!!please read!!

Please take a look at this. I encourage you all to visit their facebook page and leave your thoughts in his reviews. This is retarded. A lot of these people will blindly sign this not knowing the truth behind the red snapper issue. Please share this.

This is a petition we are having customers sign aboard our boats. The Federal government agency that regulates our fisheries, National Marine Fisheries Service(NMFS), has done a fabulous job with Red Snapper. Anyone who has been fishing with us over the last few years has seen the benefits of these regulations. We are catching more Red Snapper now than any other time in our past. There have recently been some rule changes that could hurt this stock rebuilding plan. They have ruled to open more harvest for the private, boat owning public. This sounds good on the surface. But, what is not explained, is that this has the potential to shorten future harvest for other user groups. Mainly, the customers that fish our boats! We have enjoyed a 49 day Red Snapper season this year and would like that trend to continue.
As the owner of the Double Eagle Fleet, I am joining a few other Headboat owners on a trip to Washington, DC. We plan to meet with Senators and Congressman to explain what these rule changes may cause. In the past, we have meet with officials from the 5 Gulf states. On this trip, we plan to meet with officials from several states. Some of these members, who vote on rule changes, do not know all of the specifics and how it effects fisherman.
We are looking for YOUR support. Please like this post or reply with with name, city and state. This will allow us to show these officials the diverse group of fisherman that use the Double Eagle, and boats like ours, to access the Gulf of Mexico fishery. The more likes, names and city/states that we get, the more congressional members we will meet with. Please help us take this message to Washington and help us keep access to our fisheries open to all Americans. Not just the ones who own there own boats.
Thank you
Captain Chad Haggert

That is the post in its entirety. Ive seen many threads regarding the mismanagement of red snapper. If all we do is gripe here, then what good are we doing?

HE has a 49 day snapper season.
I doubt he is advocating the same for those of us who do have our own boats.

1eyefishing said:

HE has a 49 day snapper season.
I doubt he is advocating the same for those of us who do have our own boats.

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He is advocating to keep us from fishing snapper, saying the recreational fisherman is the reason for all of the regulations. Basically, all of us ruined the fishery and not his party boats and commercial fishing buddies.

You've got to be kidding me. When was this posted to their page? I couldn't find it.

EDIT: I found it. These folks are disgusting. I posted this to pensacola fishing forum and they also got a great rating from me

Im with you on this one.... Commercial fisherman and us "Recreational Fisherman" are not friends in this aspect. Fortunately, the guides here in GA are awesome and I would consider most of them to be in the recreational category. I truly believe most of our local guides like helping people learn to fish even if they are not a "client". My experience with guides out of GA has not been the same. So in those places you have Guides and Commercial guys fighting the weekenders.. never good for any reason.

loveulongtine said:

Im with you on this one.... Commercial fisherman and us "Recreational Fisherman" are not friends in this aspect. Fortunately, the guides here in GA are awesome and I would consider most of them to be in the recreational category. I truly believe most of our local guides like helping people learn to fish even if they are not a "client". My experience with guides out of GA has not been the same. So in those places you have Guides and Commercial guys fighting the weekenders.. never good for any reason.

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This guy owns 3 huge party boats and is not a guide like you and I would think of one. We are lucky to have some great guides around here. The few that I know or have spoken to are top notch people that really do want to teach you and not just collect a paycheck and send you on your way. They want you to leave with more knowledge of the area and a great memory of more than just landing some fish. This guy packs as many people on his "ships" as he can and is only concerned about how much money he can put in his pocket.

I am all for commercial fishing, and really have nothing against party boats either. I do take issue with what this guy has promoted and how he has done it. Many of these people he is putting this petition in front of have no clue what it is for and are only going to take his word for it. They have no idea the real issue, the quota systems, or season limitations on us. They just sign and board this boat and go bump bottom. This guy and his business friends are actively seeking to limit our rights and are using shady tactics to bolster petition numbers because he knows that the ones this effects more wont touch his petition. He cant go door to door and collect signatures. So he gets the snowbirds and out of towners to sign it for him. The ones ignorant to the problems.

