I’m talking bout dropping limit on how many fish u can keep, the whole sh.t about a dehooking device ( does a pair of plyers qualify) and the non offset hook bs and cicle hook crap , I do understand the the no stainless steel hook part but dang it’s getting really complicated to keep up with, ur opinions? Am I the only one woundering wtf
Just my opinion but the new rules sound like in a couple years recreational fishing will be outlawed
What’s next? A circle hook on ur ballyhoo trolling rig for mahi mahi? Maybe high speed trolling for wahoo will change to non offset circle hooks and no stainless hooks ?
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Don’t know the answer bruh, I can tell you that DNR is pretty dang good at fixing a problem though.
One example are spot tails, growing up round here in the 70’s, you rarely caught them, DNR started restocking, created limits, and tagging programs. The results were great, IMO. Plenty of fish were caught, tagged and released, giving DNR more information.
Other examples are Red Snappers,and BSB. Closed the fishery for a while, and red snappers have rebounded incredibly, put size and creel limits on bsb, now you bring home knot heads instead of dinks.It works, but folks have to cooperate, even if they feel it’s unfair.
Biggest problem I see in these parts ,are just too many comeyahs, and too many lines in the water. The only way to change that is to drop the limits and/or shut it down until stocks recover,cause we sure as hell can’t send all the comeyahs back!
Next, DNR needs to get a handle on the blue crab, like the Wild West with the out of state dudes coming in here and taking them out of the Lowcountry for sale.
Thanks for reply I was just looking over the most likely to catch fish on reefs ( was looking at fish rules app) and kept seeing lots of changes, it just got under my skin that u can use this hook on this fish but not the other, and sharks are still 1 per day but it’s getting harder to bring in a bigger fish without a shark taking half, but I know we gotta play the game by rules just hard to keep up with the changes
Ok, I’ll bite.
Why, if the stocks of ARS, and BSB, have recovered, is the ARS season only a couple of days/year?
Come,yahs?
Again, Y-73, to the Ledge, was stacked with botes, just a few years back. Now, you’re lucky to even see a bote. Especially during the week.
The cost of “fishing” has stressed those of us that have a passion to fish offshore so much, with size/creel limits, that the juice ain’t worth the squeeze!!
As far as BSB’s, fish anywhere from 40-65 feet, and your swarmed by juveniles!
SCDNR is so underfunded they can’t catch the poachers!!
Not sure I have any answers, but, interested in keeping this discussion going…
Thanks for your input Bolbie, I do appreciate your replies.
Hey, Rebelstate, when are we going offshore?
Let me know…
Looking at going either Monday or Tuesday you in? Get some practice in before may when the mahi swarm in!
Let me see if I can pull it off…
Thanks!
Reason I started this thread is because most hooks I got are stainless and now I got to find a replacement kit of hooks that rust and throw away my stainless ones, write down what fish u have to use non offset, circle hooks etc and hope I don’t make a mistake and get checked till I learn the way rules read, I’m retired but on a budget and dnr fines hurt my bottom line
Not to hijack your thread, but, I think “stainless” has been a no go, for quite a while?
lol! I kinda figured that, anyway let me know about Monday or Tuesday I’m serious about if weather is good going out to y-73 or the gardens
Do you have a link or can you c/p the rules you’re referring to?
Hope yall get out there and wear em out!
One more comment, Congratulations on your becoming a Captain!!
Well done, Sir!!
Thanks nuts ! Got it to make it official when the grand kids call me cappie
Yes I’ll try tonight to figure out how to show you what I’m looking at it’s all in fish rules app on different fish about didn’t style hooks
I’m on break for a moment while I’m working in yard
There was an attempt, narrowly averted for the moment, to close all bottom fishing in large parts of the southeast. See Regulatory Amendment 35 in its various versions over time. The only reason this hasn’t happened yet was massive pushback. Even some of the members of the South Atlantic Fisheries Management Council called the data bulls*** based on their own fishing experience catching red snapper. The proposal would also have outlawed electric reels and multiple hook bottom rigs.
