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Fishing Guide · Southwest Florida

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SWFL Season & Regulation Calendar

Gulf-region rules for Lee, Collier, and Charlotte counties. Gulf and Atlantic regulations differ for several of these species; figures here are Gulf-only, fetched directly from myfwc.com on October 1, 2026.

Season chart: Gulf state waters

Want more than the rule? Each of these has a full guide, where the fish holds in Lee, Collier and Charlotte counties, when it bites, and what to throw at it: snook, redfish, tarpon, spotted seatrout, mangrove snapper, red snapper, gag grouper.

What the year actually looks like

Rules are one thing, and what comes over the rail is another. These are our own photographs, each one dated by the camera that took it, arranged by the month it happened.

Status at a glance

Snook (Gulf/SWFL)

Closed May 1 – Sept. 30 and Dec. 1 – end of February; slot 28"–33"

Redfish (SWFL)

Open year-round; slot 18"–27"; 1/person, 2/vessel

Tarpon (statewide)

Catch-and-release only, always, unless tagged for a record

Spotted seatrout (SWFL)

Open year-round; slot 15"–19"; 3/person/day

Gray (mangrove) snapper (Gulf)

Open year-round; 10" min. (state waters); 5/person/day

Red snapper (Gulf state waters)

Open daily Oct. 1–4 and Oct. 9–22, then weekends and holiday weekends only through Dec. 27, plus Jan. 1–4, 2027; 16" min.; 2/person/day

Gag grouper (Gulf state waters)

Closed from Oct. 1, 2026 for the rest of the year (open Sept. 1–30, 2026); 24" min.; 2/person/day

Snook: the Gulf slot isn't the Atlantic slot

SWFL's Charlotte Harbor and Southwest snook regions use a 28"–33" slot and are closed May 1–Sept. 30 plus Dec. 1–end of February. Southeast Florida's Atlantic coast uses a narrower 28"–32" slot with different closed dates. Forum advice written for the Atlantic side will misquote the Gulf slot every time.

Closed season (Charlotte Harbor & Southwest / Gulf)

Dec. 1 – end of February, and May 1 – Sept. 30

Slot limit (Gulf, incl. Charlotte Harbor & Southwest)

Not less than 28" or more than 33" total length

For comparison: Southeast Atlantic slot

Not less than 28" or more than 32" total length (different region, different rule)

Bag limit

One fish per person per day

Permit

Snook permit required in addition to saltwater license

Redfish never closes in SWFL

Redfish harvest is open year-round in the Charlotte Harbor and Southwest regions covering Lee, Collier, and Charlotte counties. No closed season, no emergency closure in effect as of October 1, 2026. The slot is 18"–27" with a 1-fish-per-person, 2-fish-per-vessel limit.

Season

Open year-round (Charlotte Harbor & Southwest regions)

Slot limit

Not less than 18" or more than 27" total length

Bag limit

1 fish per person per day

Vessel limit

2 fish per vessel

Tarpon: catch-and-release everywhere, extra rules at Boca Grande Pass

Tarpon fishing is catch-and-release only everywhere in Florida unless you're holding a paid tag ($51.50/year) and pursuing a record. Boca Grande Pass adds its own gear restrictions on top of that statewide rule.

Harvest

Catch-and-release only, except one tagged fish per person per year pursuing a state/world record

Handling

Tarpon over 40" must stay in the water unless tagged for a record attempt

Boca Grande Pass: year-round

Gear with weight positioned lower than the hook (when suspended) is prohibited for all species inside the pass

Boca Grande Pass: April, May, June only

Vessels limited to 3 fishing lines deployed at once; breakaway gear prohibited entirely

Spotted seatrout (trout): open year-round in SWFL

Spotted seatrout is open year-round in both the Charlotte Harbor region (Lee, Charlotte, and most of Collier) and the Southwest region (southern Collier below 26°15.227'N and south), with the same 15"–19" slot and 3-fish daily bag in both.

