The Georgia Department of Natural Resources’ new proposed red drum fishing regulations has stirred dissatisfaction among anglers all along the coast.
“I’m kind of disappointed, aggravated and a little bit angry at the state’s decision on their recommendation,” said 53-year-old Townsend resident Capt. Scott Dykes.
The amendments overseeing how many and what size fish can be caught in Georgia waters, the first such changes in over 20 years, come after a 2024 stock assessment that revealed that the red drum population is overfished for the first time since the 1990s.
As Georgia’s state saltwater fish, red drum are a popular game fish found in the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico. Georgia’s waters are among the least regulated in terms of slot size and bag limit, which is the size range and number of fish that can be harvested.
DNR is seeking comment on an amendment that would limit daily creel from five fish to three and raise the slot size limit from a 14- to 23-inch slot to a 15- to 24-inch slot.
DNR Coastal Resources Division Director Doug Haymans said the agency has considered public opinion from online and mail-in commenting and town hall meetings. The proposal remains in a public commenting period until June 30.
“We recognize its importance to the recreational public,” Haymans said. “We want to do what’s right. We want to include the public in the decision process.”
Georgia’s current red drum regulations were set in 2002, and some environmentalists say that change is long overdue.
The DNR proposed similar changes in 2022, but Haymans said legislators asked the department to hold off to await data from the 2024 Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission stock assessment, an interstate partnership along the coast that oversees the red drum population.
States with red drum-populated waters each face distinct various fishing pressures, population and shore conditions. In South Carolina for example, a state Senate committee this year limited red drum bag limits from two to one and slot limits from 15- and 23-inches to 18- and 25-inches. Florida faces a higher population and fishing pressure, according to Haymans, and Georgia’s status quo reflects similar realities.
“Fishing pressure, measured by angler trips, has not gone down in the last decade or two decades,” Haymans said. “It is continuing to increase as people move to the coast, and even as inland anglers discover Georgia’s coast, we expect to see fishing pressure continue to increase.”
So far, there is no consensus about DNR’s proposed changes. Some anglers who spoke to The Current are firmly against both proposals, or those who support one or both.
Capt. David Newlin, a 65-year-old Richmond Hill resident, is among the anglers who see the proposed changes as too strict. As someone who has been fishing in the Ossabaw Island area for over 50 years and sending out charters since the 1970s, Newlin said he distrusts the data DNR cites as the rationale for the amendment. He said he has seen the red drum population increase over time.
“In September, when redfish hatches out all the way, I can catch 100 fish a day if I want to,” Newlin said. “The five fish per person has worked. It’s working. Size limits are working.”
Newlin said the current smaller slot limit prevents catching of bigger breeding fish, who can lay millions of eggs. As long as these bigger fish stay untouched, he said, Georgia will maintain “a monstrous redfish pond.”
Capt. Tim Cutting, a 67-year-old St. Simons Island resident, who supports more conservation, disagrees. He said the smaller slot limit size encourages catching and keeping younger fish, preventing them from reaching breeding age to repopulate the fishery.
The population of red drum varies by many factors, including rainfall, tides, time of year and other environmental disruptors. Cutting, who has been chartering in the area for 20 years, said in his experience, red drum schools sit in the same spots along the water, making them easy to target.
“You got a recreational fisherman that fishes during the winter, during the good tides,” Cutting said. “Naturally, they’re going to say there’s no problem, and you almost can’t disagree with them.”
Dykes, who grew up in Coastal Georgia, is one of the anglers who say the DNR proposals don’t go far enough. Unlike Newlin, he said he’s seen a decline in red drum due to the overfishing of smaller fish that are not making it to adulthood. The current proposals, he said, are not enough for full population recovery.
“It’s too little, too late,” Dykes said. “I feel like I’m not gonna see the fishery back the way it was when I first started within my lifetime at this rate.”
Susan Inman of the environmental group, One Hundred Miles, said the new proposed regulations are long overdue, considering data has shown fish populations experiencing overfishing for the last decade. The DNR proposals, she said, fall short of the long-term goal of recovery and resilience for the fish species. Inman said she had hoped that new Georgia regulations would match those in South Carolina or Florida.
“Since we haven’t been adjusting our bag limits or our regulations, it’s a shock to us that we have to make a drastic cut,” Inman said.
DNR, meanwhile, explained its proposals in relation to the stock assessment data and agreed-upon formulas measuring fish spawning potential and mortality ratios.
The organization that conducted the stock assessment lowered the reproduction capacity target from 40% to 30%, which is the threshold for defining an overfished population. A higher percentage allows for a stronger reproducing population.
DNR’s proposed bag and slot limits aim for a 35% ratio, rather than 40%. This formula is designed to reverse the red drum’s status as overfished within six years.
Haymans said more stringent regulations would decrease the recovery time by only one year, and the proposed combination serves as a compromise among the varied opinions.
“I think going from five to three fish is probably a very measured move when compared to the level of overfishing that has been indicated,” Haymans said. “We take a look at our neighbor states and try not to be too far apart.”
After public comment period is over, the Board of Natural Resources is scheduled to review the proposal on Aug. 25, with implementation planned to take effect on Jan. 1.
In the upcoming years, Haymans said the team will continue studying and tracking red drum as they have previously done. Surveys include tracking young and adult fish and an escapement study following the movement of red drum as they age.
The department aims to conduct a stock assessment every four to six years to allow for the regulation changes to have time to take effect.
“Only time will tell whether or not what we’re trying to do now is the right thing,” Haymans said. “If we come back in five or 10 years and it hasn’t improved, then we’ll have to look at it again, or if it’s much, much better, then we’ll look the other direction.”
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