Jacksonville - St Augustine Fishing Reports and News

Wahoo Report! Jacksonville 12-16-09

2009-12-21T17:51:00.000-08:00

Headed offshore yesterday after some minor boat issues kept us home on Monday. We left early worried about the fog but fortunately there was none at 4:30am. We got to 145 feet before there was enough light to fish! We pulled lures for the first 2 hours. Popped one off that was either a small wahoo or a king and put a 36# fish in the boat. There was a ton of small tuna and sailfish all over the surface so we switched to baits. From there on we had good action once we found the right area. Most of our bites came from around the 160' mark and most came when we were heading north. We ended the day with 3 nice wahoo to a little over 50#, 1 dolphin, a bunch of bonita (sucks on the WWB) and we caught about 10 big pinks at the end of the day bottom fishing for 30 min. We had quite a few good bites that didn't hook up as well.

Must have seen at least 20 sailfish free jumping. They were everywhere! A great day, perfect weather. Thanks Matt and Brian for doing all of the work while I let autopilot drive I posted a couple videos from the trip: http://www.digitalfathom.com/JacksonvilleWahoo.htm

Off Topic - Peru!

2009-11-23T19:13:00.000-08:00

Fishing is slow, snapper are about to be shut down. Time for a new hobby. Just got back from an awesome vacation in Peru. If you like hiking, mountains, etc then the Inca trail to Machu Pichu is awesome! Check out some pics and details:

Peru/Inca Trail Vacation Pictures

Fishing and snapper closures coming!

2009-11-02T19:37:00.001-08:00

Fishing for dozens of kinds of fish could become illegal from Central Florida to Charleston, S.C., because of a federal agency’s work to protect one species, the red snapper.

That could shut down much of the commercial and sport fishing industries in a large swath of the Southeastern coast, with some restrictions potentially lasting up to 35 years.

The restrictions being considered by the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council have alarmed many people involved in fishing, who say they’ve never seen such far-reaching plans.

“The red snapper closure will stop fishing, period,” said Vic Lloyd, a Mayport-based commercial fisherman who formerly sat on an advisory board for the management council.

“It affects people all down the line, from the people who manufacture the boats to … people who like to eat fish.”

Advocates for the restrictions say red snapper have been fished until the older snappers — the ones best suited for breeding — are nearly depleted.

They say the government’s research shows the stock of red snapper in the Southeast is just 3 percent of what it was in the 1950s, a conclusion that opponents say is wildly wrong.

“We have a population that’s really, really young and fishing rates that are really, really high, and that’s not a good combination,” said Holly Binns, Tallahassee-based manager of a campaign against over-fishing run by an arm of the Pew Charitable Trusts.

That arm, the Pew Environment Group, campaigned earlier in the decade for legislation updating a cornerstone of American fishing policy, the 1976 Magnuson-Stevens Act.

The update that Congress drafted in 2006 required fishery management councils to know which species were being caught too fast to sustain their populations, then adopt fishing rules that would let those species rebuild. Those protective rules had to be adopted within a year of when the management council recognized a problem, the new law said.

The management council hasn’t settled on a snapper plan yet but scheduled hearings in Jacksonville and other cities to get feedback about a range of possible restrictions.

A red snapper stock assessment that was updated this year led council employees to conclude the fish were so imperiled they needed a solution bigger than shutting down snapper fishing.

Because fishermen catch a lot of snappers accidentally while targeting other species, the management council is considering four different plans for shutting down any fishing that might lead to those accidental catches, called bycatch. The plans affect different sections of the ocean, but they all apply to nearly every one of about 70 fish the council lumps together as the “snapper grouper management complex” because they’re found in similar locations.

That last step has people in the fishing industry stunned and alarmed.

“That would devastate a lot of people,” said Gerald Pack, a longtime Mayport seafood merchant.
“It’s a pretty drastic step. I don’t understand the philosophy they take,” Pack said. “A total closure, that’s like closing the highway.”

The closure areas would also apply to recreational fishing, from head boats carrying dozens of people offshore for a few hours to charter vessels and weekend boaters.

But with the impacts spread between more interests, the number of groups questioning the need for all of the restrictions has increased.

Calling the potential rules “unprecedented in their breadth and scope,” an executive of the nonprofit Coastal Conservation Association asked federal officials in July to revisit the idea.

