Local volunteers help CCA Florida release 10,000 redfish in area waters

The Flagler Sportfishing Club helped the CCA get its Release the East program off the ground.

By Brent Woronoff
| 6:10 a.m. April 12, 2023

Local volunteers transfer the redfish from nets into bags that they will carry to the release point. Courtesy photo by Chuck Warren

Volunteers load their bags with fish scooped out of the tanks. Courtesy photo by Chuck Warren

The Coastal Conservation Association Florida brought about 3,500 juvenile redfish to each site. Courtesy photo by Chuck Warren

Volunteers fill their bags with redfish 5-8 inches long. Courtesy photo by Chuck Warren

Volunteers release the juvenile redfish at the first release point at Silver Lake Park in Flagler Beach. Courtesy photo by Chuck Warren

Flagler Sportfishing Club volunteers at the first Flagler County CCA redfish release on March 28. Courtesy photo by Chuck Warren

Palm Coast Observer
Neighbors

For the second year in a row, Chuck Gleichmann and volunteers from the Flagler Sportfishing Club helped release thousands of juvenile redfish into local waters to restock the population.

Gleichmann, a former president of the Flagler Sportfishing Club, organized 30 to 40 volunteers who assisted the Coastal Conservation Association Florida’s Release the East program.

The CCA and local volunteers released a total of about 10,000 redfish at Flagler Beach on March 28, Princess Park Preserve on April 5 and just north of Marineland in St. Johns County on April 6.

CCA Florida Director Leiza Fitzgerald and a couple of other anglers caught big broodstock females in East Coast waters and brought them to the Duke Mariculture Center in Crystal River, where the offspring were raised.

The CCA plans to release about 100,000 redfish between 4 and 8 inches in length in the Release the East program.

On the first release day in Flagler County, Fitzgerald said, the “fish were being released where they’re safe, where there’s food and there is ability for them to survive.”

Redfish grow about a half inch in length a month. Gleichmann said fishermen are seeing the results of last year’s release of 100,000 2.5-inch redfish raised at the UF Whitney Laboratory from local broodstock.

Each of the local CCA releases consisted of about 3,500 redfish. The fish were transported in large tanks on a flatbed trailer. Volunteers scooped the fish out of the tanks with fish nets, transferred them to bags and carried them to the water or formed a fire line, handing the bags off.

All three releases were supposed to be on the same day, but they ran into several problems, Gleichmann said, causing delays.

We had so many great volunteers. They redid their schedules through two or three delays. They stuck it out to the end. No one canceled. We couldn’t have done it without those people. — CHUCK GLEICHMANN

“There were a lot of moving parts,” he said. “One day there was not enough sun, and we couldn’t find the fish in the tanks to scoop them out. But we had so many great volunteers. They redid their schedules through two or three delays. They stuck it out to the end. No one canceled. We couldn’t have done it without those people.”

The legal size for harvesting redfish is 18 to 27 inches. Gleichmann said some of the larger fish in the CCA releases will be big enough to keep next year.

“I’m absolutely thrilled,” he said. “The only way we can improve the fisheries is to add new fish.”