Every angler has a fish story, which is why the state of Florida faces a real challenge in trying to manage snook.

The Marine Fisheries Commission recently held a snook summit to hear comments from anglers, guides and scientists about one of the state’s most popular game fish. Suggestions ranged from leaving snook regulations alone to severely tightening them.

The chief concerns are that the snook population is declining on the Atlantic coast and anglers are not catching as many big snook as they used to on the Gulf Coast.

The reasons given for those declines are as different as the anglers who fish for snook. Some say there are genetic differences between Atlantic and Gulf Coast snook. Some blame the diminishing habitat. Some blame the freeze of 1989, which killed thousands of temperature-sensitive snook on the Gulf Coast. Some say the problem is size limits. And some say the problem is anglers who do not obey size limits.

Among the recommendations were reducing the daily bag limit from two fish to one and fiddling with the slot limit. Currently, snook must be a minimum of 24 inches, and anglers can keep one snook over 34 inches. Some would like a higher minimum size and some would like a lower maximum size.

The problem, according to fisheries biologists, is that simply changing size limits could have severe consequences for the species. For example, raising the minimum size to 28 inches would probably mean not as many snook would get kept, since a lot of 26-inch fish would have to be released. That’s good. But it probably also would mean that more big snook get killed. Release several 26-inchers in a day, and then catch a 32-incher, and that 32-incher is going in the cooler. Not good.

Another consideration is that big snook, while fun to catch, are not necessarily the most productive breeders. Female snook mature sexually at 20-28 inches. Females will then spawn for four to seven years. When females reach 34 or more inches, they might spawn only two or three more years before dying.

Making the maximum size limit 30 inches, in an effort to protect big snook, could end up hurting the overall snook population. Fishing pressure would increase on 24- to 28-inch female snook, which are the prime breeders. The result would be more big snook, fewer keeper snook and fewer snook overall.

The staff of the Marine Fisheries Commission must now sort through all the comments and try to figure out what is best for snook and snook anglers.

The Game and Fresh Water Fish Commission surveyed anglers before imposing new bass limits five years ago. Anglers were given the option of catching lots of little bass, a fair number of 3- to 5-pound bass or a few 8-pound and bigger bass. The majority of anglers chose the middle option, and size limits to achieve that goal were created.

The difference between bass and snook is that most bass are released. Not so with snook, which are prized table fare. As one South Florida fishing guide told me, anglers’ appetites for snook are what need to be modified.

“I’ll tell you what the problem is,” he said. “Guides on the west coast kill too many damn snook.”

According to my friend, Gulf Coast guides tend to keep every snook that they and their customers are entitled to. That’s six snook for a guide and two anglers and that adds up during the course of the snook season. In contrast, my friend told me he had killed only three snook this year.

If that is the problem, then reducing the snook bag limit to one a day makes a lot of sense.

The MFC will consider the issue further at its December public meeting in Hollywood. If you have a snook solution, contact the MFC at 904-487-0554 or attend the meeting.

Steve Waters’ outdoors column appears Sundays.