Been kinda separated from lots of offshore fishing, especially in Texas, for about the last 10 years or so. But the snapper regs in Texas are whack and have been whack for many, many years. When some of the first 7 and then 4 fish limits were put in probably 20 years ago I was working off and on with a very veteran bottom/snapper captain that had been doing it, along with his dad for over 40 years. He correctly predicted the mess that it has become.

That Guidion guy has an incredibly bad rep for being sleazy and low in all of this. The Feds have wrecked the western gulf snapper fishing and it has been handed over to this guy and a few others for the most part. I have dove a few deeper wrecks off of SPI about 5 years ago and man those things are covered with snaps. This isn't even the vast left wing conspiracy, which Texags abhors, but an outright manipulated money grab by a wealthy and well connected few.

It isn't even worth it to me to try and sally forth and catch 2 snapper a day during a 10 day window, and the state water stuff while good is a PIA sometimes. Fishing for the most part in the gulf has become so complicated that it takes a lot of the fun out of it.

One of the things that has helped the snaps so much is that the number of Shrimpers pulling is way down in the gulf compared to say 25 years ago. There is all kinds of funny business with the IFQ's or whatever they are called. I have heard of individuals that bought IFQ's or quotas or whatever they are, I haven't kept up, years ago as older commercial fisherman exited the deal. Those quotas are worth a hellof a lot of money and there are people in Kansas or Tupelo or God knows where that license out their share per year or whatever it is and basically make a royalty or licensing fee and they have never caught one snapper.

That guy up the coast also bought out a ton of them, and supposedly lent money on usurious terms to commercial guys with their reef permits and quotas as collateral. It is just a bad deal all the way around.

I just read this article on the subject over the weekend:

http://www.sportfishingmag.com/great-gulf-red-snapper-train-wreck?src=SOC&dom=fb#page-11

I had never heard of this show until I opened this thread, and I don't know any of the characters involved -

but this guy is a commercial fisherman who is going out on the water to catch the crooked recreational fishermen that are cleaning out his fishery? Really? Reality TV is crazy.

http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/big-fish-texas/videos/trawling-for-crooks/

This whole concept is ridiculous.
They paint the guy as a saint, while they show him harvesting 15,000 lbs in 36 hours with only 3 commercial "fisherman"

What a depressing, corrupt scenario. I'm going to send some hate mail to National Geographic about this. I'll let you know if they reply.

We loved going offshore and had a beautiful McKee Craft with twin outboards. We traded it last year for something a little more versatile. Really, really hated parting with it, but with the greatly shortened snapper season and other new regulations we were only going out a couple of times a year which wasn't worth the storage and maintenance costs.

What is going on is a complete travesty geared to entirely favor the commercial fisherman and a few guides who chose to ***** themselves out at the expense of other guides and the recreational fisherman. Any rational thinking human being would look at the current situation and realized how messed up it is. Really disgusting. Pull up behind a commercial fishing boat and watch the trail of dead, undersized snapper floating behind them and the pod of dolphin eating every single one of them and everything else they throw back and you will see how disgusting it really is.

I started a thread about this show a couple weeks ago, hoping it would evolve into this type debate. I had a feeling the recreational guys would have serious issue with the commercial guys flaunting their catch on TV. I am an inshore guy, but do feel like the commercial guys are screwing the recreational guys.

I'm not sure why the old man would agree to do the show. Maybe he is that delusional that he believes the show will garner support for the commercial side? Maybe he is trying for a money grab before the commercial stranglehold on the snapper gets released? Maybe he just doesn't care? I also don't like to see them reeling in thousands of pounds of grouper. I also have a problem with them stroking themselves off as being great fishermen because they caught a big fish. It is not a display of super skill to catch one big fish off of 5000 baited hooks. I will admit that catching those kinds of pounds in that time frame is pretty skillful.

I always thought the snapper fishery was payback for the trout and redfish fishery. Politics, pure and simple.

The public resource (snapper) have been handed to a few commercial fisherman at the expense of the many recreational fishermen. It is a travesty and an idiotic economic move. Those of us that sport fish the Gulf on a regular basis buy boats, tackle, stop at Buccees for ice, beer, gas, food, etc. The commercial guys fill up at the commercial dock and buy some groceries at Sams. This trickle down effect is worth untold millions of dollars to our economy for the sake of a few getting rich. It is sickening.

