Biologist sums up trout expectations for 2010
 

“Average to a little bit below,” Harry Blanchet said. “Since Hurricane Katrina, we have been catching trout in phenomenal numbers.
“Before Katrina, the maximum harvest was in 2000, with 9.6 million fish weighing 11.3 million pounds. These pale when compared to 2006 when we caught over 13.2 million trout weighing over 14.3 million pounds.”
Average to a little below average didn’t look so bad anymore considering the hauls of recent years. A peek at the numbers showed that from 2001 through 2004, Louisiana anglers took an average of 8.0 million pounds of specks each year.
This compared to an average annual harvest of nearly 12.1 million pounds of trout in the years 2006 through 2008.
Louisiana Sportsman pressed Blanchet to estimate 2009 spotted seatrout landings, even though a portion of the data is still incomplete. After accepting his strong cautions that any number he produced would not be the final number and only be for perspective, he agreed to do some extrapolations from previous years’ data to fill in for the missing data.
His estimated 2009 speckled trout harvest numbers were “about 9.8 to 10.5 million pounds.” That isn’t shabby, considering that even the lower number was only exceeded once (in 2000) in the 24 years prior to Hurricane Katrina.
But the discussion couldn’t end without a teaching moment by the biologist. It was about habitat.
“Reds and specks depend heavily on small, quiet estuarine ponds and lakes in their early life history,” he said. “As we lose them [because of coastal wetland loss], we will lose our ability to sustain the stock at the levels they are now.”

hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

And WHY IS HURRICANE Katina the center of Hurricanes??????? I mean ***? We had Rita which was a major hurricane and effected 90% of working Class people

Katrina Effected about 2% Working class.......This pisses me off when all you here is Katrina.......You know what I think about katrina... YOUR AZZ Lived in a damn soup bowl and you stayed...........Pissing off...........Sick of Hearing about a damn Hurricane that Happened 5 years ago....MOVE ON

"Sick of Hearing about a damn Hurricane that Happened 5 years ago....MOVE ON "

:rotfl: I agree! Tired of politicians talking about Rita/Katrina effect as an excuse for ****e.

But on the flip side. Both storms severely impacted our wetlands and you are now seeing this affect the trout populations. Storms....Short term helped fishing. Long term hurt it.

2005 article by LAS.....
 

By Todd Masson

July 1, 2005

When was the last time you caught a limit of speckled trout? Think about it. When was the last time you and your buddies pulled slime-coated, contorted trout, one by one, from the ice chest, counted them and then picked up your rods to catch the number remaining?

Guides, many of whom are on the water 200 or more days a year, probably caught too many limits over the last year to count, but few weekend anglers, I’m certain, came anywhere close to equaling that level of success.
I include myself in that number. I fish probably a fair amount more than the average angler, and I could count on one hand the number of limits I caught over the last year.
That wasn’t the case 10 years ago. Back then, I truly expected to catch a limit every time I went fishing. Things didn’t always work out. Sometimes the wind blew too strong or the tide didn’t move, and I went home with fewer than 25 fish per person. But more times than not, I quit fishing not because I was tired of it but because I couldn’t legally harvest any more.

Now, my expectations are to catch less than a limit. If a buddy and I return with 25 or 30 fish, I’m thrilled. Fifteen or 20, and I’m satisfied.

Ten years ago, I would have kicked the dog if I got home with only 15 or 20.
So what’s changed?

According to Horst, there are a number of factors, probably the greatest of which is fishing pressure, and that means that Louisiana will soon have to lower its trout limits, which are the most generous in the country.
“If the economy continues to boom, and boat dealers continue to sell so many boats, and we continue to add rod pressure, we’re very soon going to reach the stage where the resource will be below the SPR threshold,” he said.
The acceptable minimum limit for trout SPR in Louisiana is 18. That means that Louisiana’s fishery could remain healthy with 18 percent of spawning-age trout compared to an unfished stock.
The most-recent stock assessment, according to DWF’s Harry Blanchet, places Louisiana’s trout SPR at 15. That’s a full three percentage points below the conservation standard.
If trout SPR doesn’t rebound in the coming years, the Wildlife and Fisheries Commission will be forced to lower the creel limits on speckled trout, and according to Horst, the reduction won’t be subtle.
“It will be a seismic jolt,” he said. “We’re not talking about a minimum drop. You need to do something that’s impactful.”
Not only is increased fishing pressure to blame, but so is the rapid erosion of the Louisiana marsh. Like an economy being bolstered by borrowed money, the speckled trout fishery has been fed by the degradation of the ecosystem.
“As the marsh erodes, it’s like fertilizer entering the system,” Horst said.
But as the marsh vanishes and, consequently, the erosion slows, the system collapses.
“There’s not a scientist alive,” Horst said, “who doesn’t think we’re going to experience a dramatic decline in productivity in Louisiana’s marshes in the very near future.”

