re: Anybody Else Chasing Red Snapper This Weekend?

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They can check all they want at the Marina. I think the only question is what happens if they check you between the 3 mile line and the 10 mile line.......

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Again, this is not 100% true. Keeping 3 in state waters is still against federal law. It doesn't matter if you catch them from the dock. 3 > 2 and 2 is the highest limit that has been legally vetted.

The only problem with it is going out past 10 miles. I'm not going to go out there and stay with 10 miles. At that point, the reds we catch are usually small and diversity is minimal. I guess we could always go to our deepwater rigs and catch our grouper, lemons, and 2 per person. Then return to within 10 for everyone's third snapper.

We do sometimes come back in to chase lemons and mangroves when we're tired of feeding red snappers. However, we usually just find big pockets of reds.

Hell, maybe the increased take of reds from close waters will help the mangrove stocks get back to how they were 6-8 years ago. There were days when we filled 4 limits of mangroves in 2 hours with a good number of them in the 8-10 range. Now we can hardly get the bait in the water without a barely legal red taking it. You'd swear they're going to starve the triggers at that rate.

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but we have to much money invested into the sport to just let the equipment sit,

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No doubt about that. I'll probably give it a few weeks at 2 per before I test my luck.

That said, back to the point of the post above, it gets sickening when you drop $800 on fuel and spend all day trying to keep snapper from dying only to head back to the dock with 8 fish.

Basically, for it to be worth the money, the snapper almost need to come as bycatch in between less limited species.

Just to let everyone know it is still illegal to posses a red snapper beyond 3 mile until the state line has been changed to 10 miles. I was told that the feds will be with the coast guard monitoring and checking boats beyond three miles. I was also told that the feds will be out to write as many tickets as possible. They are not happy about Louisiana going non compliant. Also Gag and scamp grouper are closed, gag will reopen July 1 and scamp April 1. Good luck this weekend looks like 4-6 foot seas if not bigger this weekend. There was a lot of fog yesterday morning and afternoon from venice all the way to fourchon. The Yellowfin Tuna and amberjack were jumping in the boat yesterday.
[link=()]Yellowfin tuna caught out of Grand Isle yesterday[/link]

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I was also told that the feds will be out to write as many tickets as possible. They are not happy about Louisiana going non compliant.

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Thanks for the input. Why has Texas been able to be non-compliant for years?

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Good luck this weekend looks like 4-6 foot seas if not bigger this weekend.

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This might just save me a ticket.......

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Just to let everyone know it is still illegal to posses a red snapper beyond 3 mile until the state line has been changed to 10 miles.

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And why does the local Newspaper keep telling everyone otherwise??

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We got stopped in 2011 by the feds (around Freshwater Bayou) and they had to pull out his little fish ID book to identify the scamp

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One of the EASIEST fish to ID IMO.........

Texas has the 3 leagues from shore recognized by the feds, we don't. If you are going, I'd go to Venice and fish inside the 3 miles.

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Kinda like the Leeville Toll Bridge...

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Hell yeah. That's going to put a serious hurt on Tyd's. You either pay a toll to cross to Tyd's or pay twice as much for goods in Fourchon.

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Also if you have a federal reef permit on your boat you have to follow federal regulations

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what exactly is this for?

Understood