Today is a big day for snook fishermen. At a meeting in Pensacola, the FWC is going to decide what action (if any) to take to modify snook regulations in response to the cold-weather fish kill which affected Florida snook populations in January and February. As a reminder, snook season is now closed due to an emergency executive order and is scheduled to open on September 17, unless further action is taken at today’s meeting. FWC staff is expected to recommend that the season be allowed to open on September 17 and to remain open through the end of November, when the usual December 1 Gulf coast closed season begins. They are also expected to recommend that the spring 2011 open season, slated to run for two months beginning March 1 on the Gulf coast, be canceled to protect snook during their spawning season. If approved, this action would result in a closed season for snook harvest from December 1, 2010, through August 31, 2011, in Gulf waters, similar to the closure in 2010. The full staff report on the snook situation is an interesting document and can be viewed at www.MyFWC.com/docs/CommissionMeetings/2010/2010_Sep_Snook_presentation.pdf.

I was excited to see that the FWC had placed redfish regulations on their agenda for discussion at this week’s meeting in Pensacola. It’s been my opinion for several years that the redfish population in Charlotte Harbor is not doing well and that stricter regulations regarding harvest of these popular fish are needed, so I was hopeful that the FWC might be addressing my concerns. I was less excited about the meeting agenda when I discovered that the reason for the redfish discussion is that there is a proposal afoot to increase the bag limit on redfish in some portions of Florida. The FWC is working on a plan to divide the state into three regions for redfish management (using the same geographical boundaries that are used to delineate the three regions that are currently used for sea trout regulations) and to issue different redfish regulations for each region. The current version of the plan would leave the regulations unchanged in our region, but would double the bag limit on redfish from one per person to two per person in the northeastern and northwestern portions of the state. This plan will be tweaked during the remainder of 2010 and, if approved by the FWC, would not be finalized until February of 2011 for implementation later next year. The report on redfish can be viewed at www.MyFWC.com/docs/CommissionMeetings/2010/2010_Sep_RedDrum_presentation.pdf.

Tarpon, like snook, are unable to tolerate cold water. Unlike snook, most adult tarpon cope with Florida’s winter weather by leaving the area. No one knows with certainty where the big tarpon go in the winter, but it’s presumably somewhere balmy enough that they need not worry about dying due to cold temperatures. Smaller tarpon, however, do not migrate and remain in local waters year round, and there are always a few adult tarpon which stay the winter too. According to FWRI tarpon expert Kathy Guindon, who was a featured speaker at the recent Florida Outdoor Writers Association conference, there were some young tarpon up to about two years of age that died in Southwest Florida during the 2010 cold weather, but probably not enough to significantly affect the population. One reason: Tarpon live a very long time and reproduce for many seasons, so that even if one or two year classes are impacted by cold weather or by some other catastrophe, there are still many, many year classes of fish to continue the reproductive duties. While tarpon need nearly 10 years to reach maturity, they can live for 70 years. Since one female tarpon can produce over two million eggs per year, it’s easier for the tarpon population to withstand a disastrous season than it would be for most other fish, including snook.

Captain Allen runs the King Fisher Fleet of sightseeing tour boats, deep sea fishing charter boats and back bay guide boats located at Fishermen’s Village Marina in Punta Gorda. He is an award-winning outdoor writer and is Chairman of the Board of the Florida Outdoor Writers Association. He can be reached by phone at 941-639-2628 or by email at captain@kingfisherfleet.com for boating or fishing information or with questions you want to see answered in WaterLine.