Quote:
Originally Posted by "W"
Trout limits in La should be like this
25 trout -12inch min
5- reds -14inch min 1 over 27 per day
10 flounder 10inch Mim
Black drum . 14inch no limit
Sheephead -no limit or size
White trout - no limit or size
Sailcats -$5 bounty for every one killed
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These are limits I can get behind, but who's gonna pay for the sailcat bounty? CCA? I doubt it. It would be good use of CCA funds though.
Sailcats are fine eating, and I'd just as soon have a bunch of bags of sailcat fillets in the freezer as channels or blues.
The harm sailcats do is how strongly they compete with specks and reds for available forage, and that they are good enough predators to prey on pretty good numbers of age zero specks and reds.
Look at the mouth size and basic design of a sailcat. It's a efficient piscivore (fish eater) much more like a flathead than like a channel catfish. When behthic resources are depleted (as they are with the oyster reef destruction), sailcats transition to higher in the water column and feed on whatever fish they can fit into their mouths. So, if you release them, I recommend euthanizing them first and releasing them to feed the crabs rather than letting them live to continue competing with adult sport species and preying on age zero redfish and specks.