I'm clueless on this topic, what are the regs of commercial guys, do they have a season. I understand they have a quota. What's the recreational fisherman regs.

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I'm clueless on this topic, what are the regs of commercial guys, do they have a season. I understand they have a quota. What's the recreational fisherman regs.

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The cost to go out and haul in maybe 8-10 snapper if joe fisherman goes out with some buds is huge and as thirdcoast points out, that is getting that great weather window on top of it. Completely idiotic to limit it in that way, it essentially makes it where the number of recreational guys could be counted on one hand.

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I'm clueless on this topic, what are the regs of commercial guys, do they have a season. I understand they have a quota. What's the recreational fisherman regs.

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Read the article that Centerpole limed above.

The while situation is a Charlie Foxtrot. Pisspoor data used for studies, even worse pisspoor politics, federal refs, federal agencies, state agencies, state regs and a Gul Fishery Council that seems like it has effed up more than it ever provided benefit for.

I am sure there is a significant side of the story not told, but the one that is just makes you angry.

I live by the old addage that there are three sides to a story. I have no inkling of the entire story, just as I have no doubt that there is plenty of political shadiness casting a shadow all over it.

I've been snapper fishing twice, once was great and one was a total bust.

The show makes it like the half goes to commercial and half go to rec fisherman. If the season is that short for rec and that long for commercial how in the hell is,the catch about equal? **** they pull in 5k in a night. Can a charter guy bring that in a season?

I liked the manufactured drama over the one guy getting his uncle to give up a snapper spot... It went on and on for half the show and then the uncle chimes in and says looks NE or something like that---see that rig about 5 miles off your bow? Ok that's your spot, now go catch your 5000lbs...

Then it went on and on about how thankful he was about getting the numbers, etc.. This guy's supposed to be the best fisherman in the gulf? Please.. Anybody knows you can roll up to any rig out there and drop and catch fish, and lots of them.. You can drive around them and see where the fish are stacked up too..

That was on the last show.. The one before putting the commercial vs the Rec guys? He lost me when he went of trying to catch Rec guys.. Bad look all around...

What an apt handle for this discussion and in particular the topic of your post. Kudos on a great add.

Snapper are so thick that it's hard to catch secondary species like triggerfish or grouper.

The data the feds use to set quotas is crappy.

So many things about the red snapper fishery that ate frustrating.

Where does the CCA come in to play? Seems if there were really that much rec money they would coalition behind a lobbyist to get things changed.

Anti-trust laws would be a good place to start.

Buddy is out to catch recreational fishermen illegally fishing in federal waters for snapper. His grandson asks him when they can catch some redfish. Hello buddy keeping redfish caught in federal waters is illegal.

Uncle Kenny sends nephew to the rig for a sure thing then asks "did you get them all?" This is the vaunted conservationist perspective.

Buddy brags 1/4 of seafood caught in gulf comes through his operation and last year 20% of red snapper caught in gulf were on his boats over 1M pounds.

The resource belongs to everyone not just Buddy

Buddy is a f***tard. His scam should and will come to an end soon. It's a sad day when a group of Aggies can't go fishing, but this idiot can go catch 5,000-10,000 pounds a day. Any day. All year.

Post your reviews here. Let's show them Aggies do not approve!!!

https://m.facebook.com/katiesseafoodmarket/

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I liked the manufactured drama over the one guy getting his uncle to give up a snapper spot... It went on and on for half the show and then the uncle chimes in and says looks NE or something like that---see that rig about 5 miles off your bow? Ok that's your spot, now go catch your 5000lbs...

Then it went on and on about how thankful he was about getting the numbers, etc.. This guy's supposed to be the best fisherman in the gulf? Please.. Anybody knows you can roll up to any rig out there and drop and catch fish, and lots of them.. You can drive around them and see where the fish are stacked up too..

That was on the last show.. The one before putting the commercial vs the Rec guys? He lost me when he went of trying to catch Rec guys.. Bad look all around...

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The lobbies for the commercials are backed by grocery stores and restaurants that want to sell at $20 a lb instead of $30. They help commander a public resource for the private profit of a few by claiming the commercial side gives the public access to the catch.