The association, started decades ago by recreational anglers, has a long history of championing fishing regulations, including a net ban Florida voters approved in 1994. But it has balked at the snapper proposal, questioning whether it’s based on good science.

“In this special instance where the potential economic ramifications are so severe, we believe there must be another review,” the association’s government relations chairman, Chester Brewer, wrote to a regional administrator for the National Marine Fisheries Service.

Florida Sportsman magazine founder Karl Wickstrom, a leading advocate for Florida’s net ban in the 1990s, joined the new debate by writing in his magazine’s November issue that federal scientists are “cherry-picking” data to support drastic solutions. Two scientists also critique the management council’s study of snapper populations in the same issue.

At dock in Mayport, Lloyd’s son, 36-year-old Brian Lloyd, points to his catch records from two trips in eight days this month when the boat’s three-man crew landed close to 4,000 pounds of red snapper. Fish weighing eight to 12 pounds, a decent size for a snapper, made up the largest part of the catches, according to those records.

Advocates for new restrictions say an apparent abundance of fish right now is a passing illusion, a result of a burst in reproduction a decade ago that isn’t fully understood — and hasn’t continued. They say cutting back fishing is the only chance to stop declines in the snapper population, and that it will take time to see how fast the fish rebound.

“The South Atlantic council needs to enact measures that are as protective as their scientific advisors say are necessary,” Binns said.

“You need to end over-fishing of red snapper for a period of time,” she said, “and I don’t think anyone knows how long that will be.”

Blackened Snapper with Mango Salsa

2009-10-05T14:50:00.001-07:00

With all of this snapper being caught I though I would post one of my favorite ways to eat it:

Blackened Snapper with Fresh Mango Salsa
Yield
Makes 2 servings

Ingredients
1 cup cubed ripe mango
1/2 cup fresh cilantro, chopped
1/4 cup chopped red onion
1 jalapeño pepper, minced
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
2 skinless snapper fillets
1 tablespoon melted butter
2 tablespoons prepared blackened or jerk seasoning
Preparation
Combine mango and next 4 ingredients in a bowl. Cover and chill until ready to serve.

Brush snapper with melted butter, and coat both sides with seasoning.

Heat a large cast-iron or heavy-bottom skillet until hot. Cook fish 3 minutes on each side or until opaque. Serve with mango salsa.

Grouper and Snapper off Jax

2009-10-01T17:02:00.000-07:00

The bottom fishing continues to be great anywhere offshore. Grouper and Snapper are biting. From what I hear there has been a pretty hot grouper bite already. Get out and get 'em!

Cape Canaveral Otherside Tuna and Swordfishing Report

2009-09-01T12:24:00.000-07:00

On 8/29 we decided to trailer my friends 32' Boston Whaler Conquest center console down to Cape Canaveral from Jacksonville to run to the other side of the gulf stream to hunt for Tuna and Swordfish!

We put the boat in the water at about 6pm on Saturday and started making our way offshore. The Mercury Verado 250's seemed to struggle a little bit with the boat loaded down with ice, tackle and 6 people. As we cruised through the gulf stream the surface temperature was downright hot around 89 degrees! This was not a good sign at all! Once the temperature dropped to 87.5 we slowed the boat and set up for a night of sword fishing. We were about 60 nautical miles out.

Long story short - we didn't catch any swordfish. 2 of our squids got mangled but we never had a serious bite. It was a pretty night to be out none the less.

We started heading offshore in the morning with hopes of finding birds and yellowfin tuna! Scattered rain storms made it difficult for us to locate birds. We hunted for hours and couldn't find any out to 100nm so we headed back inshore. All the ay back to 60nm out we finally found birds but unfortunately they were only holding skipjacks.

We did get to see the NASA boat towing in the booster tanks from the space shuttle - that was cool! Otherwise it was a bust of a trip! We'll get them next time.

Jacksonville Red Snapper Report - August 8, 2009

2009-08-10T08:07:00.000-07:00

The fishing continues to be good but this weekend was as easy as the last. Some cold water has moved onto the bottom offshore of Jacksonville from 8-50 miles offshore. The fish are there but the cold water makes them slow and less aggressive. You'll want to anchor up and fish for a few minutes to get anything decent biting until the water warms back up.

We caught our limit of snapper this weekend inshore of Elton Bottom in about 115' of water. Live bait was again the bait of choice. We also caught a nice mangrove snapper and our limit of good size vermillion snapper.

Mitch's nice red snapper from 8/8/09.

