Seen a posting over on Saltwater Central about restricting/closing?
the cobia fishery for entire coast federal waters, don’t under all
the lingo , anybody else hear or can interpet in redneck language??
How does this June 1 total closure tie into the closure of the
B-river closure during the month of May?? Don’t know when to fish
for them now , I’m getting confused[:0]which isn’t uncommon!!!
Something had to give…Cobia were absolutely hammered from FL to VA last year. Hammered.
Fishing needs to be sustainable. It’s too bad regulations can’t be made fast enough to keep up with increased fishing pressure. That might keep these drastic closures from happening
The Beaufort cobia have been determined not to migrate up and down the east coast and the state is going to manage them differently. Changes are coming…and as in the past, anglers don’t like change.
If the fishery management on the entire east coast and the Gulf of Mexico was managed like SC state agencies over the last 20 years, we would be in far better shape. SC does a far better job than all the other states combined imo… I have been to a variety of different SAFMC meetings of the last couple of years in different states and it has been an eye-opener for sure…
The Beaufort cobia have been determined not to migrate up and down the east coast and the state is going to manage them differently. Changes are coming…and as in the past, anglers don’t like change.
Tight lines.
Robert Olsen
Not all changes are good though... In addition, the SAFMC has a limited toolset... They can only restrict. They don't do any hatcheries, reef building, oyster restoration, etc. When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.
In addition, they manage our fisheries with unproven “formulas”. The whole red snapper debacle is literally managed entirely by plugging numbers into a formula that was designed for other, long lived species. Meanwhile, they are as thick as ever.
I am sure the SCDNR will outline the regs. for the BR cobia. On June 1st, the entire east coast will be closed for all cobia.
The SAFMC is currently going through some much needed changes and believe it or not, they don’t ever want to close any fishing. When closures occur, it puts more scrutiny on them for any decisions made for any particular species. They are currently looking at ways to get better data to use in the future. As for the red snapper fishery, they were in trouble on the east coast for many years. Now that they have been tightly regulated over the last several years we are seeing a large increase and hopefully sooner than later, we won’t need to bother with a season and have a normal bag limit for an extended period like grouper.
My brother was very critical of the SAFMC as he should have been since his living was completely dictated by the regulations. Over his commercial fishing ventures he targeted different species over 30 years. I know if he was alive today we would be on different sides of the fence for sure…
Each states fishery for specific fish is vastly different and like I mentioned before SC does a great job with our resources (oyster restoration, hatcheries, etc) and some of the other states are learning a lot from the model we have in SC.
The Beaufort cobia have been determined not to migrate up and down the east coast and the state is going to manage them differently. Changes are coming…and as in the past, anglers don’t like change.
Tight lines.
Robert Olsen
This is not true… They do migrate up and down the east coast. Otherwise they would stay inshore at PR sound year round which they do not. The difference is this species of fish are the only ones that come into PR sound to spawn.
xx… you might want to check your facts…the SCDNR has done extensive research on these fish…they would never stay year around due to the water temps. These fish only migrate offshore of SC and GA and return to spawn each year.
Knot@Work;
You’re right. SCDNR have determined the BR cobia migrate to the
offshore reefs to winter over and do not mix with nor migrate
up/down coast, but now the other problem[:0][:0][:0]
DNR proposing closing BR for cobia out to fed waters for the month of May for the spawning season (which I do strongly support) but now the SAFMC closing all fed waters for cobia from June 1 and >>>> Unless I misunderstand what i’ve read/heard ; Other than real-near shore after June 1, it won’t be much need to target cobia at all!!!
>>>>AM I WRONG IN MY INTERPERTATION<<<<<<<???</font id=“red”>
xx… you might want to check your facts…the SCDNR has done extensive research on these fish…they would never stay year around due to the water temps. These fish only migrate offshore of SC and GA and return to spawn each year.
Tight lines.
Robert Olsen
I have checked my facts and been to the meetings. Our PR sound Cobia do travel the coast. More likely to travel up the coast to Virginia than they are down to Florida. Although it is possible to catch a PR sound Cobia offshore. The biologists don’t believe any serious damage is being done to them there. The majority of the fish caught offshore are genetically different from the PR sound Cobia. This information came from Dr. Michael Denson.
I would suggest attempting to catch them in April in the BR or on the coastline during the normal migration of the ones coming from Florida before June 1st.
No sense arguing with you xx… The stock of the BR cobia are in very serious trouble. There have been rumors that it may close indefinitely. It is unfortunate the the BR cobia fishing is at its peak around the SAFMC closing this year.
The fact that 247% of the quota was caught last year is the reason of the closing on June 1. I can also guarantee if the BR cobia migrate north of SC they are hammered by all the NC pier fisherman and recreational anglers, not to mention the same 50 boat fleet of fisherman in the BR who have been catching them over the years. The last 2 years have been extremely poor fishing in the BR compared to years in the past.
If there is a bright side to this coin, Cobia are a great gamefish in that they grow very fast. Age 3 = roughly 40 inches (I believe, not 100% sure). So, there is hope that the stocks will rebound quickly after a few years.