New Snook rules

[happy2fish]

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission on Thursday approved new snook rules which will take effect when snook season reopens in September. The new rules are:

. Reduce the daily recreational bag limit from two fish to one on the Atlantic coast
. the slot in the Atlantic to 28-32 inches.
. Tighten the Gulf slot -- including the Keys and Everglades National Park -to 28-33 inches.
. Add the first half of December and the month of February to the closed season in the Gulf
. Allow anglers to carry more than one cast net aboard a boat while fishing for snook.

The working group and the FWC believe that, if enforced, the new rules could bring snook up to 40 percent SPR in 10 years.

Credit

[Steve]

Two cast nets are good.
I would have liked to have had two mesh sizes based on the bait.
I liked small mesh for Mullet and slightly larger mesh for Atlantic Bunker (not the same as our bunker) and Pinfish.

The Mullet gets it's fins stuck in the larger mesh and is a real pain to get 'em out. But I like the larger mesh around bulkheads and shallow grassy areas. The target bait stays in and the grass is easier to dislodge.

As for the Snook size limits, 36 inch seems more practical, tons of 'em are caught. The larger ones get off the hook quite often, especially for the inexperienced Snook angler, easy to tear it out of their mouth when setting or powering it in.