‘Double edged sword.’ Red grouper catches more common in Tampa Bay as season closing nears

In 2022, red grouper season came to an abrupt halt on Aug. 30.

This caused grief to anglers, and particularly charter captains, who use red grouper as a meat fish to fill the box during offshore fishing charters.

During the closed season, anglers seemed to constantly find themselves with red grouper catches as legal sized by-catch of the bottom-dweller came everywhere from inside Tampa Bay out beyond 100 miles offshore.

It wasn’t much of a surprise, as 2021 also saw a shortened season. As stated on the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council website, “If landings reach the recreational ACL (annual catch limit), harvest will be prohibited for the remainder of the fishing year.”

The site lists the current season as June 1 through Dec. 31, which is a typo, as it is currently open. (Update: This was fixed when pointed out to them, now saying open year round.)

The first week of 2023 allowed anglers a chance to head out and target the freshly opened grouper in the Gulf of Mexico. It wasn’t wind that made running into the gulf difficult, but fog.

“It was a different type of fog, real wet and heavy. But the weather is so bad in the winter months whenever you have a break you send it,” said angler Jonathan Parris.

“We went about 53 miles offshore and it was white knuckle driving the whole way. We had someone up on the bow looking just to be sure nothing came in our path, but we only saw one other boat out that day.”

Parris and his crew of four others fished an area of hard bottom he discovered on charts. Dropping frozen sardines on conventional tackle, it didn’t take long for their red grouper target to show up.

“We caught a ton. A lot of them could have easily been on the 20-inch mark, but we threw them back trying to get bigger. We also got some lane snapper and red snapper, but it was all the red grouper we wanted.

“Between the first two spots, we caught our limit and headed shallower after that in case the wind picked up or fog got thicker,” explained Parris.

Their limit of two per person was easily met, and the crew let go another 10 or so legal-sized fish after venting. Those who fished for snapper also find themselves ending up with red grouper.

“We tried to get mangroves (snapper) on shrimp and cut bait, but ended up getting more red grouper. The biggest were probably 26 to 27 inches.”

Others who have been out for red grouper have noticed the same. Limits when getting to popular hard bottom or swiss cheese grounds seem common.

But it’s a double edged sword, as the more red grouper that are caught the sooner the season is likely to close. When populations of red grouper grow, leading to more fish, less fishing days are offered in the current system.

And to add to the confusion, February and March mean red grouper — along with a few other grouper species — close beyond 20 fathoms, but remain open shallower.

In years past, anglers have been seemingly unaware of this rule and continue to fish for them out deeper.