Bully Netting Regulations: Licenses, Gear, and Bag Limits

Bully netting regulations in Florida cover five things: licensing, gear, season timing, size and bag limits, and closed areas. Recreational harvesters need a Florida saltwater fishing license and a $5 spiny lobster permit. Commercial harvesters need a saltwater products license with a restricted species endorsement plus a dedicated bully net permit. The net itself cannot exceed three feet across the hoop, you must carry a measuring gauge, and the regular season runs August 6 through March 31. Bully netting is prohibited during the two-day July sport season and inside Everglades National Park.

Licenses and Permits You Need

Recreational bully netters need two documents on the water: a Florida saltwater fishing license and a separate spiny lobster permit.¹ The resident annual saltwater license costs $17, the non-resident annual license costs $47, and the lobster permit adds $5 per year. Residents can buy a five-year lobster permit for $25.² Both are sold through the FWC website and at authorized retailers such as bait shops and sporting goods stores.

Florida residents 65 and older, active military, and certain other groups may qualify for free or reduced licenses, but the lobster permit requirement still applies.

Selling your catch triggers a different set of requirements. A commercial bully net harvester must hold a saltwater products license with a restricted species endorsement and a commercial bully net permit.³ The individual resident saltwater products license fee starts at $50, with non-resident and vessel-based licenses costing more.⁴ Failing to carry the proper documents can result in citations, seizure of your catch, or both.

Gear Rules

The hoop cannot exceed three feet in diameter at its widest point, and the net cannot be made of monofilament. Handle length is up to you. Any other type of net or trawl aimed directly at spiny lobster is prohibited, with narrow exceptions for hoop nets up to 10 feet in diameter and hand-held landing or dip nets.⁵

You must carry a measuring device at all times while harvesting lobster.¹ This is not optional, and officers will check. Not having a gauge is a citable offense even when every lobster in the cooler is legal size. Rigid metal or plastic gauges built specifically for spiny lobster are sold at tackle shops throughout the Keys and the coast.

Commercial Vessel Marking

Commercial bully net harvesters must permanently display their commercial bully net permit number on both the port and starboard sides of the vessel. The numerals must be at least four inches tall and made of opaque retroreflective paint or material so they show up at night.⁶ Taped or tied-on numbers do not meet the standard. Recreational bully netters do not need any special markings beyond standard Florida boat registration numbers.

When You Can Bully Net

The regular spiny lobster season runs from August 6 through March 31 of the following year.¹ Bully netting is allowed in authorized areas throughout that window.

Florida also holds a two-day recreational sport season on the last consecutive Wednesday and Thursday of July each year. In 2026, those dates are July 29 and 30.¹ Bully netting is not allowed during the sport season. The ban keeps nighttime light-and-net harvesters out of the water while large numbers of divers and snorkelers are working the same areas. It is one of the most commonly misunderstood rules, and enforcement is heavy during those two days.

Size Limit and Measuring

Every lobster you keep must have a carapace length greater than three inches.¹ The carapace is the hard shell covering the body. You measure along the midline of the back, starting at the front edge of the groove between the two horns above the eyes and running straight back to the rear edge of the shell. Any translucent membrane at the back edge does not count.⁷

Measurement must happen in the water. If a lobster is undersized, release it right there without bringing it into the boat. For bully netters working from the vessel, keeping a gauge within reach at the gunwale is the practical standard.⁷

Bag Limit and Handling

Recreational harvesters are limited to six lobsters per person per day during the regular season.¹ You cannot combine that limit with any federal-waters bag limit to effectively double your take.⁸

Inspect every lobster before it goes in the catch. Taking egg-bearing females of any lobster species in the families Palinuridae, Scyllaridae, or Synaxidae is prohibited, and stripping eggs from a female to make her appear legal is a separate violation with enhanced penalties. All recreationally harvested lobster must stay whole while on the water. You cannot separate the tail from the body until you are on land.¹

Where You Cannot Bully Net

Not every stretch of Florida water is open. Everglades National Park, including Florida Bay, prohibits possession of bully nets and hoop nets outright.⁹ You do not have to be actively fishing. Simply having the net aboard your vessel in those waters is enough for a citation.

