Is Georgia cutting their flounder limits?

[lampern]

Every other state around Ga is making changes to their flounder regs.

Is there any talk of that in Ga?

 

[jfish]

Should. Needs to be a larger minimum. 12" is too small. Then again 15 is too many imo. Same for trout as well.

Sheepshead 10"?? come on that is a sure enough baby. Many of them need to be changed.

 

[LittleDrummerBoy]

My view is that limit changes should only be made in response to data-driven sound stock assessments using mostly fishery-independent data.

It is foolish to follow the lead of neighboring states who change their regs based on various combinations of political pressures and data from different areas. It is also foolish to change regulations based on anecdotal reports of sport anglers whose sampling methods are not scientific.

 

[jfish]

To an extent you are correct. Especially about neighboring states. The size limits however need to be addressed. A qty of 15 is way to many. Lets say a flounder 16" long.. it has basically four fillets on it. That is alot of meat. Get several in boat more qty. That too is wrong. It happens more than you think and its about to happen now this month with trout. Boats will come in with 50+ fish.

 

[lampern]

How big does a female flounder get before it spawns?

 

[lampern]

Found this data on Southern flounder (and southern flounder only) from Texas:

I'm assuming unlike the Carolinas, southern flounder make up most of the catch of fish above 12 inches that are kept from Georgia to Mexico

With the current 14-inch minimum size limit, only 50 percent of the fish reach sexual maturity. Most would reach that level by 17 inches.

So by going to a 14 inch size limit, 50% of female southern flounder will have reached sexual maturity and spawned at least once, the vast majority if the minimum size was 17 inches

https://fishgame.com/2019/12/vanishing-flounder-january-2020/