Galveston fishing report

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There is more bad news for recreational fishermen — our 40-day red snapper season that was to begin in June has been shortened to only nine days.

Wednesday, it was announced the Gulf of Mexico red snapper recreational season in federal waters will run 12:01 a.m. June 1 to 12:01 a.m. June 10 with a bag limit is two fish with a 16-inch minimum size limit.

At its April meeting, the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council requested an emergency rule to revise the recreational accountability measures for red snapper by applying a 20 percent buffer to the recreational quota, which results in a recreational annual catch target of 4.312 million pounds.

 This emergency rule will not affect the commercial harvest of red snapper in the reef fish fishery.

What this amounts to is that for all practical purposes red snapper fishing in federal waters is closed to recreational fishermen except for those who make trips on a few party boats along the Gulf Coast participating in a pilot program. Only one of Galveston’s Party Boats is part of that program, and while the announcement did not address the special quotas allowed to each boat participating in the two-year program, it is assumed that they are not affected.

Those having to adhere to the nine-day season were shortchanged by more than three weeks of trips with customers.

The news release came Wednesday afternoon and caught many sportsmen by surprise. My earlier comment about the fishery being virtually shut down is based on the fact that historically early June is windy and conditions are not favorable for smaller craft owned by private recreational fishermen to head offshore.

The good news is that the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department is sticking to its year-round season for red snapper in state of Texas waters, and the size and bag limits are a bit more liberal than the feds allow. Within 9 nautical miles of shore, four red snapper measuring at least 15 inches may be retained by each angler.

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