Fishing Regulations

In Florida, the Fish and Wildlife Commission is the agency you will encounter on the water. They are often the only law presence in wild areas. When a man puts on a uniform and exposes himself to possible danger to protect the public, he affects a noble purpose. When they are dressed in plainclothes, they are treacherous. The individual will pose as another fisherman, asking questions designed to screw you over some minor or possibly obscure regulation. Good law enforcement makes the distinction between willful violations and some basically law-abiding citizen who made an innocent error. With the complicated maze of fishing regulations, it is easy to inadvertently violate one of them.

If an individual is clearly and grossly violating game laws, then it would be proper that they would be a target of the warden. For example, if someone had 20 Snook in their boat out of season, or were spotlighting deer at night, that would be a deliberate and willful violation of the law. The problem is that it's not only the poachers and scofflaws that they are after, it's you Joe fisherman, who couldn't remember whether the slot size for Redfish was 16 to 27 or 18 to 27, and you had one Redfish 17 inches in length. As I am writing this, I couldn't remember the size limits for Redfish and had to look it up. Of course, I'm sitting at a computer with that information at my fingertips and not trying to read the tiny type size print on a water soaked brochure through salt encrusted reading glasses in blinding sun and trying to keep it from blowing out of my hand in the wind. Presented below are links to 2022 regulations.

Link to 2022 Florida Saltwater Fishing Regulations in digital format

https://myfwc.com/fishing/saltwater/recreational/

Link to FWC site for Freshwater Fishing Regulations 2022

https://myfwc.com/fishing/freshwater/regulations/