What are the options against this? Seems there should be some action that we can take. Having our snapper season not only limited but closed in order to financially support commercial and guided fisheries is way out of order!!

Riplukelee said:

What are the options against this? Seems there should be some action that we can take. Having our snapper season not only limited but closed in order to financially support commercial and guided fisheries is way out of order!!

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This isn't the start or end to this. It has been going on a while. The gulf coast (destin is just about the epicenter of this) is littered with captains and head boats doing this sort of thing.

"This is a petition we are having customers sign aboard our boats."

Interesting wording....we are HAVING customers sign aboard our boats....not asking customers to read and if in agreement sign. Sounds like a requirement as stated and I wonder what kind of experience you would have on their boat if you refused to sign. When is this petition presented...after you have paid, are on board and have left the dock? I find this disgusting and would never spend a dime with the Double Eagle Fleet.

This whole deal makes me sick.

I hope the guys boat sinks

Boycott the Double Eagle and any other idiot that partakes in this behavior! Hit em where it hurts...

The first thing I would do is go on their facebook page and leave a negative review explaining the petition and how he is looking to limit the rights of recreational anglers and everyday hard working Americans. Do the same on google reviews. Then write the Gulf Coast Fishing Council explaining that this guy is forcing a petition on customers who board his boat to bolster petition support numbers for his cause. Many of these people are from out of town and really have no idea what it is they are signing. He is literally padding his petition numbers based off the ignorance of people who are mostly not anglers, or people that have nothing to do with this issue. I really don't know what else to do. I've been looking into the RFA. Im not one for lobby groups, but this group seems like a decent one to join. I think the best thing we can do is to do what we can to hurt his business in the form of negative reviews and bad press. Word of mouth travels, and lots of people will check facebook and google for reviews before spending money. There are probably many other things to do, but I dont have a clue. We just dont have the resources like these guys do to make our voice heard. Money talks in DC. I dont know about you, but I "aint got" much of that.

trippcasey said:

The first thing I would do is go on their facebook page and leave a negative review explaining the petition and how he is looking to limit the rights of recreational anglers and everyday hard working Americans. Do the same on google reviews. Then write the Gulf Coast Fishing Council explaining that this guy is forcing a petition on customers who board his boat to bolster petition support numbers for his cause. Many of these people are from out of town and really have no idea what it is they are signing. He is literally padding his petition numbers based off the ignorance of people who are mostly not anglers, or people that have nothing to do with this issue. I really don't know what else to do. I've been looking into the RFA. Im not one for lobby groups, but this group seems like a decent one to join. I think the best thing we can do is to do what we can to hurt his business in the form of negative reviews and bad press. Word of mouth travels, and lots of people will check facebook and google for reviews before spending money. There are probably many other things to do, but I dont have a clue. We just dont have the resources like these guys do to make our voice heard. Money talks in DC. I dont know about you, but I "aint got" much of that.

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Someone should bring a gps on board and then post the numbers here.

Just left them a poor rating and my opinion.. I hate commercially lined fishing..

Thanks for the heads up.

Very similar things are being pushed here in GA

The fishery has always been raped by political interests. Private charter or head boats would out do commercial boats per allotment. So they say. One of the biggest draws to fishing in the ocean was snapper was always there. No matter what time of year. Makes no sense that most you buy in a grocery store isn't USA caught to begin with.

One of the worst massacres I ever witnessed is when they put a size limit on snapper for party boats. Drag fish from the bottom, flip them off the hook because they weren't legal and watch them become chum on the surface with their air bladder blown up out of their mouth. No real conservation to that law was there?

Trip Advisor

Dirty pool for sure. I figured the best way to reach the uninformed clients y'all were speaking of would be to post a warning about the petition and its motives on Trip Advisor. Mission accomplished.