Thursday, February 24, 2011

FWC plans changes to redfish rules


Fishermen in Northwest Florida may soon be able to keep two redfish per day.
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission on Wednesday proposed a draft rule that would raise the recreational daily redfish bag limit from one fish to two per person in northern Florida.
The FWC is also proposing to create three regional management areas for redfish and establish a statewide eight-fish red drum daily vessel limit.
Redfish used to be an extremely popular fish in local waters, but their population was hit hard by unregulated commercial and recreational fishing.
In 1988 the state stopped all commercial fishing for redfish and cut the recreational limits bag limit to one per person per day.
The efforts have helped rebuild the species.
A recent redfish population assessment shows that state’s management goal of 30-percent of red fish surviving through age four is being met and surpassed.

Local county commissioners have been calling for an increased bag limit for the species for years.
A final public hearing on these rule proposals will take place in April
More information about the FWC's red drum draft rule proposals is available online at MyFWC.com.


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