In the world of aquatic resources dramatic actions often follow unforeseen events as was the case with the snook moratorium. In January of 2010 Charlotte Harbor and neighboring waters lost a large percentage of their snook population. I seen it first-hand as did other anglers. The reaction of the fisheries people was to close the fishery which made perfect sense. My guess was we lost over 50% of our snook as the following years catches supported this assumption. But our snook population was already in trouble when this happened. Any fishing guide on Pine Island Sound, Boca Grande, Lemon Bay and Charlotte Harbor would tell you they were already catching a lot less fish even before the deep freeze. From 2002 to 2009 there were several red tide events where thousands of dead snook were observed. Other factors such as pollution, loss of habitat due to civilization, recreational fishing and perhaps by-catch of commercial fisherman played a role.
The fantastic news is that in just two years the snook population has rebounded in a remarkable way! Not so much as to open the season however. In 2008 snook regulations changed to allow one fish between 28”-32” to be kept. For the years that followed it became increasingly difficult to catch a fish in the slot, only one here and there. It was easy to see that recreational anglers and fishing guides were legally selectively harvesting this fish, at a rate the fishery could not maintain. Now, with only 2 years of no legal possession of this hard fighting, good eating fish you can reasonably expect to hook a fish of this size or much larger and to catch plenty of snook in the 22”-27” length! ONLY 2 YEARS and this fishery has started its recovery. The key words here are “started the recovery”. My own additive fishing over the past several weeks had multiple trips with over 50 snook being caught and many snook too big to handle that ran us into the bushes and broke us off. I have checked with other fishing guides and they are reporting the same success! Imagine the fishing if the season were closed for another 3 years for a total of 5 years? I can tell you exactly what to expect- WORLD CLASS SNOOK FISHING! 100 fish days would be common and big fish like the old days weighing 20 to 40 pounds would once again be swimming in our waters. Most can only remember these fish from 25 years ago.
So why would the fisheries professionals even consider opening the season? Charter captains that pursue backcountry shallow water fish continue to run charters and I can’t see any complaining of lost business because their clients could not bring one snook home. We have lots of good eating fish to fill that void. From my vantage point, fisherman are still going to go fishing even if one fishery is protected. Southwest Florida attracts anglers from around the world to pursue tarpon. Fisherman and tarpon fisherman spend big money to stay here for a week, hire guides and pursue their passion. A robust snook fishery would attract fisherman from around the world as well! I don’t necessarily want more boats on the water but a continued closure of this fishery will make news. Lake Okeechobee is experiencing an incredible boom due to the fact the largemouth bass fishery has exploded. The fishing is great over there and the word is out. Drive through the boat ramp areas and the out of state license tags tell you that good fishing is good for the economy.
My hope in writing this article is that at least one fisheries person involved in the decision making reads this. There is absolutely no incentive to open this fishery as it has certainly proven to be very fragile.
The snook is the perfect gamefish and exhibits many traits that the most sought after gamefish inherit. They pull extremely hard, jump wildly and burn drag. Marlin, kingfish, redfish and tarpon are the saltwater species that tournaments are built around, reasons people buy waterfront houses and in fact, move to Florida. The snook could easily be in this category.