Parts of Monroe County carry additional local restrictions that protect reef and seagrass habitats inside the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. Lobster harvest is also prohibited at John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park during the sport season. Check the FWC’s online zone maps before heading out, especially near sanctuary boundaries. The lines are not always obvious from the water, and GPS coordinates for restricted zones are published in the FWC regulations guide.

Penalties

Florida does not treat lobster violations as minor paperwork issues. Penalties escalate quickly with repeat offenses and scale up with the number of illegal lobster involved.

Closed-Season and Wrung-Tail Violations

A first offense for harvesting during the closed season or possessing separated lobster tails is a second-degree misdemeanor, carrying up to 60 days in jail and a $500 fine.¹⁰¹¹ If that first offense involves 25 or more lobster, it rises to a first-degree misdemeanor with up to one year in jail and a $1,000 fine.¹²

A second violation is automatically a first-degree misdemeanor, and FWC can suspend your license privileges for up to 90 days. A third violation carries a mandatory minimum of six months in jail, a civil penalty of up to $2,500, and a possible license suspension of up to six months. A third violation within one year of the second becomes a third-degree felony with a mandatory minimum of one year in prison, a $5,000 civil penalty, and permanent revocation of all fishing license privileges.¹⁰

Undersized Lobster Violations

Possessing undersized lobster starts as a second-degree misdemeanor for a first offense and becomes a first-degree misdemeanor on a second or subsequent offense. The numbers change the calculus: possessing 100 or more undersized lobsters is a third-degree felony with a mandatory civil fine of at least $500, an administrative penalty of up to $2,000, and a possible 12-month license suspension.¹⁰

For violations involving more than 100 illegal spiny lobster, Florida adds a penalty of $10 per lobster on top of other fines. Commercial harvesters convicted of a major violation must show the court why their license should not be suspended or permanently revoked.¹⁰

Commercial Reporting

Commercial harvesters who sell their catch must report every transaction on a Marine Fisheries Trip Ticket at the time of sale. Trip tickets include the harvester’s identity, the purchasing dealer, transaction date, landing county, area fished, gear used, time fished, and pounds or number of each species landed per trip. Reporting is submitted electronically through the free VESL application on a Sunday-through-Saturday weekly cycle, with a three-day submission deadline after each period ends. If you catch lobster but do not sell it, keeping it for personal use or donating it still requires reporting on the Commercial Harvester-Reported Landings form.¹³

Navigation Lights at Night

Bully netting happens entirely at night, so vessel lighting carries more weight than it does for daytime fishing. The high-powered spotlights used to scan the seafloor can wash out your navigation lights or blind other boaters. Under Coast Guard rules, any additional lighting on a vessel must not be mistaken for a navigation light, must not impair the visibility of required lights, and must not interfere with the operator’s lookout.¹⁴

A non-trawling fishing vessel making way must display sidelights and a sternlight along with two all-round lights in a vertical line, upper red and lower white.¹⁵ Most bully netters work shallow flats with little heavy traffic, but the lighting rules apply the same way. Running without proper navigation lights is both a safety hazard and a citable offense separate from any fishing violation.

1
Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. Spiny Lobster
2
Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. Saltwater Recreational Licenses and Permits
3
Legal Information Institute. Florida Administrative Code 68B-24.002 – Definitions
4
Florida Senate. Florida Statutes Chapter 379 Section 361
5
Florida State University. Florida Administrative Code Chapter 68B-24 – Spiny Lobster and Slipper Lobster
6
Legal Information Institute. Florida Administrative Code 68B-24.006 – Gear: Traps, Buoys
7
Legal Information Institute. Florida Administrative Code 68B-24.003 – Minimum Size Limits
8
eCFR. 50 CFR Part 622 Subpart R – Spiny Lobster Fishery of the Gulf of Mexico and South Atlantic
9
Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. Regulations for Recreational Harvest and Lobster Information for Monroe County, Florida
10
Florida Senate. Florida Statutes Chapter 379 Section 407
11
Florida Senate. Florida Statutes Chapter 775 Section 082
12
Florida Senate. Florida Statutes Chapter 775 Section 083
13
Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. Commercial Wholesale and Retail Dealers
14
United States Coast Guard. Marine Safety Alert 10-15 – Navigation Lights
15
United States Coast Guard Navigation Center. Navigation Rules – Rules 20-31