Harvest tags are commonly used to regulate hunting however their application in recreational fisheries is rare. Stocks of snapper in the inner gulfs of Shark Bay, Western Australia, support an important recreational boat-based fishery. Following research that showed all three stocks were depleted, stricter management was progressively introduced between 1998 and 2002. In 2003, a Total Allowable Catch (TAC) was set for each stock for the first time and different combinations of measures implemented to manage catches to the respective TACs. These included a novel harvest tag system in the Freycinet Estuary, where a limited number of tags were made available each year via a lottery based system, to limit the recreational catch within a TAC of 5 tonnes. The effectiveness of the harvest tags was evaluated, based on a series of phone interviews conducted with all tag recipients in each year over three consecutive years (2011-2013), in terms of capacity to limit the recreational catch, levels of compliance, and acceptance by recreational fishers. These surveys indicated that 76% of tag recipients fished for snapper in Freycinet Estuary, more than 50% thought that illegal fishing activity was not significant and importantly, more than 80% of those interviewed considered harvest tags to be an effective measure for managing the recreational snapper catch. This study provides important information for recreational fisheries managers elsewhere where harvest tags may have potential application with similar recreational fisheries that are based on highly vulnerable fish stocks.