Yellowtail Snapper Closed to Commercial Harvest and Big Mangrove Snapper

When the fishing is great that is when things get closed down, weird huh?  At least this time it is a commercial closer meaning that commercial yellowtail snapper fishermen have had a banner year.  With the Hogfish closer it was "general" which should have meant the state would close the recreational harvest.  This is where the "system" really breaks down.  Quotas don't really let you know anything about stocks because fish have good years and bad years.  Quotas tend to keep people out of the business just like any regulation will and tend to divide people, just like most regulations will.  For most kinds of fish gear restrictions are better at doing the job.  Since by far, most fish caught commercially are by nets, trawls, seines and gill, limiting their use makes it hard to catch more.  Size and bags limits do fine regulating hook/line and diving catches and recreational fishermen are currently getting hit harder than they should because of not all that great management.  "Other" grouper are regulated just because they can not because there is a need, red snapper are no where near as "endangered" as thought and Jewfish aka Goliath Grouper are close to being over populated in lots of ares.  Well, enough of that rant.

Yesterday we had a nice little half day on the Lady Catherine.  I thought I had cleaned my lens but instead just smeared it so this was about the only picture worth posting.  That mang was just over 5 pounds which is nice in anyone's book plus we had a 4 pounder, a 4 pound yellowtail along with  a fair number in the 3 pound range. We had a live bait issue where some small pinfish were supposed to be delivered that didn't make it in time or there would have been more.  There was also a tax collector in the slick that took several larger fish.  We thought is was a shark but it could have been some big king mackerel.  Whatever ti was it wouldn't take heavier gear with live yellowtails as bait.

Some of the crew got green but were troopers so we fished almost the full time.  So you could say things were slow but we did all right.  Seas were a little higher than predicted due to

 one of those scattered showers but not really that bad.   Marathon in the Florida Keys should be your next fishing vacation destination. Join us for charter fishing, fishing guide trips or our fishing 101 so you can fish on your own with better success.

 Tight lines,

 Capt. Dallas