Hogfish and conservation

Hogfish are doing fine. No need to stir the pot.

They are plentiful here on the Gulf coast. We try to only shoot males and they are usually over 14" and up to low 20"s in shallow. We leave the harem of females and the larger female will become the dominant male over time.

C

I dont think hogfish are fine,,, but i dont think any gov. action will help.. in my experience/opinion its all the weekend warrior douches that i see at the beach with buckets full of 9" hogs that are the problem

I think Miami hogfish are genetically different than the hogfish in Cuba. Here a hogfish can be shot and injured 2-3 times over a period of a few months, and still allows a diver to approach it. In Cuba they don't need to have a bad experience with a diver to become weary, they're naturally weary. Maybe it comes from many years of pressure where only the cautious fish survived to reproduce.

From the beaches east of Havana almost to Matanzas.

Quote from Dan

From the beaches east of Havana almost to Matanzas.

Some day brother...some day we dive with your friends and smoke some fine Romeo and J's basking in the sun...Salsa flowing through the afternoon heat.

Cheers, Don

don, that's my plan for november -december. over the years i've seen years in which a lot of hogfish come to spawn and others when not so many. last year was so so .this year i'm starting to see them already so it appears it'll be a good one.

i agree w pantoja...it is a cyclical thing...three years ago they were everywhere and last year a little less. This year I am seeing a lot.

I ran into a small patch reef off KB that had to have 100 hogs in the 12-14" range around and on it.....they are there

They should be 16 inches like Muttons and actually measured correctly. TO THE FORK

I lived in Marathon from '80 through '92, and there isn't much of a change in quantity or size of the hogs down there. Where most people are shooting 12" hogs (on top the reef and the mixed grass inside the reef), there were always hordes of tiny hogs. It was rare to find a big hog on the reef. Most of the big ones I'd get would be inshore around channels. Back in the '80s, the typical hog we got was probably in the 14" range. Most days, the biggest ones would be around 16-18".

Up here on the Gulfcoast, a typical male is going to be over 16" and there are no shortage of them. Their habitat is from the shoreline out 100 miles, and we have a fraction of the divers that SE FL and the Keys have. While a 16" size limit wouldn't affect me, I don't know if it would make much of an improvement anywhere else.

Quote from greekdiver

They should be 16 inches like Muttons and actually measured correctly. TO THE FORK

I agree with Greek, 16in MIN size would be better. Atleast all those poeple taking the 9In hogs like someone posted would have to take 13-14 in ones instead.

i dont think it matters what the law is...the limit now is 5 at 12" to the fork and we all regularly see people with buckets of shorts.

we need enforcement and education and they both require resources.....which we lack

I cant understand why greekdiver and else say such a thing. I really cant. Those who get undersized fish, will keep doing so regardless of any law. On the other hand if anyone has a personal size to catch, so be it. I stick to the law, but honestly I love small fish. I always give to friends the big hog fish. So , like dan says, dont stirr it. Anyways, hook and line rarely catch them, so the pressure is not the same.

I think people measure certain fish as total length instead of FORK length. Hogs are measured in Fork Length. And this is a mistake a lot of people make on the spearfishing forum pictures and videos I have seen. I remember seeing many posts with hogs on a cooler ruler, and they are measuring total length.

Yeah, those extensions on the tail will add another inch or two. I think someone would have to be lacking in common sense to try and include them in the measurement.

those making the mistake of measuring the wrong way should pay for it , but it does not mean that because of it there should be a change in size from 12 to 16 like stated. education and more control will do the job. but regulating us more without any actual study of any kind will just put the rope to our own necks . i don't think we are doing anything wrong by respecting the law. don't try to make lurkers think so and give them ammo to screw us. if anyone here thinks that going in the ocean to watch butterfies is the shit , then go for it . but i consider myself a hunter in the ocean or land and will never stand for any unjustified closures . i do not agree with the statement that hogfish is declining because they come around or not very season. and it needs a study to find out if there's a decline in the population. i've been fishing for a long time and this is the way it is. when they spawn , sometimes there's a lot of them and some other times there's not so much. and the ones that are here today will not be next year. the decline in fish stock is not in the hogfish population but all fish population , all over the world. .and all other land species too. so , come on guys , think.

cuando yo pescaba en cuba los pejeperros eran muy ariscos en las rocas solo cuando estaban sobre los arenasos era que se ponian mas mansos. pero por lo general eran muy ariscos . recuerdo que cuando estaban sobre la arena se ponian de cabeza y eran un tiro seguro.

sorry for the spanish guys but is hard for me to translate ..