How do they predict how many lbs. of trout are caught a year?

I don't know. Thats a great question. I know they haven't asked any guides in SWLA nor have they set up any fact finding events at the public boat launches.

Feed back from guides .......but I wonder how close they are to the real number.....but when you talking in Millions Im sure you can be way off.

Take what I catch and keep a year....Im not no where the greatest fisherman but I do have above normal success. I would say out of a 100 trips I limit 60-70 of them. Taking the circumstance....

A guide fishes 230 days a year and I would think on big lake take no less that 40 trout per trip adv.

numbers/limits are going to drop as our marshes are washed away

**** and go play Nintendo...........:shaking:

ive seen biologists measuring fish and counting down in Dularge before

awesome! - lmao

He's right weather you want to believe it or not.
I had a great time talking to one of the scientest that studies coastal errosion and we both had the same thoughts .
Louisiana may have waited to long to really do anything about our loss of wet lands.
The only thing that would REALLY help would be to wipe out all the levees below New orleans and let the river build up marsh.
The ammount of trout we have is in direct correlation w/ the ammount of marsh (nursery grounds ) we have.
As the marsh erodes it makes the water more fertile for the trout spawn.
But at some point the ammount of marsh we lose will affect the trout population negativly.
Don't know how to make them pretty graphs but if you draw a diagonal X ,
the top left is marsh errosion. The bottom left is trout recruitment .
marsh erodes ,trout population goes up
all of a sudden at a certian point in the process the flip occurs
instead of marsh errosion helping it now becomes the problem .
now the top right is marsh errosion and the bottom right is the decline
in our trout stocks. Need more evidence look at florida and texas.

[QUOTE=eman;134642]He's right weather you want to believe it or not.
I had a great time talking to one of the scientest that studies coastal errosion and we both had the same thoughts .
Louisiana may have waited to long to really do anything about our loss of wet lands.
The only thing that would REALLY help would be to wipe out all the levees below New orleans and let the river build up marsh.
The ammount of trout we have is in direct correlation w/ the ammount of marsh (nursery grounds ) we have.
As the marsh erodes it makes the water more fertile for the trout spawn.
But at some point the ammount of marsh we lose will affect the trout population negativly.
Don't know how to make them pretty graphs but if you draw a diagonal X ,
the top left is marsh errosion. The bottom left is trout recruitment .
marsh erodes ,trout population goes up
all of a sudden at a certian point in the process the flip occurs
instead of marsh errosion helping it now becomes the problem .
now the top right is marsh errosion and the bottom right is the decline
in our trout stocks. Need more evidence look at florida and texas.[/QUOTE]


Im not from New Orleans and Hurrican katrina only cost me Tax Money and Insurance so I really dont care about that area. That is for the guys who fish it to protect.

Our area has took hits from Rita(Never Happen Hurricane) and IKE( When was IKE) ......

our estuary is healty

yeah and you also have a 15 trout limit while the rest of the state has 25....i wonder why?

Re
 

I've seen em down at BSM and i've done the "survey"
they ask how Many fish, measure the biggest, and thank you.
For every 50 boats 1 gets "surveyed"
not exactly what I would call accurate.

As far as askin guides .... Hmmmm.
That's pretty useless. It would take 1000 average fisherman to catch the same number of trout 1 guide catches in the same year.

I just don't see how they ever gonna come close to the true numbers. I know it's all an estimate... But it seems pointless.

We do need to keep track of trout harvest , but the current method ain't nearly accurate enough. IMHO.

Re
 

15 fish limit is to keep the numbers up and maintain bigger trout. Has nothing to do with the availablity of trout in the area. It's all about conservation and management.

Our trout limit was lowered to 15 due to politics and greed...Not one slice. Of evidence was proved to support this limit lowering

:*****::*****:, thats not very nice ''W''

I am good with 15. I just catch to eat. If'n I get a big one, it won't make me unhappy either.