Southern Offshore Fishing
            Association

Despite the all too prevalent and general air of cluelessness that this writer displays (he get's the commercial closure wrong and we wonder why, just because he thinks both commercial and recreational are closed, that should take any of the "sting" out of poor regulations.) he is another one who has experienced first hand how simply wrong the NMFS is about the snapper situation in the Gulf of Mexico.

Less than a minute into the trip we faced a problem. It’s a problem some might consider to be good if it were during the summer months while others will agree it was a bad one.

As lines plowed their way toward the bottom in hopes of enticing a gag grouper, the lines stopped and slowly began to slide toward the back of the boat.

No grouper here.

The problem? We couldn’t get to the bottom because of the large number of red snapper.

Ah shucks, recreational red snapper fishing is closed, too.

Folks, it’s hard to release a 17- or 18-inch red snapper. But it’s rough on the heart and blood pressure to release an 18-pound red snapper.

Of course, we can thank the federal government for that closure as well.

(quoted from the SunHerald.com)

Full article is here.