Good luck!

Northeast Florida Red Snapper Report

2009-07-27T08:39:00.001-07:00

We went snapper fishing again this past weekend. We had a great bite last week at the turtle grounds area about 37 miles off of Mayport so I figured we would trying bottom fishing there again.

Finding live bait was a little tough but we ended up with a decent amount of Cigar Minnows, Sardines and hardtails that we caught with our sabiki rigs at nine mile and EF.

Once at the turtle grounds I immediately noticed that I wasn't getting quite the show of fish of the Furuno fish finder as I was last week. We started fishing anyways and it was much slower. We were able to caught about 2 dozen good size vermillion snapper to 4 pounds but only 1 keeper red snapper at 22 inches. We then moved offshore to the 21 bottom area.

Our first spot was loaded with Amberjack but patience paid off. John Porcella caught a nice 20 pound red snapper and Steve Croix followed it with a 17 pound red snapper. They were only biting on live bait!

Good luck!

Nice Red Snapper

Our red snapper and vermillion snapper catch:

7/19 Bottom Fishing report - Red Snapper!

2009-07-20T09:45:00.000-07:00

We went searching for the endangered snapper today. Caught some decent bait at 6 miles and at BB and headed out to 110ft to find some fish. Started fishing at 9am and had a 5 person limit of Red Snapper at 10:30am from 8 to 15 pounds. On top of that we had a nice mango, BIG beeliners and a lot of big jacks. Had a great day. It's a good thing they are shutting snapper down because they sure are hard to find.

Help us stop them from shutting down Snapper fishing!

2009-07-20T06:14:00.001-07:00

****Message From Ms. Becky Hogan****

Hello To Everyone:

Most all of you know me through the Mayport Princess, but many of you are also friends and family. Please take 15 minutes out of your week (and try to get at least 5 or 10 other people to do so) to comment on the potential for closing the red snapper fishery for a minimum of 25 years. In some way or another, whether you fish or not, the closing of this fishery will impact all those who live in the states of FL, GA, NC and SC in excess of 8 billion dollars loss of revenue. There will be NO recreational or commercial harvest of red snapper if approved by the Secretary of Commerce, beginning in October 2009 and going at LEAST 25 years!! No fishing in Florida means no tourists dollars (our biggest source of income), no fresh fish (imported farm raised will be on your menus), no one purchasing boats, trailers, fuel, ice, bait, boat insurance, etc. Imagine the trickle down effect from such a massive closing of such a critical species to the fishing industry.

If you are a bottom fishermen in the state of Florida, you know how greatly the red snapper stocks have improved over the past 17 years since the regulations were changed in 1992. However, many environmental lobbyists in Washington, D.C. (paid for by large seafood importers of farmed raised fish) have convinced our Federal government that our red snapper stocks are no longer sustainable at the rate we are fishing them. Sort of like we import our oil (BECAUSE ITS CHEAPER)!! In fact, its EXACTLY the same process. The small businesses account for nothing, and BIG business has all the power to change the laws to improve their bottom dollar.

You have until Aug. 5th to make a comment by logging ontohttp://www.keepoceanfishing.com. I set this web site up for computer dummies like myself, so that you do not have to try and navigate the Federal Register. Click on write a comment and just fill in the blanks and hit send. Your comment will go directly to the appropriate place in the Federal Register. There are over 1000 charter boats who rely on bottom fishing in the state of Florida alone, and your comment WILL MAKE A DIFFERENCE.

THANKS A MILLION FOR TAKING THE TIME TO WRITE YOUR LETTER TO LET OUR NEW SECRETARY COMMERCE (Gary Locke) KNOW WHAT AN ECONOMIC DISASTER THIS WILL HAVE BECAUSE THE FISHERMEN THEMSELVES DO NOT HAVE MILLIONS OF DOLLARS TO LOBBY FOR THEIR RIGHT TO FISH. DO THIS TODAY, NOT TOMORROW AS SO MANY LIVELIHOODS DEPEND ON YOU.

Becky Hogan
Owner
Mayport Princess

2009-07-16T06:22:00.000-07:00

We had a great day bottom fishing yesterday. We found our best bait 6 miles offmayport - cigars, sardines and some live squid. We couldn't find any decent sized baits from BB on out.

