RECREATIONAL GILL NET INFORMATION - OCTOBER 2018
This is not an official copy of the laws or regulations. This explanation of the laws and regulations is correct as of the date specified. Before taking part in this fishery, please call 251-861-2882 or 251-968-7576 or explore this website for updated information. It is the fisherman's responsibility to know the laws and regulations in effect at any given time.
FISH MAY NOT BE SOLD OR BARTERED
Due to limited entry, there are no new licenses available for purchase. To purchase a recreational gill net license, applicant must have purchased a recreational gill net license during the previous license year. Failure to renew a recreational gill net license in any given year will result in termination of that license.
IT IS UNLAWFUL TO:
- use any net or seine, except a cast net or minnow seine in any river, creek, stream, or bayou.
- use a recreational gill net to take or attempt to take fish beyond 300 feet from any shoreline.
- use a recreational gill net in any Gulf waters including Pelican Bay.
- use any nets in any manner so as to prevent access to or from any pier, wharf, dock, marina, or boat launching ramp.
- leave any gill net or trammel net unattended.
- use any gill net or other entangling net to take or attempt to take fish within 300 feet of any of the following "relic" piers: Zundel's, Old Daphne Steamship, Battles, and Quarantine, or within 300 feet of any artificial reef area established by the Marine Resources Division.
- remove mullet roe or otherwise process roe mullet aboard any boat or vessel in the waters of the state.
- have more than one net in use at any time and shall possess only one net on board a boat in the waters of Alabama. It shall be unlawful for a recreational gill net to be on board a boat with any commercial net, seine, or purse seine. It shall be unlawful to use or possess a recreational gill net in conjunction with the use or possession of any commercial net, seine, or purse seine.
- possess more than one standard fish box of whole fish per day. A standard fish box measures 15 inches by 15 inches by 24 inches.
- use a recreational gill net without an identifying tag attached. Tags are issued by the Marine Resources Division.
- to possess game fish (spotted seatrout, red drum, tarpon, striped bass or freshwater game fish [consult Ala. Div. of Wildlife and Freshwater regs.]) in conjunction with the use or possession of any recreational net or seine. Game fish must be immediately returned to the water.
- to use or possess a gill net that does not have a 2" cork every 5 feet or a 6" buoy every 50 feet along the top line.
LITTLE LAGOON
- Closed to the use of recreational gill nets from October 1 through April 30 of each year.
- Closed from sunset to sunrise.
- Closed to the use of gill nets with mesh size of less than one and one-half (1 1/2") inches knot to knot.
- Persons utilizing a recreational gill net in Little Lagoon must obtain and possess a "Special Use" permit available from the Marine Resources Division office in Gulf Shores. Call 251-968-7576.
CLOSED AREAS/INSIDE WATERS
- It shall be unlawful for any person to use any gill net or seine to take fish in any marked navigation channel, Little Lagoon, Theodore Industrial Canal, Little Lagoon Pass, Perdido Pass, or any man-made canal (including but not limited to the following bays and canals on Dauphin Island: Quivera Bay, Polaris Lagoon, Port Royal Lagoon, Lafitte Bay, Indian Bay, Indian Canal, Buchanan Bay, Columbia Bay, Colony Cove, Spanish Bay, Barcelona Bay, Salt Creek, Government Cut (Drury Pass), and Billy Goat Hole). Use of any gill net or seine to take or attempt to take fish within 300 feet of the mouth of Dog River, Theodore Industrial Canal, East Fowl River, West Fowl River, Old East Fowl River (both entrances), Bayou Coden, Bayou la Batre, and the Mobile Bay entrance to Billy Goat Hole/Government Cut in Mobile County, or Fly Creek, Fish River, Magnolia River, Graham Bayou, Wolf Creek, Miflin Creek, Roberts Bayou, Palmetto Creek, Soldier Creek, Perdido Pass, and Little Lagoon Pass in Baldwin County is prohibited.
- From January 1 through the day after Labor Day of each year it is unlawful to use any recreational gill net or other entangling net to take or attempt to take any fish in all waters inside of a meandering line beginning at the east end of Dauphin Island at the Park and Beach Board pier and running in a nothwestwardly direction along the northern shore of Little Dauphin Island to its intersection with the Dauphin Island Bridge, and then northwardly along the east side of the Dauphin Island Bridge to its intersection with the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway, then westwardly along the southern edge of the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway to Aloe Bay Channel marker "BA, F1(2+1) G6s," then southwardly to Aloe Bay Channel marker number "2" and then to the western end of the Dauphin Island Airport runway, then eastwardly along the northern shore of Dauphin Island to the east end of Dauphin Island at the Park and Beach Board Pier.
- From October 24 through December 31 of each year it shall be unlawful to use any set nets (gill nets) in the waters of Bon Secour Bay south of the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway from Oyster Bay west to the last waterway navigational marker and from that point southwestward to the northwestern tip of the Fort Morgan Peninsula. During this time period, this area shall be open to strike nets but these nets cannot be used within 300 feet of any pier, wharf, dock, or boat launching ramp in this area. "Strike net" means a gill net that is set and used from a boat in a circular pattern and is not anchored or secured to the water bottom or shore and which is immediately and actively retrieved.
