This presents a couple of problems for regular recreational anglers. On one particular practice day prior to a tournament, over 100 boats were counted poling the flats at Snake Bite outside of Flamingo. Snake Bite is a favorite flat where reds feed on an outgoing tide.
With that many boats, most of them professional anglers and guides, the little guy really doesn’t have a chance at catching a fish!
But here is the real dilemma as far as my friends are concerned. On tournament day, each boat brings two redfish to the scales. On a two-day tournament, that can mean as many as 600, twenty-seven inch long redfish being weighed in. Remembering that the weigh-in site is as far as 75 miles from the Snake Bite flats, it is likely that few if any of these reds make it back into the park.
So we have fish being harvested inside a National Park for monetary gain. It sure sounds like commercial fishing to me, something that is prohibited by park laws.
Efforts are being made to bring this to the attention of park officials, but I’m not sure what can be done short of outlawing these kinds of tournaments everywhere.
There are tournaments that take place where the fish is not kept. Once caught, the fish is measured for length and girth and photographed. Then it is immediately released exactly where it was caught. This is far preferable to hauling all the fish to a weigh-in site to be released.
How do you feel about these tournaments? Do you fish in them? Have you ever arrived at the ramp to launch your boat only to find three hundred other anglers there waiting to kick off a tournament? On days like that I often simply turn around and go back home!
If you agree with my friends and you see these catch and take tournaments going on, perhaps it’s time to write your state DNR office to express your concern. There are plenty of fish for everyone, and contests and tournaments can be held without dragging all the fish back to the dock. It just takes some common sense!