We had an easy limit of snapper to 15#, 4 or 5 mangrove sbaooer's to 7#, a lane snapper, scamp and plenty of jumbo 3-4# beeliners. We brought home a 40# amberjack for the smoker but there were thousands more of those if we wanted them. They were inhaling the big vermillion snapper if we didn't get them up fast enough. I topped it off with a nice African Pompano as well. We had a cobia at the boat but couldn't get him to eat.

The snapper bite was the best in about 115ft east of mayport near the Turtle Grounds. We caught the bigger fish in 90ft near the Harm's Ledge area. Big beeliners, jacks, pompano and a couple mangos from 125ft. The mangrove snapper were biting much better on 30# leaders with small hooks.

Great day!

Trolling out, Bottom fishing in

2009-07-09T21:00:00.000-07:00

Unless you like to kingfish (which I don't) now is the time to bottom fish off Northeast Florida. Mangrove snapper, red snapper and vermillion snapper are all over live bottom from 90-160ft of water. Light line, live bait fished at elton bottom right now should do great for the mangroves. Keep a pitch bait ready for a Cobia too!

Red snapper are anywhere from 60-180ft with some scamps and gag grouper mixed in. Watch out for the afternoon thunderstorms!

Bahamas Report, Dolphin and Kingfish Time!

2009-06-13T22:18:00.000-07:00

We spent the last week in Guana Cay, Bahamas. Check out some pictures and our trip report on the Guana Cay, Abaco page.

Meanwhile back in Jacksonville and St. Augustine the dolphin bite continues to be good. Unfortunately most of the Mahi now being caught are much smaller than what we saw a few weeks ago. The fish will now be scatted anywhere from 100-200ft of water with the biggest concentration at the ledge.

The Kingbuster 400 kingfish tournament was this weekend out of St. Augustine. The Yellow Pages boat took the biggest Kingfish at 47 pounds. As soon as I get details as to where some of the fish were coming from I will be sure to post it here.

Mahi continue to bite off of Mayport and Vilano - Offshore Report

2009-05-27T19:01:00.000-07:00

The mahi bite has slowed a little bit but continues to be great out at the ledge off Mayport and Vilano.

Quite a few Blue Marlin have also been caught over the past couple of weeks. Trolling big lures at 8-10 knots in 800-1200ft of water seems to be producing at least one shot at a blue marlin a day. You'll have plenty of dolphin as by catch.

A 380 pound fish was weighed in at the Bluewater Invitational this week!

Dolphin, Wahoo and Marlin at the ledge off Jacksonville and St. Augustine - Snapper Slapper report

2009-05-18T12:23:00.000-07:00

Another GREAT weekend of fish has passed. Hopefully the front that just pushed through won't ruin the great dolphin run we have been having.

We put the Bluewater 2550 in at the Vilano boat ramp at 5am Saturday morning. We were fishing the Northeast Florida Marlin Association's Open Invitational. The forecast was for 4-6' foot seas and it was dead on. The ride out for the first 20 miles wasn't too bad. The 25 Bluewater handled the 3ft sloppy swell great at 25knots. As we got further out the seas got worse and eventually only made 18 knots to get out to the fish.

The long ride paid off. We went through 3 dozen ballyhoo. With 1 sea sick person it was just 2 of us trying to get a tournament winning dolphin or marlin. 3 times we had all 6 rods go off at once. It was fun to say the least. We brought home about 15 dolphin with the biggest weighing in at 38 pounds. A couple pounds bigger and we would have placed in the tournament.

A big congrats goes out to Tim Martin, Corey Maire and the reason of the Lit Up crew for releasing their second Blue Marlin in just a few weeks off of St. Augustine. They were fishing in 1000' of water east of St Aug.

Get out there while the fish are here! A lot of other boats had mahi catches upwards of 40 fish! There were quite a few big bulls caught over 40 pounds as well!

Dolphin Dolphin Dolphin and a Blue Marlin?

2009-05-11T14:57:00.000-07:00

The mahi mahi (dolphin) bite continues to be incredible out of Jacksonville and St. Augustine at the ledge. We caught another 14 nice fish this past weekend up to about 40 pounds. Our bigger fish came past the rolldown in around 400 feet of water. The gulf stream was a beautiful color blue! Keep an eye out, two boats had a shot at a blue marlin this weekend!

