Redfish rule changes on table

State looks at regions, raising daily bag limit

KEVIN LOLLAR • klollar@news-press.com • November 15, 2010

More than 20 years after Florida’s commercial and recreational redfish regulations went into effect, the state is considering rule changes for the popular game fish.




Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission staff will have a public workshop Wednesday in Fort Myers to receive input from fishermen about proposed rules.


To manage redfish for recreational fishermen, FWC has proposed to divide Florida into three regions — Northwest, Northeast and South. The state is divided in the same way for spotted sea trout.


FWC has also proposed to raise the daily bag limit for redfish from one to two in the Northwest and Northeast regions. The bag limit in the south region, which includes Southwest Florida, would remain one.


“We’ve always received calls from anglers, especially in the North regions, who say, ‘In our region, redfish are doing well; we don’t understand why we have a one-redfish bag limit,’” said Mike Murphy, senior research scientist at the Florida Fish and Wildlife Research Institute.
“We did a regional assessment that did, indeed, support their observations.”


Overfishing caused Florida’s redfish populations to collapse in the mid-1980s.


Contrary to common belief, commercial fishermen didn’t bring on the collapse in an attempt to satisfy the nation’s new craving for blackened redfish.


During the height of the redfish craze, from 1982 to 1986, commercial fishermen harvested 1 million pounds or less of redfish, while recreational fishermen harvested from 3 million to 5.5 million pounds. At the time, Florida had no bag or size limits.


In 1989, the state banned the commercial harvest of redfish and instituted the current size and bag limits, and redfish stocks rebounded.


The reason FWC is proposing to increase the limit in the two Northern regions and not the Southern zone is the escapement rate is lower in southern Florida than northern Florida. Escapement rate is the proportion of fish that survive to 4 years of age

Some recreational fishermen think redfish rules should remain as they are.


“We’re not in favor of any changes they’ve proposed,” said Ted Forsgren, executive director of the Coastal Conservation Association. “The redfish rule has been a success for many years, and we don’t want to see any changes that would put populations at risk.”


Although the south zone limit would remain the same, increasing the limit in the Northern zones would negatively affect redfish populations in the Southern zones, Forsgren said.


“You could probably justify having some additional take in the Northern zones, but those fish up there also help populate the South zones,” Forsgren said. “So, in your area, Fort Myers, you won’t be receiving those extra fish that flow out of that area.”


Murphy said raising the limit in the North would probably only affect redfish populations in the Northern part of the South region, if at all.


Charter guide Capt. Kelly Kaminski of Bayside Charters and president of the Lee County Professional Guides Association said the proposed rules don’t bother him.


“The rules are in effect to protect this stuff,” he said. “Whatever it takes to have a better fishery is the way I look at it.


“It’s like the song, ‘Baby, let’s roll with it.’”