I heard that snapper season has been changed to the end of July. Is this right? What about In state waters, has anything changed?

Federal waters (past 9 nm out) red snapper season starts 6/1/08
and closes on 7/31/08. federal limit is 2 fish
State water (out to 9 nm) is year-round/4 fish
tight lines
-Brian

July 31st? Last I saw it was Aug 5th. Where'd you see the 7/31 date from?

Actually it is August 5th but they are predicting a hurricane to come in on August 1st that will eliminate the last few days....

An important meeting takes place on April 25 that should be of interest to sports fishermen, especially those who like to fish for red snapper.

Congressman Nick Lampson, D-Stafford, is sponsoring a town hall meeting on red snapper regulations with Roy Crabtree, southeast regional director of National Marine Fisheries Service, attending. Although the meeting will have no impact on this year’s regulations, it does provide the opportunity for local anglers to voice their comments about the way our stocks of red snapper have been managed by the NMFS.

The meeting will take place at the University of Houston-Clear Lake Campus at 2700 Bay Area Blvd. in Bayou Theater on the second floor of the Bayou Building. Parking is available in Lot D, located behind the Bayou Building.

They should get an EAR FULL on this upcoming meeting, that's for sure.

I'm starting to pay more attention to posts regarding finding
alternative snapper species. got a lot about beeliners from a
similar thread over on 2cool, but still curious about lanes,etc
not a thread-jack, as I think 8/5 is the end-date this year.
still a rip-off that will prob. get worse before it gets better.
I wish I could make 1 of these meetings, but I'm closer to
Oklahoma than the coast, dangit!
tight lines
-Brian

Maybe if Texans got off their asses and went with the federal limits for a few years it would get better sooner... But the Ego's of Texans will never allow them to think someone knows more than them.

I love the weather and the fishing, but the Egos are pathetic here.

Man thats really unfair to say, I think the sport fishing isnt the real cause of the problem.The bycatch issues and commercial fishermen is what got us in this shape.You put the thousands of dollars worth of electronics on these commercial vessals and theres nowhere for keeper reds to hide.It has to be controled across the board but the problem is out past the 9 mile mark.

Well, Michial...you must be a commercial fishing lobbyist. If you're not, then you might want to address the real issue...commercial fishermen. Recreational anglers cannot deplete the snapper population with only two per day, four per day (in Texas water) or 20 a day like it was years ago. Us Texas boys have gone with the limits for years now. We abide by them. There's more snapper out there now then there was 10 years ago. Maybe not as big on the average, but they are there. Commercial guys don't like to keep those little fish. By a Texas fishing and support the fisheries department.

I agree 100,000%! if you think there are actually LESS snapper
in federal waters off the tx coast, then you have been suckered by the NMFS just as bad as CCA has! either that, or you're not
going out enough, or you're just preaching from the pulpit, again.
Maybe instead of trusting your beloved federal government to make your fishing-related descisions for you, you should get some real-time, real world obsevations before piping off w/
a statement that serves only to piss off those fighting
for the rights of all conservation-minded anglers.
Wanna see a snapper disaster, look at Alabama. go read all the threads @ 2cool! get involved! join RFA! Jim Smarr and the others
might enlighten you a little!
Oh yeah, as far as ego's you might re-read your statement.
pretty egotistical. And pretty weak-minded to think all texans
have that mentality. nobody is asking you to live in Texas, so
go back where you came from if you don't like it!
Sheesh!
-B

WORD!!! Thats what I'm talkin bout!! You said it. As for me I dont think the few fish that I do catch to bring home and eat does any harm to the numbers out there. Even If you add all of us small guys up.

It doesn't, RD, especially when you compare rec ##'s to
Comm. ##'s, and when you consider nmfs cant even enforce the
weak laws for the comm's, or TAC, or quota's,etc,etc......
the NMFS needs more anglers in their cadre, and less
enviro-hugger dollars. I don't even wanna go off here, cause
there's too much info posted on other sites, but maybe we should
bring this to the forefront on this forum.
The more attention, and outcry from sportsmen we have, the
better off we are!
tight lines
-Brian

What are the rules?

Can you stop and catch snapper at the 8 mile mark, then continue out further or do you have to only catch snapper on your way back in?

Or is this one of those "fuzzy" laws that all depends on the warden?

in the strictest sense you would be legal doing what you said, BUT you going to have a hard time proving where you caught those fish, and your likely to get fined and end up paying.

You'd be better off fishing federal waters then coming into state waters and catching your fish and then coming back to shore.

Or an even better thing to do would be to learn to identify vermillion snapper and load up on it and leave the red snapper alone. Vermillion is nearly identical as red, so much so that you cannot tell them apart taste wise and I don't believe that there is a limit on vermillion.

Fair or unfair the facts are we are already in this position no matter who put us there. It is ALL of our responsibility to fix the problem, NOT just those other guys around the coast.

I'm not convinced totally that the commercial guys are the ONLY ones responsible. I've been out on the party boats in the past, and I don't see how you cannot say that they didn't play a role in the destruction of the resources too.

My first offshore trip in 95 was on a partyboat, three of us went out and we caught probably 50 red snappers each, and maybe 40 of them were keepers, the deck hands took every keeper to the back of the boat and when we got off the boat every person on the boat had limits of red snapper.. do that day after day 100+ people each time and I cannot see how that couldn't damage a resource.

Those people on the boat were all rec. fishermen...