Mahi, Wahoo and Sailfish at the ledge out of St. Augustine

2009-05-03T17:05:00.000-07:00

We had a another great day of fishing this weekend. On Saturday we had 12 Mahi, 4 Wahoo and a sailfish. The dolphin ranged from 10-30 pounds. The bigger fish came from 250 to 300 feet of water. The rest of the fish and the wahoo were caught from 160 to 180 feet. The sailfish was caught in around 220 feet. This was the second sail in the last week for us. We were a bit north of due east St. Augustine.

It was an extremely rough ride out. Thankfully the 24 degree dead rise in the 25 foot Bluewater 2550 ate up the slop pretty well so it didn't beat us up too bad. I cannot say enough good things about the boat and how it handles the sea. Bluewater did well with the 2550.

Look for weeds, flyers and the blue water and you should find plenty of Mahi. Other boats did well with the Jodie Lynn II cathing around 40 fish on Thursday.

50# Wahoo caught on a C&H Alien

Katie's lit up dolphin

Mindy's sailfish caught on an Islander Sailure

12 Mahi, 4 Wahoo

The Mahi Mahi are off Jacksonville and Northeast Florida!

2009-04-25T06:17:00.000-07:00

Full boat today and it was worth it; the rookies had a good time. Everyone had a chance to reel in some fish. We started at the break around 7:30. By 9am we had 4 wahoo and a dolphin in the boat. Katie caught the biggest wahoo, a personal best for her which we estimated around 50pounds. Another hoo in the high thirties and then two teenagers. Katie also caught her biggest dolphin to date which was in the low 20's. After that we had a consistent dolphin bite all day. We ended up with 16 dolphin up to the low 20's. My sister caught and released her first sailfish today. Her Tennessee boyfriend caught his first wahoo and dolphin.

We decided to bottom fish around 2:30pm and it was a good idea. Hit a couple spots here and there. Brian picked off a nice 20# snapper and we added 5 more to the box. Porkchop topped off the day with a an African Pompano. Katie also got her first keeper snapper.

What a day of fishing! Fish were caught at the edge of the gulf stream in about 170-220ft of water east-southeast of Jacksonville at about 104 degrees.

Katie's Dolphin

The catch

Angie's Sailfish

Snapper and Group close to short out of Mayport, Jacksonville and North east Florida

2009-04-14T11:29:00.000-07:00

The snapper and grouper have really turned on in the Atlantic off of Jacksonville. Good gag grouper catches have been reported as shallow as 65 feet along with pretty consistent limit catches of Red Snapper. The Majesty and Mayport Princess have been reporting 30 head of snapper a trip on average when the weather has been good enough to get out.

Natural bottom and artificial reefs have been holding fish. Both live and dead bait have been working well.

Early April Jacksonville and St. Augustine Offshore Fishing Report

2009-04-06T05:41:00.000-07:00

We had an weather window this last weekend for fishing. Saturday was looking good but as the fleet headed out they were greeted by north wind and some pretty choppy seas. In most of the reports I have seen people stopped short of the ledge and did some bottom fishing.

The snapper are still biting great with almost everyone fishing for them getting close to their limit. But we need to shut them down? Come on!

People who did make it to the ledge to due some trolling did not find anything that exciting. A dolphin here and a wahoo there but for the most part the great trolling has not happened yet. 2 more weeks and I would guess the Mahi will show up in full force.

Jacksonville Inshore Fishing Forecast

2009-03-20T07:21:00.000-07:00

Fishing Forecast:

Tie on your favorite topwater plug and get to casting, gator trout will be lurking around the bait pods along the ICW. First light, outgoing tides and schools of mullet is the formula for a successful morning outing for trout. Working topwater and sinking plugs parallel to dropoffs and around creek mouths will guarantee success! Don’t over look deeper creek holes as “Gator Trout” can be taking residence.

Redfish will also be patrolling the shell banks of the ICW working the bait pods during low tides. Deeper flats that are holding mullet will have redfish shadowing mullet pods looking to eat the shrimp and crabs the mullet kick up. A FishBites Extreme watermelon color jerkbait on a Slayer 4/0 Penetrator 3/16oz. hook is a great search bait for flats fishing. Oyster bed hopping and casting to spartina grass edges will also produce strikes as long as the mullet are around.

Flounder should be chewing steady on all stages of the tides in the flats but outgoing being my favorite. Live finger mullet with a few small split shots or using a FishBite Paddle tail slowly bounced across the bottom will produce flatties. Jig fisherman will target deeper dropoffs with mudminnows or finger mullet. Doormats around the inlets will fall for 5-7 inch mullet on a fish finder rig.

