BigBendFishing.Net

Has anybody seen the new proposed regulations for seatrout? Some of them seem extreme to me, like 3 fish limit and no change to commercial harvest. Might be worth checking it out.

It seems to be an overreaction to me, they posted this last year I think

The final assessment results were released in 2018 and suggest the Southwest and Southeast zones are exceeding the FWC’s management goal. The Northeast and Northwest zones are not meeting the 35 percent SPR management goal and may benefit from some management actions.

That's the comments from last year, so apparently they're taking action now. Makes the ga coast look better and better to me.

Good.

3 is plenty although I don't like them not changing commercial limits they rarely do.

Trout has been the "meat backbone" of too many fishermen for too long. They face so much pressure in this area.

I can't seem to find the proposed regulations. Someone post a link!

I've reached out to the public affairs folks at the FWC for a link. Will post as soon as I get it. Couldn't find anything on the site.

Found this on another site. Not sure if these are the latest proposals with no date on the graphic. Will confirm with FWC.

Here is a link to the proposal from FWC:

https://myfwc.com/media/20102/5a-presen ... atrout.pdf

Thanks LL. FWC just sent me the same link.

No complaint here.

I have no issue as well, but I struggle with the lack of change to commercial regs.
If the goal is to improve the trout population, then why no commercial changes?

I also have no idea how a commercial trout fishing operation works.

I disagree with not reducing the commercial harvest. COMPLETELY DISAGREE!!!!!
As for myself, it wouldn't hurt my feelings if the did away with harvesting a plus 20 fish.
It also wouldn't bother me if they closed the season in JAN and FEB. Too damn cold for me anyway.
5 fish down to 3 is a big move, maybe 4?

I think that a January/February closure would likely solve this by itself.

Did anyone go to the trout workshop?

Did not attend the workshop but submitted comments.

Not sure about allowable by-catch in purse seines, but the majority of the commercial trout fishery is live bait/hook and line using pigfish in short seasons. I'd personally like to see game fish status for trout (no sale), but that's not on the table right now.

I do support the reduced bag limits and winter closure for our area to rebuild the trout numbers. Per the stock assessment, the Northwest region is in the worse shape in the state. And that's with great habitat and little environmental impact other than the small red tide outbreak around Panama City. Review the fishing reports on this site and many anglers keep their five-fish limit if possible. More and more pressure = less fish, especially with the sow trout allowance (over 20 inches) of future breeding stock.

Salty Gator wrote:Did anyone go to the trout workshop?

I did. The thing I remember most was discussion on closing during winter and the fish are in the rivers. As I remember, the discussion leaned toward closing. One charter capt. made the point, in his opinion, that trout will take a heavy loss even with proper catch and release techniques.