Newly Regulated Finfish Species

New fisheries laws adding or changing catch limits and retention sizes on a number of recreationally important saltwater finfish species in South Carolina have been passed by the SC General Assembly and are now in place.

The new laws, effective June 15, concern the harvest of black drum, weakfish, hardhead and gafftopsail saltwater catfish, red drum, spotted seatrout, flounder, black seabass, and dolphin. These new state fisheries laws were adopted primarily to support a proactive and precautionary approach in natural resources management to help deal with increasing fishing pressures and environmental stresses placed on South Carolina’s marine finfish resources associated with coastal growth and development.

Details of the new laws are as follows:

Species of Fish	Bag Limit	Size Limit
Black Drum	5 per person per day	Must be 14 inches Total Length or greater and equal to or less than 27 inches Total Length
Weakfish (summer trout; gray trout)	10 per person per day	12 inch Total Length minimum
Hardhead and Gafftopsail saltwater catfish	Possession is prohibited
Red Drum (spot tailed bass; redfish)	3 per person per day	Must be 15 inches Total Length or greater, and equal to or less than 23 inches Total Length maximum
Spotted Seatrout (winter trout; speckled trout)	10 per person per day	14 inch Total Length minimum
Flounder (southern flounder; summer flounder; gulf flounder)	20 per person per day, not to exceed 40 per BOAT per day	14 inch Total Length minimum
Black Seabass (blackfish)	Made state regulations mimic federal regulations Federal - 15 per person per day	12 inch Total Length minimum
Dolphin (mahi)	Made state regulations mimic federal regulations Federal - 10 per person per day, 60 per boat per day (headboats excluded from boat limit)	No size limit

The New Finfish Laws above have been provided in the Adobe PDF file format. Adobe® Reader® is required to open the file and is available as a free download from the Adobe® Web site.