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The guide's actions of giving the fish to the client , put them over the limit while driving home. Some seem happy to break the laws to get tips or whatever from the clients.

Closed seasons have worked for other inshore fisheries. Snook. Even Redfish years ago were totally closed for a while.

There always seems to be two "camps" regarding this issue. The "I just like to catch them" camp and the "I like a cooler full camp". The reality is we are all in the same camp.....fishermen. There are plenty of folks out there that would shut us down entirely if they could. Dividing us into rich/poor, Fl/Ga, inshore/offshore, keep/release just helps them and hurts us.

I just went from a 17-year-old hand me down to a brand new top of the line rig, but it didn't change what I love to do. We are all just fishermen in the end.

Amen.

relicshunter wrote:

Salty Gator wrote:

relicshunter wrote:I can't find it now that I am looking to reference it but I thought the release survival rate was much higher then your 10% from Texas that you found. It was in the paper from the trout meetings, I just have to find it.

He said the mortality rate was 10%. That means 10% die and the “survival rate” would be 90%

I understand what 10% mortality means, But I believe the recent data at the trout meetings had it a fair bit higher then that.
I'll try again to find it.

In your post you said “ I thought the survival rate was higher than 10%”. According to the post it is higher than 10%, 90%.

I could have sworn I wrote lower then 10% . I should have just stuck with leaving the wording mortality in there. I fixed my original post. I still can't find the hand out that they gave at the meetings. I am sure the mortality was higher then 10%.
I find many of the trout have tears from the struggle, I can't imagine that is easy to eat after that. No I don't horse then to the boat and no treble hooks.

relicshunter wrote:The guide's actions of giving the fish to the client , put them over the limit while driving home. Some seem happy to break the laws to get tips or whatever from the clients.

There is a possession limit and a daily bag limit. It’s not illegal for someone to give you Fish once you are off of the water as long as you are under the possession limit. I’m not advocating guides keeping their limit every time, but let not call something illegal that isn’t.

I did some research today on the mortality rate of trout that have been caught and released. The 10% number previously quoted sounds about right. The lowest number I found was 6% and the highest was 13%. At first that number sounded low to me but when you think about all the trout that are caught in a year, that number can be very significant. As an example FWC estimates that 1.3 million snook were caught in FL in 2016. 10% of that number is 130,000 fish which sounds like a lot to me. I have no idea how many trout are caught in FL a year but would imagine the number is X10 making the mortality rate in excess of a million trout a year.

You let that guy drive home with over his limit in the cooler, get stopped by the man on the way out, and he is going to get a ticket. Doesn't matter on the water or off, it's too many fish.

DixieReb wrote:You let that guy drive home with over his limit in the cooler, get stopped by the man on the way out, and he is going to get a ticket. Doesn't matter on the water or off, it's too many fish.

App inshore is right. A possession limit is different from bag limit. I’m pretty sure you can possess double your bag limit. It isn’t illegal. But a good guide would understand the resource that he uses/exploits to make a living isn’t infinite. I understand most clients aren’t seasoned fishermen and are probably mostly meat hogs, but a guide should be a steward of the water and educate folks that it isn’t a resource that is unlimited. A lot of the better guides in South Florida are catch and release only, especially with snook.

Salty Gator wrote:

DixieReb wrote:You let that guy drive home with over his limit in the cooler, get stopped by the man on the way out, and he is going to get a ticket. Doesn't matter on the water or off, it's too many fish.

App inshore is right. A possession limit is different from bag limit. I’m pretty sure you can possess double your bag limit. It isn’t illegal. But a good guide would understand the resource that he uses/exploits to make a living isn’t infinite. I understand most clients aren’t seasoned fishermen and are probably mostly meat hogs, but a guide should be a steward of the water and educate folks that it isn’t a resource that is unlimited. A lot of the better guides in South Florida are catch and release only, especially with snook.

Agreed. And a three day bag = possession limit.

On the topic of guided trips, a rule was established to prevent overindulgence by guided party's. There is a maximum boat limit of 15 trout. The possession limit has always been 2 days harvest but there are exceptions such as redfish wish is 6. I feel like we are beating a dead horse. Especially when there is a commercial season allowing 70 fish per day. We really should focus a little more on habitat issues and clean water.

If this is true about possession limits for fish, that is very different than ducks. I would think a possession limit of 2 times the daily means in order to have a possession limit, you must:
1) Have been fishing for at least two days and are heading home (in transit) or have them in the field and no longer harvesting
OR
2) The name a license number of who's fish you are in "possession of" must accompany the fish to your residence.


is that different for fish?

I am gonna research this.

Possession of fish is different. You can legally possess a two man limit in whole on land. Just say you and your buddy caught a limit but drove different vehicles to the ramp and you take all the fish home. Perfectly fine.

Now there is something else to consider. For instance you were to stay at a camp for more than two days and catch a limit e every day and want to take all the fish home. Legally you would have to clean anything over than a two day limit. As then the fish are considered food and you can legally transport all those fish home. Just so you know.

I believe anyone who is going to intentionally abuse the law and regulations aren't going to care when the season is open or closed. I personally have no clue what would help the fishery. look at Louisiana, their rule is 25 per person and only have to be 12 inches in length to harvest. I believe Florida has triple the about of coast line than Louisiana has but can somehow support this. Alabama is the same. 10 per person and only having to be 14 inches in length. not too long ago the season was closed in February, catch all you want but they all had to go back. South Florida closed their season in November and December.... regulations on limit never changed.

I believe the shorts have more of a chance of dying more from predator fish than being mishandled. especially if they're schooled up in the back of a creek somewhere.

It is absolutely not true that you can carry filets or cleaned fish or any game over your possession limit. If you camp for a week, month or a year you can only possess two days limit. This includes your freezer at home legally.