Florida net ban: 30 years of richer coastal fishing

It has been a little more than 30 years since a constitutional net ban that was overwhelmingly approved by Florida voters was implemented, and the impact of that restriction on commercial gill nets in state waters was immediate and dramatic.

A few weeks after the net ban amendment was passed in November of 1994, I had fished off Hallandale Beach with captain Mark Silverstein, and we were thrilled when we caught 2-pound Spanish mackerel.

A year later, less than five months after the ban took effect on July 1, 1995, Silverstein and I went back to the area and caught Spanish mackerel up to 7 pounds that we weighed on a handheld scale.

During that trip, one of us caught a 2-pound mackerel, which we released, and I said to Silverstein, “Can you believe we were excited about catching a fish that big a year ago?”

The same thing happened with sea trout and pompano, as anglers on both coasts reported catching the biggest trout they had seen in years and way more pompano.

The state’s population of redfish, which cannot be caught commercially but were sometimes a net bycatch, increased so much that the three-month recreational closed season was eliminated.

The late Karl Wickstrom, the founder and editor in chief of Florida Sportsman magazine, was the driving force behind getting the constitutional net ban amendment on the ballot for the November 1994 election, and then getting it passed by 72% of Florida’s voters.

He called it “the most important fisheries reform in history,” noting that the net ban led to additional fisheries management changes in Florida and other states

The main reason for the net ban amendment was the vast amounts of mullet that were being netted each year and the failure of state legislators to limit the netting.

Many of those fish were taken in the fall, when mullet were fat with roe. Considered a delicacy in parts of Asia, mullet roe commanded a premium price.

As a young man, captain William Toney, of Homosassa, used to go gill netting with his uncle and his grandfather. He said the price for red roe from a female mullet was as high as $2.25 a pound. A good night of netting could easily be worth several thousand dollars.

“I think the largest strike I was ever on was 5,000 pounds. It was good money,” said Toney, recalling the Sunday evening trip with his uncle.

“There were five acres of mullet, as black as night. My uncle said, ‘Are you ready to get rich, William?’ and I said, ‘Yes sir!’ We filled the boat up with mullet.”

With prices for roe mullet so much higher than for mullet sold for food to a fish house, more and more part-timers got into gill netting seeking to make some quick, easy money.

According to the state’s Department of Environmental Protection, only a few hundred netters were making a substantial living in the early 1990s. The bulk of the 5,000 to 7,000 licensed netters in Florida made only 10% of their living from netting. To those earning $50,000 a year at their regular jobs, making $5,000 in a few nights of netting was a nice bonus.

Now limited to using small seines and cast nets, the annual commercial mullet catch is about a third of what it was before the net ban. That’s been a huge benefit to species that feed on mullet such as snook, redfish and tarpon, as well as species such as Spanish mackerel that were commercially netted.

Without large entanglement nets intercepting them as they migrate, fishing for Spanish mackerel has been terrific for the past three decades from Stuart to Miami to the Keys.

I will never forget a post net ban trip in Key West with captain Alan Sherman of Miami. He and I had been fishing for mangrove snapper in shallow Gulf waters north of Key West when we saw splashing caused by several acres of Spanish mackerel.

For the next two hours, we emptied Sherman’s tackle box of every rusted spoon, beat-up jig and corroded crankbait he owned. Whenever the bite slowed, we waited 30 seconds for the roaming mackerel to start jumping and headed over.

Many anglers start fishing for Spanish mackerel with live shrimp on light spinning rods. Once the fish start biting, they switch to lures and even catch them using fly rods.

Unlike its stronger-tasting cousin the king mackerel, Spanish mackerel have a fine, delicate flavor. They are excellent grilled, broiled or smoked, and they make a delicious ceviche.

The minimum size limit is 12 inches and the daily bag limit is 15 per angler. Thanks to the net ban, catching enough Spanish mackerel for dinner hasn’t been a problem for 30 years.