Gas up the boat, tell your buddies you're going to miss a lot of college football games this fall, sharpen your circle hooks, and lay in a good supply of heavy sinkers. Because the offshore fishing season for red snapper just got the green light to resume.

In an extremely surprising move last week, the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council, under the auspices of The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), voted to extend the harvest of red snapper to recreational anglers only during the weekends only (12:01 a.m. Friday through 12:01 a.m. Monday) from Oct. 1 to Nov. 22.

The extension does not include commercial charters, and the size limit remains 16 inches minimum, and two fish per angler. Also remember that regulations now require all offshore reef anglers to use circle hooks, hook-removal devices, and venting tools in order to help increase survival rates for undersized or protected species.

via Red snapper season extended for anglers | HeraldTribune.com.

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 2nd, 2010 at 8:34 pm and is filed under Fishing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.