JULY IS HOT IN MORE THAN TEMPERATURES. July is as hot as the tempers of recreational and commercial fisherman over red snapper. Like other articles in this magazine in the past, I’m going to rip the Band- Aid off of this scab and expose the raw meat of the wound about what has just happened. We had a glimmer of hope regarding a 60 day season of American Red Snapper harvest along the East Coast, but that was a rug pulled by someone that knows nothing about snapper and grouper populations, much less recreational and/or commercial fishing regarding red snapper and gag grouper. They want to put recreational and commercial fishermen against each other, while offering bogus solutions (without accurate data) to a manufactured problem. If you think there is a problem with American red snapper and gag grouper populations, just talk to any diver, wherever you live along the East Coast. They will tell you in no uncertain terms, there are more American red snapper and gag grouper now than in the last 35 years.
I’ve been hammering bottom fish for 40+ years now and I have never… I repeat NEVER seen as many American red snappers as right now. Talking with divers, they see giant schools of Americans that never existed in the past on every piece of bottom from 50 ft to 140 feet water depth and deeper. The gags that used to be few and far between in the depths that held the scamp grouper are now prevalent in big numbers, along with the American Snappers.
Because of the explosion of the American red snapper population, other populations have suffered such as Vermillion snapper, Seabass and other juvenile species. They eat EVERYTHING under 10 or 12 inches.
This will lead to additional problems/closures with Seabass, Vermillion snapper and other species. What we have to realize is, they have constantly kept us divided. Recreational vs. commercial fishing, using quotas and regulations.
It’s time that people wake up and realize what the true story/agenda is and understand why they are trying to put us against each other. We HAVE to make the needed changes in the bureaucratic agencies making these regulations.