South Florida outdoors notebook for Feb. 1, 2015

▪ Southeast Florida anglers, break out the Zara Spooks, D.O.A. Terror-Eyz and assorted live baits. Snook harvest season reopens Sunday in Atlantic waters through May 31. You may take one snook per person per day within the slot limit of 28 to 32 inches. You need a snook permit and Florida saltwater fishing license. Anglers in the Keys, Everglades National Park and the Gulf will have to wait until March 1 to bring home a snook. For more information, visit myFWC.com.

▪ The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission will host a series of public workshops in the Keys and South Florida beginning Feb. 23 concerning bully netting for lobsters and whether to start managing barracuda — a longtime sport fish that recently has become a commercial species. The bully netting workshops will be held from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Feb.23 at the Harvey Government Center in Key West; Feb. 24 at Key Colony Beach City Hall, and Feb. 26 at Murray Nelson Government Center in Key Largo. The barracuda workshops will be held from 6 p.m. to 8p.m. Feb. 25 at Key Colony Beach City Hall; March 3 at the IGFA Hall of Fame & Museum in Dania Beach and March 5 in a statewide webinar and video conference. For more information, visit myFWC.com.

▪ A fleet of 12 sailboats will compete in the 32nd edition of the Pineapple Cup-Montego Bay Race from Port Everglades to Jamaica — a distance of more than 800 nautical miles — beginning Friday. The only local entrant is Senara, a Farr 395 co-skippered by Jim Eamonn and Bill deLisser of Miami. The 2013 champion, George Sakellaris’ Shockwave from Framingham, Massachusetts, will defend its title. The event is put on by the Storm Trysail Club, Lauderdale Yacht Club and Montego Bay Yacht Club.

▪ The first leg of the Los Suenos Signature Triple Crown billfish series that concluded in January at Playa Herradura on Costa Rica’s Pacific coast is claiming a record-high fish-to-boat ratio of 55 to 1 over three days — perhaps the highest of any billfish tournament anywhere. A fleet of 39 boats with 157 anglers caught and released 2,154 billfish, including 2,130 sailfish and 24 marlin. The top boat, Tarheel — owned and skippered by captain John Bayliss of Wanchese, North Carolina — scored 108 sailfish releases and won $62,000. The tournament’s next two legs are in February and March.

Sue Cocking

This story was originally published January 31, 2015 at 11:01 PM with the headline "South Florida outdoors notebook for Feb. 1, 2015."