Red Snapper fishing available NOW?

Note: I gleaned this info from another forum and could not substantiate all the information contained
but wondered if you might want to discuss these options...

From Jan. 1 through May 23, 2014, three headboats in Orange Beach are offering an eight-hour fishing charter for $125 per person that will allow each guest to catch and keep a maximum of two red snapper.
Tip and fish cleaning are not included in this price.

Three headboats in Orange Beach are participating in the 2014 Gulf Headboat Coop (GHC) program.
This is a federally permitted program and red snapper season is not open for everyone.
Their goal is to prove this fishery management model can be successful, and it will then be expanded to all recreational fishing charters.
Read more @ Frequently Asked Questions | Gulf Headboat Collaborative
For now and the next two years, guests wishing to catch red snapper outside of the typical season should contact the locally participating headboats:


Gulf Winds II and Reel Surprise Charters
Both located at SanRoc Cay Marina (27267 Perdido Beach Blvd; Orange Beach, AL36561), Phone: 251-981-7173 or Toll Free: 800-806-7889.
Send email inquiries to info@reelsurprisecharters.comor visit Reel Surprise | Since 2004.


Zeke's Lady Charters
Located at Zekes Landing Marina (26619 Perdido Beach Blvd; Orange Beach, AL36561), Phone: 251-981-4044.
Send email inquiries to info@zekeslanding.com or visit Home - Zeke's Landing.


Six-hour charters are also available on these three headboats at a cost of $85 per person, and each customer may purchase the ability to catch and keep two red snapper at $20 per snapper tag.

Ahh, here are the links...
http://sero.nmfs.noaa.gov/fishery_bu...laborative.pdf

Pilot headboat program to allow limited snapper, grouper fishing - GulfCoastNewsToday.com: News

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Program overviewThe Gulf Headboat Collaborative (GHC) is a group of 17 headboat captains from Brownsville, Texas to Tampa, Fla., who are testing a new allocation-based management program that will allow them the freedom and flexibility to fish for red snapper and gag grouper when it is best for their businesses and customers. Granted an experimental fishing permit by the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), this pilot program has two years to be successful.
Through strict monitoring and reporting requirements, the EFP will allow the headboats in the collaborative to catch the same number of fish they would normally catch during the short fishing seasons but to take anglers fishing anytime during the calendar year.
Participating headboats will test new electronic data collection methods and collaborate with academic researchers to help answer important management questions about this new approach to managing recreational for-hire fishing.

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David , How far in advance will they take reservations on the charters . Also can you speculate as to how fast the charter spots will fill ? Thanks for the info .

If I had to guess availability shouldn't be a problem.

While they're making money off of "OUR" natural resources the recreational fisherman is sitting at the house waiting on the 30 day season. Just my .02 in the whole deal.

125.00 for eight hrs and two fish or 125.00 for six hrs and two fish. hmmm. which is the better deal?

Sounds a little pricey

Don't support this deal unless you want to support the idea of "catch-shares" which will undoubtedly screw recreational fishermen in the long run. I have nothing against any charter captain and I would like to see the regulations which have hammered them slack off, but this strategy is absolutely a step in the wrong direction.

Though I agree with the "catch share " that is not uncommon on a lot of charters .

I wanted to explain a little more since I think this is an important topic.

On the surface, letting charter boats catch their fish at anytime sounds great. However, this particular system is being set up to trick the public into supporting catch shares.

Catch shares means that a certain percentage of the fish stock BELONGS to a certain commercial interest. Now this does have some good aspects -- commercial fishermen can catch their fish at anytime, so they avoid things like bad weather trips, season-opening races that flood the markets and depress prices, etc.

The big negative here is that an increasing number of recreational fishermen have to share a steady at best, but more likely dwindling, share of the stock. The commercial interests have much more lobbying power than unorganized recreational fishers, so it would not be a surprise to see the commercial % gradually increase.

Another issue that arises is stock selling. Instead of going through the hassle of catching their stock, a commercial entity could instead just sell it. Now whoever has the money gets to keep the fish. Why should any person or company own and sell fish they haven't even caught? Is the commercial sector somehow entitled to our natural resources?

It is disappointing to see the powers that be trying to slip this past recreational fishermen.

suggested reading: http://www.joincca.org/articles/632

The commercial interests have much more lobbying power than unorganized recreational fishers, so it would not be a surprise to see the commercial % gradually increase.


I think you are selling the recreational "lobby" short.
Recreational fishing is huge and has a massive economic impact, especially along the coast.
Likes others have noted, money talks, and in most areas, recreational fishing generate just as much, if not more, jobs and tax revenue as commercial.
As far as I know, there has never been a serious push to increase the commercial red snapper share since the split was set.

Either way, it shouldn't be us vs. them: had the stock been properly managed to begin with, there would be (and probably are right now) enough snapper for both recreational and commercial guys. But it wasn't properly managed. For either sector. In a lot of different fisheries. And the current draconian law imposed by Congress is what resulted.

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Originally Posted by CarlF

I think you are selling the recreational "lobby" short.
Recreational fishing is huge and has a massive economic impact, especially along the coast.
Likes others have noted, money talks, and in most areas, recreational fishing generate just as much, if not more, jobs and tax revenue as commercial.
As far as I know, there has never been a serious push to increase the commercial red snapper share since the split was set.

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You are correct regarding the economic impact of recreational fishing versus commercial. In my opinion, this only makes it more clear that dedicating 51% of the snapper quota to an increasingly centralized commercial fishing industry is counterproductive, especially as recreational fishing expands.

I'd say the "Share the Gulf" ads, which strike me as deliberately deceptive, are a good example of a PR campaign mounted by the commercial sector that the recreational sector has no easy way to fight against, simply because recreational fishermen are not and never will be an organized political group.

Share the Gulf is a marketing campaign to re-sell Gulf-seafood after the oil spill.
Its not a political campaign to increase or change quota's etc....

No, it is an attempt to secure 51% of the snapper quota for commercial interests! If it has been presented to you as a marketing campaign, you have been straight out lied to. They hide their true motives with deceptive language to get chefs, charter boats, etc on board with them. Share the Gulf They actively oppose Amendment 28 which is granting the majority of increased snapper quotas to the recreational sector. A group with the benign name "Environmental Defense Fund" is financing this campaign. The EDF is a corporate controlled group that has made numerous moves to shut out small scale commercial fishers and recreational fishers.

The more you dig in to this, it is ridiculously deceitful. The Share the Gulf page says "The Gulf belongs to all of us. It always has and it always should." Meanwhile, they lobby to give 51% of the snapper to 400 companies.

Another shameful tactic -- a group called "The Charter Fishermen's Association" puts out materials supporting Individual Fishing Quota legislation. Guess where they get their funding? Charter Fishermen? Nope, commercial fishers and the EDF.