Deanna, UR- And the Research Continues...

As I continued my research I focused on the questions from Professor Woodall on my last blog post. The questions were whether red drum are tidally influenced, influenced by water temperature and when is the best time of day to fish for them. I have found a website explaining the best ways and times to sight-fish for red drum in Florida. Sight-fishing, as it sounds, is when you visually see the fish or signs of the fish and cast your bait or net in that area. The website mentions that the best time to actually fish for red drum, to my surprise, is actually in winter. More specifically late January through early March are the best time of the year to actually sight-fish. This is due to the fact that red drum are easier to see when the water is clearer and shallower. As we all know living in Florida it rains a lot during the warmer months of the year, with the rain the water level rises and it also clouds the water more.

This is a red drum "tailing", this is commonly what
 fishermen look for when sight-fishing.

As far as specific time of the day, the red drum are food motivated. Meaning if bait fish are out, so are red drum. During these colder months of January to March, the water temperature is colder and many fish species become lethargic and find deeper, warmer holes. However, red drum tightly school during this time and these schools can easily exceed one hundred fish. These schools continue to move around in search for food. Bait fish typically are not really active during this time of year until afternoon until the evening when the sun starts setting. This is due to the water temperature rising a few degrees during this time of day, especially in shallower waters where the temperature will be even higher.
But that doesn't mean this is the only time of day and year that red drum are active because they are even more active in the summer months than they are in winter. Although, sight-fishing for red drum is easier in the winter.

Red drum

As far as my scientific question goes, it will be "how appropriate are the current rules and regulations for harvesting red drum in Flagler County?". By catching red drum and recording the number of fish I catch and their length measurements (since that is what the law is based on), I will hopefully be able to determine if they current rules and regulations should be adjusted. For example, (let's say) I catch 40 red drum and of those 40, only 12 are within the legal size of 18-27  inches I will feel as though maybe they are becoming over-harvested and perhaps the bag limit should be dropped from 2 per person per day, down to 1. Or (let's say) I catch 40 fish and of the 40, maybe 37 are within the legal size limit I would feel as though perhaps the laws should be adjusted in favor of the fishermen. By in favor of the fishermen I mean maybe increasing the bag limit to 3 or 4 per person per day for a year or so.
Thanks for the questions Professor Woodall.

Reference:
Florida Sportsman. (2012). Hot redfishing in winter. Retrieved from http://www.floridasportsman.com/2012/01/28/sportfish_redfish_0312_red/