BigBendFishing.Net

NOAA surveyors clearly haven’t been offshore of our area recently….
Diving in 60ft in k tower area today…
4 spots all covered with big gags…. And small ones..
Most I’ve ever seen in that area…
It’s ridiculous….

Well their models are trash therefore the data it spits out is trash

I’m sure some old timers would disagree, but gags are better here by far than they were 15 years ago….
I grew up going in the 80s out of Crystal river and Suwannee….. and if you take out the small grouper everyone kept them (that would be under size now) the fishery now could be better now than then.
I recall dove trips then where we don’t even see a 24” gag… at the time we were cutting our teeth on hogs and sheepshead and stuff, but in our minds knew we had to go 40 mi out to get any big grouper.

Yesterday, we saw at least 20 plus 30” gags in only 4 dove….. we NEVER saw that years ago.

Exciting and encouraging on one hand…….
Infuriating on the other for not being able to
Harvest even one for the boat.

We ended up with a nice mess off yummy fish, mangos , hogs and a couple red grouper, but folks who don’t dove….
How would they have much to bring home.?????

Yep, real life experience and real data trumps “scientific” estimates every time. I am hopeful that the regulators start caring enough to prioritize getting better data for establishing gag grouper regulations.