Flounder Scoping Meeting on Wednesday, November 19 at 6 pm in Rockport Texas at Aransas County District Courtroom at 301 N. Live Oak.
Currently the regulations read as follows: Daily bag of 10 (in any combination) Length in inches minimum 14 - no limit. The possession limit for flounder is 10 fish.
Texas Parks & Wildlife will present their findings on the populations of Flounder at the beginning of the meeting and then will open up the floor for discussion.
Here is the excerpt from the Press Release issued by Texas Parks & Wildlife on November 10, 2008
Coastal Fisheries to Look at Flounder. Despite a relatively good year for flounder coast wide this year, TPWD Coastal Fisheries biologists remain concerned about a long-term downward trend in the abundance of southern flounder in Texas bays. Gill net catch rates have fallen from a rate of .14 fish per hour in 1982 to about .03 fish per hour last year.
State fisheries biologists have already met with commercial and recreational fishermen to discuss possible changes to flounder regulations, and have planned a series of public scoping meetings to outline management options and receive input from anyone with an interest in the issue. Management tools at the departmentʼs disposal include:
decreasing the bag limit, increasing minimum size limit, area or time closures and quotas.
Please email me back if you or any fishermen you know have an opinion or view of any changes to the Flounder regulations.
We're trying to get opinions from fishermen on this subject. TPWD will be making changes. Please take survey on top right of page.
Charlie Erigan
SEA VP Inshore Resources
Below are our final results from online survey.Decrease the bag limit: 13 Votes, 61%
Increase Minimum size limit: 7 Votes, 33%
Area or Time Closures: 5 Votes, 23%
All of the above: 6 Votes, 28%
Results sent to the SEA & Texas Parks & Wildlife.
Thank you all for your participation.