Grouper is already closed 4 months a year and red snapper is effectively closed for the foreseeable future despite being the most common species in many areas.
Your concern is valid and reason to be alert.
Just a short sample of regulatory insanity:
Despite being, in fact, snapper, vermillion snapper are not included in the snapper/grouper complex aggregate limits but have a separate limit.
Despite being neither snapper nor grouper, triggerfish and almaco jacks are included in the snapper/grouper complex limit.
You can keep 10 porgy as part of the snapper/grouper complex limit, which is a separate aggregate limit for many species. Wait, except zero red porgy - which last year was 3 red porgy over 14 inches. Smaller red porgy hard to identify because not strongly red, easy to make a mistake. Note that porgy is also neither a snapper nor a grouper.
Many species of fish can be prohibited without notice if ACL (allowable catch limit) exceeded during the year. Better keep track on the Annual Catch Monitoring page of the SAFMC website.
You can bottom fish just not in Marine Protected Areas or Spawning Special Management Zones - sometimes. Is there a good map of these readily available - nope. Trolling is ok, though.
If you keep a skipjack tuna you must have a Highly Migratory Species Permit. But, you can keep a blackfin tuna without a Highly Migratory Species Permit. However, neither the skipjack tuna or the blackfin tuna have any size or catch limits - go ahead and fill the boat but be certain to have any necessary permits.
If you keep a shark in federal waters, you must have a Highly Migratory Species Permit. Not a regular permit but a Highly Migratory Species Permit with a Shark Endorsement. Some sharks have no size limit, some 54 inches, some 78 inches and lots prohibited. Good luck telling the difference between the species, it isn’t easy. These restrictions, for practical purposes, make targeting sharks to keep impossible for recreational fishermen. The abundance of sharks causes release mortality which is why the SAFMC wants to restrict bottom fishing.
Some fish have size limits based on the length to fork of the tail, some the total length of the fish. You have to know which one.
Black sea bass have to be 13 inches if caught by a recreational fisherman but 11 if caught by a commercial fisherman. Huh?
Two years ago, you could keep 15 bluefish. Now its 3 per person, except, for some reason, if a for hire vessel - then you can keep 5 per person. Atlantic bonito, however, have no size or catch limits at all.
The above is just a tiny sample of the available population of overly complicated and ridiculous rules. The Fish Rules ap helps with compliance but the only way to be certain not violating a rule is to stop fishing. Bottom fish while you still can.
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If I remember correctly, it’s also illegal to keep Red Fish, caught in Federal Waters?
Looks you have to be a Philadelphia Lawyer to manage a “legal” fishing trip?
All I wanted do was to have some fun, and a fish fry for some friends…
Y’all making a mountain out of a molehill
Too much revenue in the sport to do away with bottom fishing,and Sen Campsen would never allow that to happen.
Grouper needs to be closed IMO, they’re way too easy to catch.
Pink snapper(red porgy) trash fish, dam things reek of iodine. The small ones are great live bait for groupers, if you know what you’re doing.
See, the small ones are still illegal to keep, even for bait,even if you know what your doing, lol
We used to call the short blinders candy bars and kept them in the livewell thinking short fish for bait surely must be legal. Plus, the broom tails loved 'em, so there’s that.
I can say with certainty that 35 years ago the sea truly was the horn of plenty. You could go almost any time, anywhere, and catch a cooler of whatever fish you were targeting.
Then it wasn’t anymore, it started (from my perspective) really declining in the late 1990’s and early 2000’s.
So anyway, as far as all the rules go, I see a lot of chiefs and not too many Indians making the rules. If I were an ARS I suspect I’d be happy with the new regs, as a queen trigger, not so much.
You gotta admit things seem to be better as far as quality fish and sheer numbers now than in say 2010.
just my 2 cents
I was guessing by Bolbie’s " if you know what you’re doing" comment, he might’ve fashioned his descending device, with, say, a 9/0 Gomagatsu, circle hook, through the lower jaw, of one of the lil’ fellars, returning him to where he came from?
Technically, not bait?
Who knows…
LOL