Red snapper season will last two days along North Carolina's Atlantic Coast this summer.
The "mini-season" for recreational anglers is July 11 and 12. It begins and ends in the middle of the night: 12:01 a.m. Friday to 11:59 p.m. Saturday.
Red snapper are a popular species for saltwater sportfishing. Lesley Maurice Davis Jr., who captains a fishing boat out of Atlantic Beach, said he has 70 people signed up each day hoping to catch one.
"The boat will be full. It'll be a lot going on," Davis said. "They got a good, real hard pull on them. They fight all the way to the top."
Anglers can keep one fish a day, and there's no size limit.
The southern Atlantic stock of red snapper is growing thanks to tight catch restrictions, according to the fisheries arm of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Over the past 15 years, seasons have only opened for brief windows — sometimes one day and occasionally for a couple weekends. The red snapper living in the Gulf of Mexico are doing far better, allowing for longer fishing seasons.
Could NC open red snapper season year-round?
North Carolina lawmakers were close this year to opening red snapper season year-round in state waters through 2029.
That bill died in the House after senators inserted a controversial shrimp trawling ban late in the legislative session.
Davis was against the year-round season. He said red snapper can't be caught in state waters, which extend only 3 miles from the coast.
"It'd be a lot of illegal fishing going on — a lot of the boats going out there in federal waters, caught them, and brought them back in state waters, and took a picture with the beach behind them to get credit," Davis said.
"That is all illegal," he continued. "That's the reason we were against that opening in state waters, because there's no such thing. It's just nothing but a big lie."
The species is federally managed, with regulations set by the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council applying to federal waters. Those rules guide what the N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries allows in state waters.
Last year's red snapper season was a single day, and the weather wasn't ideal. Davis is monitoring the conditions ahead of the 2025 mini-season.
"There's been a cold slug of water moved down from up north. The water temperature on the surface is like 80-something; on the bottom it's 64," he explained. "If that moves out for next week, it might be pretty good fishing."
The state asks recreational fisherman to donate red snapper carcasses for research, with drop-off locations dotting the coast.
SAFMC details gear restrictions online.
