The scales at Mavi Waterfront have been sitting idle since spring, and David Berg is ready to put them back to work. The sixth annual Oh Snap! Red Snapper Fishing Tournament runs Oct. 15-18 at Mavi Waterfront, 2309 Beach Blvd. in Jacksonville Beach, after a season that spent months tangled up in a courtroom and then got shoved around by a storm.
The trouble started in May, when a federal court halted recreational red snapper fishing under exempted fishing permits in the South Atlantic. The ruling came down one day before Florida's newly extended season was set to begin. Gov. Ron DeSantis called the timing "disrespectful" and a "bad decision." The order shut down EFP activity in federal waters.
The shutdown rippled well past the boats. "Tackle shops purchased bait; they lost a lot of money," Berg, the tournament's director, said as the season finally reopened in October. A tournament built around a fish nobody was allowed to keep had nothing to weigh.
When the season did come back, it came back in two forms. A three-day federal season ran Oct. 9-11, and a 14-day Exempted Fishing Permit season ran Oct. 9-22. Anglers may fish one or the other, not both, and the rules are tight: one fish per person per day, no minimum size limit, and a copy of the EFP must be aboard while on the water. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission has been urging participants to read up before leaving the dock.
Then the weather took its turn. Storms and flooding rolled through the Jacksonville area during opening week, and Berg made the call to push the tournament back a weekend rather than send a fleet out into slop. "We had to postpone our tournament to the following weekend because the conditions were too rough to host a tournament," he said. His advice to anyone heading out regardless was blunt: "The risk versus the reward. Be cautious if you do go out and you want to take advantage of opening season. We recommend just be safe."
The event that emerged on the other side of all that is not a small dock gathering. Oh Snap! bills itself as Northeast Florida's premier red snapper tournament, and the payout sheet backs it up: $10,000 and a trophy for first, $3,000 for second, $2,500 for third, sliding down to $250 for tenth. There is a Lady Angler's Division paying $1,000 to the top fish, and a Strike Zone Jr. Angler's Division that awards gift cards to young fishermen. Calcuttas for a Cause add side pots for biggest red snapper, smallest red snapper, and a two-fish aggregate, with 10 percent of each pool going to K9s For Warriors, the nonprofit that pairs service dogs with veterans. All advertised payouts are contingent on at least 100 paid boat entries.
The tournament has been a charity operation since it began. The first Oh Snap! was held in 2021, and by the second annual edition in July 2022 the proceeds were going to Dreams Come True and the Jacksonville School for Autism. That year, boats could launch anywhere from Fernandina Beach down to St. Augustine, with weigh-ins at the Joe Carlucci Sisters Creek Boat Ramp and the awards back at Mavi. The format has tightened since -- this year the scales are open all week, Tuesday, Oct. 13 through Saturday, Oct. 17, and teams declare a single fishing day in advance -- but the charitable frame has held.
What has not held is the calendar. The tournament has been reshaped repeatedly by a red snapper season that federal regulators have kept on a short leash. In 2024, the South Atlantic season was a single day; by 2025 it had stretched to two, and the tournament expanded to match, running Friday and Saturday that July. This year's 39-day recreational season, announced by DeSantis in Fernandina Beach in May after NOAA approval, was supposed to be the longest in years -- until the injunction cut it short and the weather cut it shorter.
So the 2026 edition arrives in October rather than summer, on a schedule that looks nothing like the one printed months ago. The captain's meeting runs 5-8 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 15, at Mavi, and it doubles as the last chance to register; teams planning to fish before then must arrange check-in with the tournament director in advance. Registration stays open until 10 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 17, and at least one member of every team must attend the captain's meeting. The official weigh-in runs 1-5 p.m. Saturday on the Mavi dock and boardwalk, and the awards ceremony and raffle close things out 2-4 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 18.
For anyone who just wants to watch, the Saturday weigh-in is the draw. Big red snapper come off the boat in the twenty-pound range -- the 2024 winner, Brian Dutcher's ShowOut, weighed 24.02 pounds -- and the dock at Mavi is open to spectators as the fish hit the scale. Berg, for his part, is keeping it simple after a season of setbacks. "Let's have some fun," he said. "Tournament is next week. $10,000 for the biggest fish."