Big Blue fish should continue to chew around Matanzas Inlet, they will bite just about any lure that resembles a mullet, first light is best for numbers. Jacks will start to show up as well and being caught at first light with surface poppers or live bait in deeper water later in the day. Ladyfish will be stacking up outgoing tides busting baitfish in the bigger creeks that will keep the kids occupied. Light jigs and paddle tails or live shrimp will get slammed by lady fish on every cast once you find them.

Well it seems as my favorite way to fish (sight fishing) is now a thing of the past its time to adapt with the change that Spring will bring as its only 2 days away. On recent trips I have noticed less schools of Redfish and more schools of mullet invading our inshore waters as the temps continue to climb.

At least one of my last charters while sight fishing will be a memorable one that will be hard to top. Tommy and I had charters this day and we worked together to corner a very large school of Redfish that were all in the upper slot category.
After it was all said and the done and the dust cleared we landed over 77 upper slot redfish in just over an hour. Between both boats we had 2 fly fisherman and 3 spin fisherman all hooked up at once several times.

Full moon causing slow fish off Jacksonville, St Augustine, Mayport and Northeast Florida

2009-03-12T20:28:00.000-07:00

The skies have been clear and the moon has been full. The offshore fishing reports from the last few days haven't been too great. The pelagic fish are most likely feeding all night long. A wahoo here, a blackfin tuna there but nothing too consistent.

I would suggest putting a cedar plug on some light mono (100# or less) way back in your spread. Troll 6-8 knots and you'll probably get a hungry tuna or two. There are dolphin out there. Find the weedlines and sargasm out past 200' of water to get a good shot. The tuna patch a little south of Jacksonville should produce as well.

As the moon gets smaller the fishing will get better...

Jacksonville and St. Augustine Offshore Fishing Report March 9, 2009

2009-03-09T22:21:00.000-07:00

We had quite a few trolling reports come in from the past weekend. It seemed to be hit or miss. A few boats came home with some nice Wahoo including the Inside Chance boat bringing home 9 wahoo and a couple dolphin. The Smooth C's boat, a 36' Yellowfin, found quite a few nice Mahi including a 36# bull dolphin. It's a bit early to be seeing nice dolphin so hopefully this is a sign of things to come.

There are still plenty of snapper to be caught. The best bites have been coming from the 21 fathom area. 120-125' feet of water with live bait will get you your best chance at some nice red snapper.

Northeast Florida Fishing Report - March 1, 2009

2009-03-02T19:43:00.000-08:00

Fishing continues to be good if you know where they are! The snapper bite continues to be good but you need to go a little ways offshore to find them. There are fish in close but the water is too cold and the fish are lethargic and not responding well to bait. Head out until you get at least to the mid 60's and you will get a better red snapper bite. Fishing has been good from 90ft out to 21 bottom. Elton bottom and surrounding areas has been holding good amounts of red snapper as well as very large beeliners or vermillion snapper.

Trolling has been hit or miss. If you can find some warm water you should find some fish. The Double Standard boat, a 29ft Sea Vee, had 4 nice sized Wahoo on Friday as well as a couple dolphin. They saw 72 degree water and the bite was active most of the day. However jsut a week earlier trollers had 65 degree water at the ledge and there wasn't much of anything happening.

Support our Snapper Fishery!

2009-03-02T19:41:00.000-08:00

Please be advised the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council is meeting this week at:
Jekyll Island Club Hotel
371 Riverview Drive
Jekyll Island, GA 31527
Telephone: 1-800-535-9547 or 912-635-2600

Informal Question and Answer Session - Monday, March 2, 2009 at 5:30 PM - join Council member Dr. Roy Crabtree, Regional Administrator with NOAA Fisheries (NMFS) and Council chair Duane Harris to discuss issues relative to fisheries management within the Council's area of jurisdiction.

Interim Rule/Closure for Red Snapper Fishery - If the Council considers an Interim Rule request for addressing overfishing for red snapper, a public comment period will be held Thursday, March 5, 2009 at 1:45 PM.

The Council will vote at this meeting to determine if an interim rule for the closure is required. If the vote passes red snapper could be closed within 45 days of the ruling based on final approval from NMFS and the Sec. of Commerce.

***Please make an effort to attend tonight or Thursday's meeting to help prevent the red snapper closure from being passed***