Yes rec fishermen do some damage, but the shrimpers/commercial do a lot more, but thats just my opinion. I do not know if snapper travel or stay put.

If they stay put in one area then yes rec fishermen can fish out a reef in no time.


Now that I think about this topic I'm not so sure LOL. Shrimpers dragging bottom can really screw things up, but who knows how that affects snapper.

Are there any reports on this issue we could all read?

If you are in Federal waters, then current Federal rules, regulations and limits apply to your boat. So if it's July & you're allowed 2 fish/person, you'd best not have more than that while you're out there. However, on the way back in, you can stop in state waters & catch your state limit of red snapper.

Likewise, if you're fishing in September this year, you cannot have red snapper in your possession while in Federal waters, so my advice would be do your Federal water fishing first, then stop on the way back in state waters if you want some red snapper.

Oh yeah, also remember that you have to have a TX saltwater license to bring fish ashore, even if they were caught past 9 miles. If you get checked at the docks, there's really no way for the GW to know where each fish was caught - this comes down to being ethical on the part of the fisherman.

Speaking of ethical, how about the ethics of the commercial boats that are being caught poaching HUGE amounts of red snapper (including thousands of pounds in undersize fish). There's another thread on here with details on some of those boats being caught ... there's our Federal regulations hard at work.

The only way that the ridculous recreational limits can do any good is to put the same constraints on both commercial AND shrimper boats. If necessary, a GW should be on a shrimp boat counting the number of baby red snapper being killed - when the shrimp boat hits a certain number, it's done fishing for the entire year. If we only have 2 months to fish, then so should the other sectors.

Oh, Michial, there are limits on vermillion snapper as well. Federal waters is 11" size limit, with possession of 10 fish. Texas limits is 10" size, with no possession limit (not sure that you can find very many vermillion in state waters anyways).

Of course charter catch contributes to the harvest.My point was that I feel your commemt about our egos is why were still dealing with this problem. I asure you the charter captains are stuggleing for there catchs rt now.But commercial fishermen will out spend the recs to insure there wt totals stay up.And the majority of that issue is out past the nine mile mark.Ask any charter cap how long a hot spot holds before commercial fishermen get on it, they will tell you compared to yrs past they hone in on it real quick today.

I have read many an article of tickets that have been given to commercial fisherman that have harvested way too many snapper and after they take the snapper and give them multiple tickets and they are back out the next day doing the same thing. I read that one captain had more than 50 tickets and is still fishing. I think if they stop commercial fishing for a year or two the size would be back to normal and would solve the problems or just take the boat and equipment from the thieves. And I really want to use a worse word....

Steve

We are ALL responsible at our own levels, and it is ALL of our responsibilities to repair the damage. By Texans refusing to fall in line with the federal limits we are doing nothing more than thumbing our nose at the feds and at the problems.

Blaiming the commercial guys are is just passing the buck. I'm tired of hearing people cry "it's no my fault it's someone elses."

Maybe we should put a ban on catching and keeping red snappers completely for a few years and let the problem get fixed that way... But then if that was the solution the feds chose it would still be pointless because we would not comply and still slow the process.

My point is the damage is done, no matter who is responsible for the damage it is still ALL of our responsibilities to fix the problem, and every time someone passes the buck and thumbs their noses at those trying to solve the problem the just force things to take longer to fix..

So When Texans let their egos tell them they can do anything they feel like doing just because their texans all they do is make things take longer to fix.

Guys, if you go to the catfish section you and pull up some of these guys you will see that they have the same arguement. FOr some reason they seem to feel the "dooms day" plague for all species. Their comments seem to be in line and they are willing to argue it to the death.

Number one Michial, Please stop referring to our egos as the reason we are not falling in line with fed regulations. Florida is not bending to pressure from the feds either. And maybe, just maybe, our biologists have a little better science than the NMFS does to back up they're reasoning. Like maybe we dont agree with them about bycatch issues, Number two, would you really want to agree and just go along with an agency that decided your limit on Amberjack is 1 and 1/2 fish per person? How do you catch a half of a fish? It just doesnt make much sense.
Number Three ,understand this, Texas is the only State to enter the Union by TREATY rather than by secession, We were a nation unto ourselves and we were under the Flags of four others before we entered the Union, so I suppose we do have bigger egos than other states, as we should. There is a reason Our flag is the only flag allowed to be raised to the same height as the Stars and Stripes.....deal with it and quit yer bitchin....

You post PROVES the ego aspect of my arguement..

PROVE that tp&w has "better science" and I'll believe you...

OH by the way isn't it "SIX" flags that have flown over Texas, NOT 4, and what does ANY of that have to do with anything???? Proves nothing more than noone really wanted Texas, and the only way Texas could get protection from Mexico was through entering into a treaty with the US... If Texas was so great it would never have needed that protection that being a member of the US offered...

If you want to argue for the Egos of Texans perhaps you shouldn't demonstrate the ignorance that seems to go hand in hand with those same egos.

Oh and having the RIGHT to fly the flag at the same level is a RESPECT offered to the State of Texas. It's not a RIGHT at all, its a demonstration of RESPECT. Try offering the RESPECT that the other 49 states Deserve as well.

Man Michial, sounds to me like your looking for friends. And you just thought you'd sturr up a hornets nest with catfishermen. Not to be offensive but I really do think you enjoy it. If so then sit back and have fun!!