Can you keep a red drum (redfish) in Florida?

A slot means the fish must fall between those two numbers. Shorter than 18 inches goes back, and so does longer than 27.

An 18-to-27-inch slot, one a day, with a 4-fish vessel cap in these three zones — twice the vessel cap of the rest of the state. Fish must stay whole until landed, and for-hire captain and crew may not keep one.

FWC source page

A slot means the fish must fall between those two numbers. Shorter than 18 inches goes back, and so does longer than 27.

Same 18-to-27-inch slot as the Panhandle, Big Bend and Northeast, but the vessel cap is only 2 in these five zones.

FWC source page

What we left out on purpose

• Atlantic red snapper is deliberately left unstated. FWC's dedicated season page and its general snapper table give different size and bag figures, and a federal court ruling on May 21, 2026 postponed the state management season. 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.