permit controversy --- proposed FWC action..

[Permit Rat]

The best example I can think of is all the fuss down in the Keys about the permit... folks down there that just happen to be politically well connected... want to see permit made a no take fish everywhere in the state. Folks in the Ten Thousand Islands, the remainder of the southwest coast all the way up to Tampa consider a permit to be a food fish.... and there's absolutely not one speck of evidence that permit stocks are anything other than healty and thriving everywhere you find them (except maybe up on the flats around the Keys - but sheer fishing pressure is the real problem down there...).

Another example is the current continuing closed season for snook from the Everglades all the up the west coast of Florida. Their own researchers told the FWC that it wasn't needed but they've done it anyway to satisfy folks loudly complaining all the way up in Tampa.... These kind of decisions will come back to bite us. As long as decisions about fisheries are made for the welfare of the fish populations with solid science and data to support them we'll be in good shape. -But that's not the intention here and I believe we'll suffer for it in the end.

Re the permit in the Keys, I quit guiding at the end of 1991 and did not return until the Winter of 2001. I found that there seemed to be just as many, if not more permit on the flats as there were 10 years prior. This feeling has held true, ever since then. I submit that FWC and their survey takers, are polling people who couldn't catch a permit in the first place, much less see one on the flats. Unfortunately, the Keys are host to a plethora of new guides who think this venue is an easy (and enjoyable) means of surviving in the Keys. They can't catch permit with any regularity, either. I further submit that these are some of the people who are crying the loudest, in an effort to somehow justify their failure on a daily basis. The guides that I know, who have been there for 10+ years, share my feelings.

As far as the snook are concerned, I have not spent enough time on the west coast to have an opinion. Bob would be a far better judge, since he fishes there on almost a daily basis. But it always made sense to me that the closed seasons on snook should be a little more stringent there, since this is the major brooding area for the entire State. Couple that with the fact that a lot of the time, they have so much further to go to get to the protection of deep water in the event of a cold snap, and one can see how west coast snook could be deemed much more vulnerable in this respect, relative to their east coast brethren. I DO have an issue with the current slot on snook, but have no qualms about the 1 per day bag limit.

But above all, this proposal by the FWC is total BS. No other way to put it. There is absolutely NO indication to even suggest that permit are in any way in danger of being over-fished and that their populations are in any way stressed. What we have here, are a bunch of marine biologists, who live off Government grants. They are constantly looking for ways to justify their positions. Yet at the same time, they look for the easy way out. In other words, they will ask some tourist, fishing off the Lake Worth Pier, if he has caught any permit recently. Gee...I wonder what the answer might be. (even though several world record permit have come from Lake Worth)

Sorry to rant...I'll go now.

[Josh85]

Ridiculous-everyone should band together and raise hell. Oh-no snapper? Ok- everyone that can make it offshore should meet in DROVES and bottom fish. Just to make a point-im so sick of the system telling everyone what to do. Dont do this, dont do that. Go here. Go there. Stop. Wheres your registration. Can I see in your cooler? Oh you caught' em! You cant keem em' . Can I board your vessel? Whats your mothers maiden name? Did you files taxes last year? Did you lie when you files your taxes last year? Blah blah. Get the hell out of here is what I want to say! I dont like jail though . Then they want you to stay a freakin' country mile off the bank everywhere... man can we just freakin' fish?