Like I said in a previous post...I believe this is the driving force behind trying to outlaw gigging.  These people think they own the water to end of the dock over to their neighbors dock.  They believe the shallow water is their backyard.  Not everyone on the water feels this way, but it only takes a couple of "connected people".  I'm actually surprised more people are not hassled about the noise of their generators at 1AM.

It doesn't matter how you get 10 fish...it's still 10 fish.  Lowering the limit is one thing, but banning a longtime tradition over bag limits is BS.

The one on the left weighed 6 1/2lbs and the one on the right weighed 5 3/4lbs

This guy weighed just over 5lbs.

Yes Big Flounder do exist and they can be targeted......but if we dont start protecting the fisheries we can say good bye to fish this size. For those of you who called me out, I would love to take you out one day and show you how it is done, but you have to be willing to be on the water all day and put your time into it.

And for those of you interested my dad works for FWC and trust me if we are not on the phone talkin to the guys in Tallahassee about turkey hunting regs its about flounder regs. I voice my opinion about it any time I can.  So instead of sitting on here calling me out why dont you send a few emails over to the FWC office and complain to them about the new regs that are being proposed. Cause honestly I think it would work out for us alot better if we worked together on this.

17' Lakesport

your my hero

         Ben Arnold

I did not use the word "anymore".  I said 5 pounders were "way above average for this area". It's always been that way and it has nothing to do with gigging/fishing bag limits.  How is closing the fall run being selfish.  There would still be 10 months for "everybody" to fish for and gig them.  You know as well as I do that during the fall run the flounders are concentrating in mass numbers towards the passes which makes them easy pickings.  Only happens once during the year and the females are full of eggs. 

DFA

as far as the quantity of flounder killed during october through december...much less than say during the months of april may and june...not only do you have lots of hook and line anglers catching these flounders you have a lot of flounder giggers as well during the early summer months.

i think you are selfish because in your own words you do not fish for flounder during the fall yet you want to stop those who do! i would back you if you gave up one of your best months to catch flounder. then i would know you truely want to help the resource.

as for 5 lbers...there use to be plenty of flounder that sizes...acutually a 5 lb fish was just a tad over average on many nights of gigging as well as catching 1 to 2 a trip on hook and line. my family has hooked and lined flounder to 12 lbs and gigged many 7 to 10 lbers.

the fishery is in a decline whether you want to believe it or not. it is happening all over the gulf coast as well as the eastern coast. when my family gigged flounder hard you may have seen a couple of boats on the weekends. now there are hundreds of boats capable and when you go out i always see on any given night a half dozen.

you may be catching flounder and in record numbers as i am as well! this does not mean the flounder population is not in decline. you have to look at the size of the fish. you should have a cross population of small medium and large fish. we have plenty of small fish and a good number of medium fish but the trophy fish are fewer and fewer. we also need to have what population of fish we have to spawn at 60%. what does this mean...if there were 100 female flounder total in the bay you would need 60 of those flounder to spawn. they would create 2 flounder each to reach maturity in two years. this would be 120 flounder. now if the first 100 flounder were all caught or killed some way or some how you have now increased your population by 20...anything less and you would eventually eliminate them. now this is an example as to why a certain percentage of the population MUST SPAWN every year.

how do you achieve this...well that is the hard part...you have catch data from the commercial harvesters and nothing from the recreational angler. so you have to put a number of some sort for recreational catches...then figure what the smallest fish that can be caught and harvested to the largest fish. then how many per person per day of fishing. then monitor and hope your guess was real close to the true population of flounder.

what you cannot do is say i am catching lots of flounder so there is no problem.

DFA i hope you will team with me to make sure not for us but for our grand kids they are able to catch the flounder you and i have been able to catch these many years. what say you?

capt wes rozier

inshore fishing guide

850-982-7858

http://www.captwesrozier.com

It's about them being declared as "Gamefish" this would automatically preclude them from Gigging not the Gigging issue itself.

I replied to see if this would include a game stamp?

Looks like they will be included in with other Florida Gamefish Snook,Trout and Red's.

After this i'm sure we can still Gigg Mullett and Sheepshead.  

I doubt Mullett or Sheepshead will ever reach Gamefish status.

Try and Gigg a Redfish today! I used to back in the 80's, after it was deemed a Gamefish that was the end. 

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"Sometimes you have to hunker down and take it like a jackass in a hailstorm"....     Lyndon Johnson

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"Well........If it ain't broke, it just ain't broke yet... "    -myself

that is the truth!, i have seen it first hand myself, and it is amazing what gets caught in a shrimp net being pulled by a 22' boat for 5 pulls, 5 minutes each.

Hot Spots Bait & Tackle
211 Gulf Breeze Parkway
Gulf Breeze, FL 32563
www.hotspotstackle.com
(850) 916-7176

TEAM GET RIGHT!!!

I replied to see if this would include a game stamp?

Looks like they will be included in with other Florida Gamefish Snook,Trout and Red's.}

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Am I missing an update on the flatties? I still think if they place it on the gamefish list, or like listed above, the commercial guys should not be allowed to have them at all. You don't see Redfish being locally caught and sold at the Seafood Markets here in Florida. If they want to catch one, they should either use a rod and be in the slot or if they put it on the stamp list, but a stamp just like all the rest of us.

Guess I'm just venting,,,,

"Fish Like You're Hungry!"

"Eat More Fish!"

Thank you jhoe...

Mike

2009 Key West 1520 CC

My Pix...

http://www.forumpictureprocessor.com/gallery.asp?gallery=1255

In Texas we are at a 14" minimum 5 bag possesion limit. Yea, it sux but it's still legal to gig.

The feds say the same here about fewer fish blah-blah whilst I am seeing more Flounder in the past 5 years than ever before.

I say, if it is as bad as they say then shut down all of November and December to all methods for taking flounder. In Texas it is illegal to gig in November and it's comming to a shore near you. (Why should it be illegal to gig while the hook takes way more than the point)

Attend you're local scope meetings so you're voice can be heard

STFU, Ben.

Galveston Bay, Tx. Appex Predator

keep on fishin bro!

you are probably one of the youngest posting on this thread, but one of the most mature and sensible.

my hopes are that you follow in your fathers footsteps and make a real difference to our local fisheries.

1989 20' grady white 2007 200hp 2-stroke yamaha

+1