February 2020

FWC has been hard at work on the regulatory front with new regulations already in place and more on the horizon. January 1st brought some regulatory changes in our offshore bottom species. A number of grouper species are out of season 1/1/2020 to 4/30/2020 in Atlantic Federal waters. These are gag, black, red, scamp, rock hind, red hind, coney, graysby, yellowfin and yellowmouth grouper.

Inshore, Snook  reopens February 1st, but closes June 1-Aug. 31 this year. The big news is in spotted seatrout regulations effective 2/1/2020. The area we fish has been broken down into two zones with the Flagler/Volusia county line separating FWC’s northeast and east central zones. Everything south of the county line is in the east central zone; north in the northeast zone. Slot size statewide is 15-19 inches total length. You may keep one fish over 19 inches per vessel. The east central zone will close November and December. Bag limits change as well; northeast 5 fish, and east central 2 fish. From a practical perspective, don’t bring more than 2 trout back to Volusia even if you caught them in Flagler. I also suggest you all get on FWC’s mailing list or  download the fish rules app onto your tablet or cell phone to keep you out of trouble.

On a different subject, please give us some feedback on the Red and Black Tournament. Based on your input, we split the tournament into two divisions:
power boats or paddle boats, each with their own prizes. Our aim is to get more
people out there fishing per tournament without limiting how they can fish.

That’s all for now.

Chuck