreds of pounds of mullet in the bottom of the boat and not one red or trout. I am not sure what to think about the net limits , size or any of the laws on the matter. What I do know is that there should be some way it could be worked out to where all parties involved could come to an agreement. I could see letting the mullet guys fish certain areas at certain times of the year same as the government is letting the recs fish for snapper and grouper at certain places and times of the year. Just a thought, after all we are all neighbors and friends after the same things in life.

[Salty Gator]

You wanna pull some other BS outta yer a$$ MM, ta go with this!!! I'm through with this thread. It's more than obvious that most just don't want to share the ocean with anyone besides their fellow recs., 'who outnumber the coms. by the thousands and kill more fish the the mullet fishers even think about"!!!!!

There is so much wrong with this statement, I don't know where to start. I'd love to know where you get you data that recs kill more fish that commercials. You are so wrong it is comical. Many more dollars go to the community for every fish I harvest vs what a commercial fisherman gets. I spend hundreds of dollars( gas, tackle, bait, ice, food, drinks, launch fees, etc) for every fish I harvest( I probably keep one out of every 10 slot fish I catch). Every dime of the money I spend is local. And I mean wakulla and Franklin county local( except the tackle I get at Kevin's). And there are many more like me. Without the possibility of getting a few fish, most will stop going and spending their money at places like Lanark market and Angie's ( no more Crums for me).

[Salty Gator]

I remember going to the seinyard ( NOT THE RESTAURANT ) in Panacea years ago when you could buy roe mullet right on the beach. I don't recall seeing trout or reds being pulled up on the beach by the hundreds. I have also fished with Jonas Porter and WT Marks of Marks Roofing Co. many a night at Goose Pasture and have had hundreds of pounds of mullet in the bottom of the boat and not one red or trout. I am not sure what to think about the net limits , size or any of the laws on the matter. What I do know is that there should be some way it could be worked out to where all parties involved could come to an agreement. I could see letting the mullet guys fish certain areas at certain times of the year same as the government is letting the recs fish for snapper and grouper at certain places and times of the year. Just a thought, after all we are all neighbors and friends after the same things in life.

I wonder if the reason you didn't see any reds or trout was because there weren't many around then?

[Ifishtoo]

In days gone by, when "coastal sprawl" was happening, no one was able to stop it. Yet, they stopped the netters, didn't they? The real estate crash is what stopped the coastal sprawl. Developers are wealthy, backed by other wealthy investors. Find me a wealthy net fisherman....... anyone investing with them? I'm with weavens. I would like to see some room made for a net fisherman. "Net mesh size" may not be the right way to go, perhaps net length?

Give the FWC something else to keep an eye on, besides checking to see if I have the correct fish hook tied onto my dang line. Perhaps, they won't stop so many folks because it's easy to sit along side a ramp. We're not pirates, go look for some...... they're often out there in the dark!

I don't have a dog in this fight. Probably don't have 100 fishin trips left in my tank, just think we ran some decent fellas out of business 10-20 yrs ago.

[Salty Gator]

In days gone by, when "coastal sprawl" was happening, no one was able to stop it. Yet, they stopped the netters, didn't they? The real estate crash is what stopped the coastal sprawl. Developers are wealthy, backed by other wealthy investors. Find me a wealthy net fisherman....... anyone investing with them? I'm with weavens. I would like to see some room made for a net fisherman. "Net mesh size" may not be the right way to go, perhaps net length?

Give the FWC something else to keep an eye on, besides checking to see if I have the correct fish hook tied onto my dang line. Perhaps, they won't stop so many folks because it's easy to sit along side a ramp. We're not pirates, go look for some...... they're often out there in the dark!

I don't have a dog in this fight. Probably don't have 100 fishin trips left in my tank, just think we ran some decent fellas out of business 10-20 yrs ago.

With so much of the fish stock going to commercial fisherman, we have run bunch of decent fellas( charter captains) out of business also.