Free Fishing Weekends Top Summertime Surprises

With free fishing weekends, opening of red snapper season and a recommendation to keep the harvest of snook on the Gulf coast closed throughout the year, June brings anglers some presents and, depending on your view, some possible sour snook news.

First, Florida anglers on Saturday and Sunday can recreational saltwater fish without a saltwater fishing license.

As part of a license-free recreational saltwater fishing weekend, this weekend and the Father's Day weekend of June 18-19 means anyone — residents and non-residents — can recreationally saltwater fish in state waters (within 9 nautical miles offshore) without a saltwater fishing license.

And because Senate Bill 744 – possibly the most entertaining and head-scratching bill proposed this side of the Florida-Georgia border — died May 7, anglers will be required to possess a fishing license after July 1.

On Feb. 1, Sen. Joe Negron (R-Stuart) filed SB 744, which states: “ … a recreational freshwater fishing or recreational saltwater fishing license or permit is not required of any resident or nonresident to fish in this state.”

The bill was referred to Environmental Preservation and Conservation, where it died May 7, according to the Florida House of Representatives Website.
A post on the Facebook page “Stop Sb 744 to Remove Fishing License Fees in Florida,” said: “Ding Dong The Bill is dead. Suck it Negron!”

One way anglers can take advantage of the free fishing weekends is by targeting red snapper, which opened Wednesday and will close July 18.

Anglers have a small window of opportunity to catch these tasty bottom-feeders. Limits are two fish daily and a minimum of 16 inches.

Red snapper typically are caught on wrecks, reefs, ledges and rock piles in at least 100 feet of water. Many anglers prefer to chum with a frozen chum block or cut bait, followed by a dead or frozen bait (sardine, squid, cigar minnow, threadfin, etc.). Some captains swear by a squid-sardine combination as bait.

Most captains will instruct anglers to drop their baits (on circle hooks, which are required for reef fish) to the bottom, then make a few reels to keep the bait a few feet from the bottom. Anglers should be ready to reel and not set the hook, since circle hooks are designed to set themselves.

Finally, anglers can go to the Snook Foundation website to vote which option the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission should select regarding the open harvest of snook.

The cold snap of 2009-10 wiped out an estimated half-million snook. The FWC took action by closing snook season for the rest of 2010. Snook season remains closed and is scheduled to reopen Sept. 1 on both coasts.

The FWC June 9 will consider the latest snook cold-kill report.

Based on the FWC's data and analysis, the FWC is recommending snook season remain closed on the Gulf Coast until Aug. 31, 2012.

On the East coast, however, which the FWC determined was  impacted significantly less by the freeze than on the Gulf side, snook season would reopen as scheduled on Sept. 1.

There is good news regarding snook: The report indicated that although adult snook were negatively impacted by the winter cold kill, a significant portion of spawning-sized fish survived to spawn.

Make that superb news for the long-term snook populations.