March 25, 2019 — Better hurry if you want to catch a triggerfish in the Gulf of Mexico.
And get ready to wait a long time before you can put an amberjack in the icebox.
The recreational season for gray triggerfish will close on May 11, and will not reopen again until March of 2020. The 2019 season is just 72 days, instead of the usual 173 days. It is possible, depending on federal estimates of the 2019 harvest, that triggerfish could remain closed even longer.
Greater amberjack season, meanwhile, which would normally reopen on May 1 will remain closed until August. That’s because federal officials estimated that fishermen caught the entire annual quota of amberjack for the last year during August, September and October of 2018.