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North Carolina Marine Fisheries Proclamation FF 33-2022 opens the commercial red drum fishery in the state’s coastal fishing waters.

The proclamation is effective at 12:01 a.m. on Sunday, May 1, 2022.

The harvest limit is seven red drum in a commercial fishing operation. Those red drum must be taken with a target species of flounder, bluefish, black drum or striped mullet caught the same day and the combined daily weight of the target species must exceed that of red drum.

New this season is the following: “two SCFL (Standard Commercial Fishing License) holders from separate commercial fishing operations may transport their daily landed catch of red drum and associated target species as described above to the dealer in the same vehicle. A SCFL holder from each operation must accompany each single harvest limit until the time of sale to the dealer.”

“The intent of this proclamation is to manage the annual commercial harvest of red drum within the 250,000 pound cap implemented by Amendment 1 of the N.C. Red Drum Fishery Management plan. The commercial fishing year is September 1 through August 31. The first harvest period (150,000 pounds) of September through April was closed because the 150,000 pound limit was exceeded. The second harvest period (100,000 pounds) for May through August will now be reduced from the 100,000 pound limit to account for any overages in the first harvest period and keep annual harvest below the 250,000 pound cap.”

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