Black grouper size limit in Florida

Gulf state waters, open all year. Monroe County is excluded. The same two offshore closures apply as for red grouper: federal waters shut from February 1 to March 31 seaward of 20 fathoms, and 'The Edges' is closed from January 1 to April 30.

Also needed: State Reef Fish Angler designation, free, for private vessels

Counts inside the four-grouper Gulf aggregate. Charter captain and crew keep none.

FWC source page

Closes each year January 1 to April 30

Also needed: State Reef Fish Angler designation, free, for private vessels

One gag or black grouper inside the three-grouper Atlantic aggregate, plus a cap of two per vessel per day.

FWC source page

Closes each year January 1 to April 30

Also needed: State Reef Fish Angler designation, free, for private vessels

FWC lists black grouper in the Monroe County closure on both coasts.

FWC source page

What we left out on purpose

• Atlantic red snapper is deliberately left unstated. FWC's dedicated season page marks the 2026 season 'Temporarily Postponed' and gives one set of figures; its general snapper table shows the fishery open with a different size and bag limit. The agency does not say why the season was postponed, and we are not going to fill that gap with a reason of our own. Publishing either number would be a guess.
• Gag grouper is in flux on both coasts: the Gulf is closed through August 31, 2026 after a quota overage, and the Atlantic and Monroe closed by executive order effective August 2, 2026 with no stated reopening. The dates here are what FWC published; the daily rebuild re-evaluates them.
• The Gulf red snapper weekend and holiday schedule was read from a summarised page fetch rather than a raw table. The dates are reproduced as published, but this is the entry most worth re-reading at the agency before a trip.
• Several species carry separate rules inside Biscayne National Park. Those figures are not captured here.
• Mutton snapper spawning-area closures around the Dry Tortugas are referenced in angling literature but did not appear on the FWC page read, so none is listed.
• Red drum and spotted seatrout were missing entirely until the 2026-08-08 check despite being Florida's two most iconic inshore species. Both are found here grouped by zone rather than listing all nine FWC management zones individually — every zone with an identical rule is combined into one region, so no figure differs from FWC's own breakdown.
• The old FWC 'quickchart.pdf' summary (last modified December 2023) was found during this pass and deliberately not used — it predates the 2025–2026 gag grouper closures and the current red snapper season structure by more than two years.
• Snapper and grouper species beyond what is already carried here — including cubera, schoolmaster and gray triggerfish, tilefish and vermilion snapper — were not individually re-checked on 2026-08-08. Only the species already on this page, plus red drum, spotted seatrout, king mackerel, greater amberjack and hogfish, were verified this pass.