With June’s arrival, Mississippi sportsmen face a close of one season and an opening of another.
* June 1 is the final day of the spring squirrel season that opened on May 15. The special season has a limit of four squirrels per day.
* And, June 1 is the first day of the ridiculously short three-day red snapper season in federal waters of the Gulf of Mexico. The limit is two red snapper per day per angler, and fish must be at least 16 inches long to be legal.
* The red snapper season for for-hire fishing charters with federal permits also opens June 1 and will continue through July 20.
Mississippi’s red snapper season in the state’s territorial waters opened on May 26 and will end on Sept. 4. The limits are the same as the federal season limits.
With only a three-day federal season offshore, weather is a big concern and the forecast is not good. Rough seas of up to 5 feet are predicted offshore with winds topping 15 mph.
“Well that’s about par for the course,” said Billy Thomas of Biloxi, an avid snapper fisherman. “We get three days and lose at least one to rough seas. We have a 32-foot boat so we could go, but the fact that we have to weigh safety against lost opportunity is ridiculous. You know there are people with smaller boats who will say, ‘screw it, let’s go,’ and that’s putting their lives on the line. This entire fiasco is as ridiculous as ridiculous gets.
“In the dictionaries, under ridiculous, it should say ‘see federal snapper regulations.’”
Be the first to comment