Overfishing Vs. Underfishing
 

All the talk over the possible east side limits have got me thinking.

What's worse for big trout, overfishing or underfishing?

On the overfishing side, too many fish are being taken out of the reproductive pool, resulting in a reduction of fish at all age groups. Even though there's plenty of food, the big trout suffer because they never have a chance to reach that size before they are eventually caught.

On the underfishing side, too many fish are in the population. No matter how much food is available, the trout have more competition for food and spend more energy finding sustainable nutrition rather than growing to big trout status.

Back when there were no limits on trout, how many "big" trout were being caught? Then after each sequential regulation reducing the catch?

What's everyone's thoughts on this?

The Grand Isle/Leeville area has so many small Trout, inside.
There are some nice ones on the beaches, but the inside sucks during the summer.
We catch undersized Trout all year long. Even in the Fall, we were only keeping about 25% of what we caught, in Barataria Bay.

#1 and only answer


It depends on the Estuary you are fishing ! Pick one and we can talk

Lets consider the east side, since it was part of the original discussion.

From what I read, see, and hear most of the east side areas all have multiple access to the gulf in wide open areas with exception Lake P .
I don't think there is a trout population problem at all on the east side, especially that much open access to the gulf.
One thing I have read is the east side has never been know for " trophy trout fishing " I know there is a few spots that hold large trout like Lake P and Venice but you always see numbers of trout coming out of these areas . When you have thousands of smaller trout , its hard to pin point your larger trout I'm sure .

Here is a interesting fact from our side : Back when gill nets were being run in big lake they caught loads of huge trout every day . And I know today even with the extra people fishing, we do not take out more trout a year as when they were gill netting and fishing !

I will stick to my saying , you will never fish out trout with rod n reel

I don't think the area is entirely void of big trout.

Over here in Lafitte, the vast majority of the big trout are caught on the outside beaches around Fourchon and towards Empire. I think they just don't migrate inside. A 2-3 pound trout on the inside is a monster for us.

Is it over fishing or too much competition, it's hard to say. There seems to be no shortage of 13" trout, but rarely anything over 18".

IMO ... Smaller trout are faster and get to bait quicker and you have millions of them ... Bigger trout move offshore or beaches for easy food access instead of fighting lighting fast schoolies

West side just has more "trophy" fishermen , east side has meat fishermen. There are plenty big trout in all areas of the east side. Just have to get off the beaten path . I'm a strong believer that the majority of bigger trout ( except lake p) don't move inside for the winter . They stay in:work:the rigs and barrier islands. I catch good trout at the islands year round

The way I explain to people why 11" trout are so ferocious, is that they are like horny little high school boys. When they get all riled up, they lose their minds, chase everything in sight and are easier to catch. They don't have their heads screwed on straight!

I believe the more mature trout tend to stay back and pick off other easier meals. I guess it comes with experience.

"Hey dad look at all those hot chicks down there lets run down the n screw one"
" no son.....lets walk down there n screw em all" :D

Ayo

I can agree with this, the reason people fish on the inside during winter is because a lot of the trash fish move out and they don't have to go so far out to catch, were catchin for meat not trophies. plus the effort to catch inshore is very little in winter and fall, were catching in shallow water with plastics, it takes more skill to go out and fish the rigs that can be twice as deep or even three times as deep as fishing inshore.

People can't wait to NOT spend 150 bucks a trip on gas to the deep rigs. That and NOT beating the crap out of their boat getting to the deep rigs. And NOT riding an hour to the deep rigs in the (relative) cold. It goes on and on.

But mainly it's because most people don't think they're there.

Steve Shook catches 'trophies' every year at Grand Isle/Fourchon, he caught a 10 lb. this summer. They are there, but they are not hanging around the 11 3/4 in school trout that are eating live shrimp under a popping cork, so not going to be caught by the average weekend fisherman that is wanting to just fill the box

We used to fish with him and he had lots of big trout on the walls of his cabins, I don't think the cabins are there any more? He was a tournament fisherman (might still be?) and he would try certain areas and when we caught a couple nice trout, he would move to another spot and put us on the school trout to fill the box. Took us a while to figure it out, but he was scouting with us, which didn't matter because we just wanted to catch fish to bring home. He liked to use live pogies rather than shrimp. That was part of the fun was going out in the bay to find the pogies and catch them.

I know also for a fact huge trout stay offshore , I was in Galveston a few years back going offshore to an Exxon deepwater platform . I was talking to some divers at the heliport and they just came off a job right off the beach by sabine. He said you should of seen the huge speckle trout sitting inside the platform. He said the would sit with noise pinned to legs down stream current all day . I ask how big did he think they were. He said about 5 were over 30inchs and if he had to guess weight 8-10lbers .

And these trout could never be caught with rod n reel ...

That was one rig. What time of year? Summer? A platform by the beach is technically 'offshore', but not really far offshore.

When people think big trout, they think winter/spring time and shallow water inside. If there was a tournament this weekend, I would think the majority of people would be inside and in relatively shallow water and not at a platform.

This would of been in sept. If I remember right and they said platform was 3 miles out in 25ft of water

I usta work at Sabine 10/40 and caught plenty of nice sized Trouts in the Summer.
But it was only when the water was clean. When it was brown, no Trouts.

not trying to stir, but what is the point?:rotfl:

There were a bunch of big trout at a shallow rig in the GOM in Texas in September? That is probably true at many shallow rigs in Louisiana too.

That's what' I'm saying big trout stay offshore where food is easy and no reason to leave or come inland