Florida & Georgia - There are FWC and NOAA Fisheries Reps on THT right?

I thought I saw someone a while ago posting info on something regarding the FWC and or NOAA. I have some info to drop on them ;)

Would like it to be conducted in an open forum..
Would the real NOAA rep please stand up?

They monitor the Florida Sportsman website, but I have never seen them here. Here's a thread where NOAA responded.

http://forums.floridasportsman.com/showthread.php?52089-2-day-bag-limit

Lemme guess... American Red Snapper aren't endangered....?

^^ no nice smart ass reply

I couldn't resist, I just saw a report of a guy trolling for kings who caught a nice ARS...

I'd recommend using the Ask the Law forum at FS as well. Eventually someone should reply there.

some guy was trolling for kings in 60 ft of water and trolled up a 20lb+ gag tho LOL Flat lined Mac on the surface... big gag came all the way up to eat it.. never seen that.
Had a slot red grouper eat a #2 planner with a #2 spoon in 50ft, had a slot red grouper eat a hoo flat lined in 40 ft. Been seeing some crazy stuff this year.

A. Trying to gain a better understanding on why gag's are closed for our location (West central FL) while Northern FL is open and The keys opened May 1. for blacks, gags.

B. Trying to understand the short season on ARS, and the amount we are allowed to take. (so yes kind of a red snapper question but not a rant on them

C. Want to ask if there is going to be any new studies conducted on the gag, red and red snapper population anytime soon. It seems that the red grouper are really getting pressured right now and red snapper and gags are being caught meaning xyz% are going to die. We do our best to live release fish but when you are fishing deep and pull up a bottom fish they don't fare too well even vented. Sure 99% of them swim back down but what really happens after that?

I want to start tagging fish on charters and would like to inquire how I can go about doing so.

Simple questions, did not know if we had a rep on here

Definitely post these over at FS Doughy. I know you have a log in over at that site.

Here's some info directly from the FWC site about a couple of their tagging programs:

http://myfwc.com/news/news-releases/2011/june/15/snapper-research/

http://myfwc.com/news/news-releases/2011/april/04/projectpermit/

Tag Return info:

http://myfwc.com/research/saltwater/fishtags/hotline/angler-tag-return-hotline/

I know you've been on the commercial and rec side of things and I know you're a salty bro. I also get the feeling that you care and have important info you can share with the powers that be.

The truth of the matter is, based on my learned observations in the Gulf, it's red grouper that are in trouble and need protecting. Waaaay too many shorts. Gags, ARS, AJs and everything else you can think of are rock solid IMO and should always have a year round harvest of at least one or two fish. This would keep people coming to FL to fish, and rec fisherman supporting their tackle shops.

That being said, if NOAA wants to increase the bag limit during certain times of the year that would work as well...........that would kind of be like managing the fishery. lol

Nah, that would require some effort on NOAA's part. Never going to happen.

I'd like to take a NMFS administrator diving so they can see the insane amount of gags in 40ft of water. But I think it'd be like talking to a brick wall. We're getting them as by catch on flat lines while targeting kingfish too. When diving you see them scatter in schools like roaches dropping down.

When they ask for public input at the hearings it's just to check the box.

Dorado,My first time kingfishing this year.40 ft water flatlining topwater 2 slot gags and 1 slot red grouper.Could an over population of ARS be harrassing the grouper in deeper waters.Changing feeding behavior in shallow waters.John

The water it still pretty cool at this time and the gags haven't headed off shore yet.

They also don't have much pressure with the regs being pretty tight, so it's no wonder they're getting big, hungry and brave.