February 27, 2017 — Changes are afoot with a bill that has designs on changing limits for South Carolina’s population of flounder.

Bill H 3665 in its original form was set to increase the minimum size limit for flounder from the current 14 inches to 15 inches in Palmetto State waters.

But on Wednesday in the house’s Agriculture, Natural Resources and Environmental Affairs Committee, reductions to the daily bag limit were added to the bill. The current limits are 15 per person per day with a boat limit of 30 per day.

The bill now includes reducing the bag limits to 10 per person with a boat limit of 20 per boat per day, along with the one-inch increase in minimum size limit.

Rep. Lee Hewitt, R-Georgetown, a member of the Agriculture, Natural Resources and Environmental Affairs Committee and co-signer of the legislation, said feedback from anglers fueled the addition of bag limit reduction to the bill.

Hewitt has heard from flounder fishermen in the Little River area who are concerned with anglers from North Carolina fishing South Carolina waters to take advantage of the more lenient limits. North Carolina currently has a daily bag limit of six flounder per person and a minimum size limit of 15 inches.