Capt. Tim Ramsey
The Snook and Redfish Closure and why it bothers me…
On February 19th, 2020, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission extended the catch-and-release-only rule for Snook and Red Drum on the West Coast of Florida until May 31, 2021. It bothers me, just like it did when they started the closure in 2019. But not for what you think. Here is what I mean.
When the closure went into effect, I thought “great, the fish need a chance to recover.” Then I read the briefing and studied the ruling. The boundary is from the Hernando/Pasco County Line south to Gordon River in Collier County. I wondered why Gordon River? Why not the Collier County/Monroe County line? Why not all the way to Florida Bay? I asked FWC. Here was their response:
“Gordon Pass was chosen because Naples was the southern extent of the area affected by the recent red tide events. The Commission made the decision to implement the catch-and-release only restrictions based on the Fish and Wildlife Research Institute and Marine Fisheries Management presentation and public feedback.” FWC November 2019
I took that explanation with a grain of salt, wondering if anyone from the Fish and Wildlife Research Institute (based in St. Petersburg) and the Marine Fisheries Management (based in Tallahassee) had ever actually been to Naples/Marco Island. “Naples was the southern extent of the area affected by the recent red tide events?” Says who? So, my chest didn’t burn from breathing toxic algae while cruising behind Keewaydin Island in 2018? Those weren’t dead fish people counted during their walks on the Marco Island Beach? The floating things in the water around Cape Romano weren’t dead fish? Won’t this rule make people act the way I expect them to act? Reluctantly, I let it go and went about my normally abnormal life without giving it much thought. Then it happened.
There I was, sometime in March or April, launching a boat at the Collier Boulevard Boat ramp. Next to me was a charter captain from Fort Myers pulling his boat out of the water as his two customers looked on from nearby. After parking my vehicle, I walked past the charter boat and gave the three men the customary “you guys do any good?” My mistake. One sunburned customer standing next to the boat with a cooler at his feet gleefully blurted “hell yeah,” reached into the cooler and produced a slot Snook, holding it up like a trophy. A stiff, dead, never-to-breed again trophy. My heart sank. My blood boiled. The unnecessary hair on my back bristled like a wolverine. So many things I wanted to say. They all tried to come out at once. They got stuck. I turned and walked away like a mute. Then it happened.
There I was, leaving Calusa Island Marina in Goodland around the same time. A guy I had seen a few times at the marina was over at the fish cleaning table…again. I asked a marina employee about the guy and found out he was from Punta Gorda. Not Lee County this time but Charlotte County, even further away. I casually wandered over to the fish cleaning table and what do I see? The guy cleaning a Snook. I stopped myself from blurting out “you !#!@$*%.” Then I said, “you did pretty well, eh?” as the guy noticed me there with clenched fists. Did he react guardedly or think to defuse the unexpectedly tense situation? No. In a southern accent so deep people in rural Mississippi wouldn’t have understood, he said “yeah, got two nice reds to go with it.” His nonchalance was my undoing. My heart sank. My blood boiled. The unnecessary hair on my back bristled like a wolverine. So many things I wanted to say. They all tried to come out at once. They got stuck. I turned and walked away like a mute. Then it happened.
As I was walking away from the fish cleaning table, another guy approaching from the other side noticed the first man’s catch and exclaimed “been a while since I had me a taste uh snook,” in an accent somewhere between Cajun and hillbilly. The first man replied “yeah, got two nice ones yesterday too.” I froze in my tracks. The bag limit is one per day. Outsider taking fish, breaking the rules. What a guy. I might have spent thirty years in the army, but I’m not the law and not a rat, so I just walked away…again.
I have no issue with people coming from out of the area to fish (unless you use a jet ski in the back country…different story). I get it, people need to make a living and others need to get out on the water. My problem is people taking fish. It’s even worse for me since I’m always catch-and-release-only. The closure boundary is wrong and the resource is being hit too hard. I know people on a charter want to get the most for their money and take fish home, and lots of people seem to think they must keep fish if they fish at all. But here I am, what some call a “Snook fanatic,” in my home waters watching people not from here take the fish I value above all others as a game fish. I wish I were conflicted about this, but I am not. I can confidently say if I was fishing in someone else’s area, I wouldn’t take a thing. Conservationist? Yes. Ambiguous? No. Selfish? Maybe a little, but who cares? Leave my fish alone.
To find out more about the Snook and Red Drum closure, and to see the FWC summary and presentation, go to: https://myfwc.com/about/commission/commission-meetings/february-2020/