Season

Open year-round in both the Charlotte Harbor and Southwest regions

Slot limit

Not less than 15" or more than 19" total length

Bag limit

3 fish per person per day, plus 1 fish over 19" per vessel (or per person from shore) countable toward that bag

Region boundary

Charlotte Harbor and Southwest regions split at 26°15.227'N latitude in Collier County

Snapper: mangrove year-round, red snapper on a narrow calendar

Gray (mangrove) snapper is open year-round in Gulf state waters at a 10" minimum. Red snapper is not: the 2026 Gulf state-waters season ran May 22–July 31, then reopened Sept. 1 with daily days through Oct. 4 and Oct. 9–22, then weekends and holiday weekends through Jan. 4, 2027.

Gray (mangrove) snapper: season

Open year-round

Gray (mangrove) snapper: size/bag

10" TL minimum (state waters), 5 per person/day (within 10-snapper aggregate)

Red snapper: 2026 season

May 22 – July 31 (summer); fall: Sept. 1–Oct. 4 daily, Oct. 9–22 daily, Oct. 23–25, Oct. 30–Nov. 1, Nov. 7–8, 14–15, 21–22, Nov. 26–29, Dec. 5–6, 12–13, 19–20, Dec. 25–27, and Jan. 1–4, 2027 daily

Red snapper: size/bag

16" TL minimum, 2 per person/day (within the 10-fish state snapper aggregate)

Gag grouper: open only Sept. 1–30, 2026 in Gulf state waters

FWC lists Gulf state-waters gag grouper open September 1–30, 2026, and closed from Oct. 1 for the remainder of the year, so it is closed as of October 1, 2026.

Season (Gulf state waters)

Open Sept. 1–30, 2026; closed Oct. 1 for the remainder of the year

Minimum size

24" total length

Bag limit

2 per person, within a 4-grouper aggregate

For-hire

FWC lists a 0 fish bag limit for charter captain and crew on red grouper in state waters; check the groupers page for the gag for-hire rule

Not published here

Federal-water red snapper rules for boats running past 9 nautical miles, and other Gulf reef fish (vermilion snapper, mutton snapper, cubera, lane snapper), weren't researched this session. Treat "not listed" as "not verified," not "unregulated." The free Fish Rules app and myfwc.com/fishing cover what's missing here, especially anything with a narrow open window like grouper or red snapper.

More species covered on this site

A handful of species with their own FWC figures don't have a full regional table above yet, but they do have a dedicated guide. Sheepshead around Punta Gorda and St. James City are covered in our sheepshead fishing guide. Flounder around Pine Island and Bokeelia, including the fall closed season, are in our flounder fishing guide. Black drum at Pine Island and Matlacha are in our black drum fishing guide. Permit off Sanibel and Captiva, including the Gulf slot outside the Biscayne special zone, are in our permit fishing guide. Cobia out of Fort Myers are in our cobia fishing guide. Trout specifically in Pine Island Sound and Matlacha Pass get a deeper look in our spotted seatrout guide for that water. Tilapia in the freshwater canals of Cape Coral and Fort Myers, which need a different license than the saltwater species above, are covered in our tilapia fishing guide. Peacock bass around Naples and Everglades City are addressed honestly in our peacock bass guide, which explains why FWC's own range statement rules that trip out. Veterans, active and retired military, and seniors have their own fee and exemption breakdown in our license cost guide. Jack crevalle and ladyfish carry no species-specific limit at all, only FWC's default unregulated-species bag, explained in our jack crevalle guide and ladyfish guide. For how these closures stack up across the calendar, our month-by-month guide walks the year species by species.

Where to fish it

Rules are one part of the picture. See our snook season status guide for the current Gulf and Atlantic windows spelled out side by side, and our spot guides for where to actually cast a line while a season's open: Cape Coral boat ramps, Sanibel Causeway, Blind Pass, Fort Myers boat ramps, Punta Gorda and Port Charlotte piers, Pine Island, Estero and Bonita Springs, Naples and Marco Island, Everglades City and Chokoloskee, Boca Grande and Gasparilla Island, the Punta Gorda Isles canals, the Marco Island canals, and what is open after dark. Booking a captain instead, our charter cost guide lists published rates by port. Three permit rules sit outside the season tables and catch people out: the free but mandatory shore-based shark fishing permit, which seniors are NOT exempt from, the goliath grouper harvest lottery that only takes applications October 1 to 15, and how far from a pier or bridge you may spearfish.

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