Red grouper size limit in Florida

Gulf state waters, open all year. Monroe County is excluded and follows the Atlantic rule. Two closures sit outside state waters and are easy to miss: federal waters shut from February 1 to March 31 seaward of 20 fathoms, and the area FWC calls 'The Edges' is closed from January 1 to April 30.

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

Counts inside a four-grouper Gulf aggregate. Charter captain and crew keep none. Federal Gulf waters beyond 20 fathoms close February 1 to March 31.

FWC source page

Closes each year January 1 to April 30

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

Counts inside a three-grouper Atlantic aggregate.

FWC source page

Closes each year January 1 to April 30

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

FWC applies the Atlantic closure to all state waters off Monroe County, on both the Atlantic and Gulf sides.

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.