Red Snapper Season

[CaptnC]

The word out of New Orleans yesterday from Dr Roy Crabtreeof NMFS;

Red Snapper will open June 1 2009 and close August 1 2009...unless Florida caves-in to NMFS and mirrors there season after NMFS. If they do they will add 12 days to the season.

Texas of course is standing strong and not giving in. I surprised NMFS even messes with Texas. According to NMFS own numbers Texas only takes .18 millon pounds of the 2.8 millon pounds alloted for the recreational fishermen.

Sorry to hear they completely shut down the east coast for snapper fishing. I have no knowledge of the fishing there, but I am sure it will not be good for many of the for-hire guys over there.

[TheShortAnswer]

The word out of New Orleans yesterday from Dr Roy Crabtreeof NMFS;

Red Snapper will open June 1 2009 and close August 1 2009...unless Florida caves-in to NMFS and mirrors there season after NMFS. If they do they will add 12 days to the season.

Texas of course is standing strong and not giving in. I surprised NMFS even messes with Texas. According to NMFS own numbers Texas only takes .18 millon pounds of the 2.8 millon pounds alloted for the recreational fishermen.

Sorry to hear they completely shut down the east coast for snapper fishing. I have no knowledge of the fishing there, but I am sure it will not be good for many of the for-hire guys over there.

they need to either lengthen the season or increase the limits because the snapper are killing us over here. you go to your favorite grouper spot and the snapper have eaten everything in sight and run off or half starved the grouper. good on you Tx boys for standing your ground.

[CaptnC]

It's the same here.

We don't use live biat as much as you guys do (from what I heard), but we do use alot of whole dead fish to drift for Kingfish and such. I normally never use any weight, just a wire and hook...we watched Red Snapper come up in 130 feet of water and take baits aimed at Kingfish....with Kingfish present.

I cut whole sections (bone and all) out Little Tunny for Grouper...a couple pounds of meat. The Red Snapper have gotten big enough they are eating the whole chunk before the grouper can get to it.

If Red Snapper were really in trouble in th Gulf of Mexico, I'd be behind NMFS to shut down the fishing, but that is not the case and I have spoke to Dr. Roy Crabtree about the state of the population. He continues to maintain that the Red Snapper are overfished and the stocks are not where they should be.

B*** Sh*t!

[welder]

I took 96 pictures of different fish my last trip to Port O'conner Texas and all but 4 were of the Super Endangered Red Snapper.

[Redweiser]

I took 96 pictures of different fish my last trip to Port O'conner Texas and all but 4 were of the Super Endangered Red Snapper.

Well ... you are in Texas ... you're able to keep'em ... we're blowing out and killing tons of 15-20 lb snapper here.

[welder]

Sorry Red , the Federal season closed early [ 2 days before we got there ] and we could not get away from them.

The State waters were open out to 9 miles BUUUUUT you don't catch hardly anything keeper size there , the water is to shallow and usually very dirty [ sand /silt ] and the State limit is 4 fish , the Fed is the same as yours , 2 over 16".

[Redweiser]

Sorry Red , the Federal season closed early [ 2 days before we got there ] and we could not get away from them.

The State waters were open out to 9 miles BUUUUUT you don't catch hardly anything keeper size there , the water is to shallow and usually very dirty [ sand /silt ] and the State limit is 4 fish , the Fed is the same as yours , 2 over 16".

You must be fishing in the wrong place. Look up the TAC stats for the Texas 9 mi boundry.

[CaptnC]

You must be fishing in the wrong place. Look up the TAC stats for the Texas 9 mi boundry.

If you are looking at Crabtree and company's numbers...they tend to write their data to suite their needs!

The state water fishery is mostly a winter fishery. Basicly north of Port Aransas there are not many Red Snapper in state water when the water gets warm/hot during the summer.

I took a group out yesterday and had to feed 24" Red Snapper to flipper. We could have called them "state water", but we were not even close. For the day they ate about a boat limit for our group (8 legal size) snapper and numerous smaller snaps.

It Crabtree and company's rules...so flipper eats good until June 1.