what y'all make of this?

[MathGeek]

Three of Louisiana's all time top ten speckled trout were caught in Big Lake between 1997 and 2004 (before the limit change from 15 to 25).

The limit change was based on the idea that preserving more younger trout would lead to more trout reaching older ages thus producing more trophy trout.

It did not work. Big Lake has not had a single additional entry into Louisiana's top ten specks since the limit change in 2005. Most tournaments and guides also report fewer trophy trout since 2005.

Having good numbers of 4, 5, and 6 year old specks is no guarantee of a trophy fishery. Those fish need to be growing fast enough to reach 22" total length by age 4. This will put them into a length class big enough to eat dinks to both control the population of younger fish (so younger fish grow fast) and to maintain high growth rates over their 5th and 6th winters when smaller forage becomes less abundant.