Local angler caught a tagged red snapper in the Gulf of Mexico. What does that mean?
In 2019, commercial fisherman Eric Schmidt caught a tagged red snapper off Ft. Myers.
When he reported the catch, a 38-inch fish landed in 287 feet of water, the Jacksonville office was shocked at what they discovered. Schmidt, who has helped tag red snapper with yellow and orange tags in the Gulf of Mexico, noticed the tag he pulled was green.
“It was the longest a red snapper has gone between catches, the furthest one has traveled, and first (tagged) from the east coast caught on the west coast,” Schmidt said at the time.
The fish he caught was tagged in 2011 off Daytona Beach when it was 24 inches. Eight years later, it had grown to 38 inches and traveled around the southern end of Florida to the Gulf of Mexico.
As red snapper populations have increased, so has the watchful eye of the Florida Wildlife Conservation Commission and the Gulf Council. It is heavily regulated and 2024 saw an increase in the total fishing days allowed in the Gulf of Mexico.
Anglers like Dhru Shah have taken advantage of the increased fishing time, getting out often to target the highly sought-after bottom fish.
“In June, I’ve been out a lot, maybe two or three times a week,” said Shah, the owner and founder of BoatEye360, which installs marine night vision cameras and more to help boats safely navigate at night. “I sell night vision cameras for boats, so I have been out with many clients helping them get the system correct and doing some fishing.”
During the second week of the snapper season that started June 1, Shah found himself fishing on a wreck in 160 feet of water west of Tampa Bay with a client who shares a love of fishing. Using a knocker rig on conventional tackle with sardines, he landed a nice red snapper at 26 to 27 inches. They added it to the box and continued fishing.
“We didn’t think anything of it until we got home and started to unload fish from the boat. When we caught it, we didn’t notice a yellow tag and inside was information asking for date, place and length with a unique identification code.”
The yellow tag is a Gulf of Mexico-tagged fish. While Schmidt’s was eight years between catches, Shah’s didn’t have quite as much time to travel after the tag was inserted.
“It was tagged three months prior and grew an inch. The tag location was a few miles south from where we caught it,” Shah said after calling in his catch to the FWC at the phone number on the tag. As a reward, he was offered a T-Shirt.
Red snapper don’t have as high a reward as some species do. Cobia information is also requested and catching a tagged one could be quite lucrative. Even a harvested cobia carcass is worth $50 if turned into an FWC biologist.
The biggest reward comes in from tagged redfish. In its 10th year, the Coastal Conservation Association runs the STAR program where those registered could win prizes as valuable as a new boat, but anglers must pre-register for a chance at top prizes on tagged CCA redfish.
