15 Trout Limit Discussion PUBLIC

[jdm4x43732]

what ever it is, let's hear it........

[jdm4x43732]

Beginning June 20, anglers fishing the Louisiana waters of Sabine Lake and the Calcasieu Lake bay system south of Lake Charles will be limited to taking no more than 15 speckled trout per day, down 10 fish from Louisiana's current statewide 25-trout daily limit.
The trout limit cut was adopted by a 4-3 vote of the Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Commission at that group's June 1 meeting.
The close commission vote underscored the contentiousness of the move affecting coastal waters, which over the past decade have become increasingly popular destinations of Texas anglers.
That increasing fishing pressure on Calcasieu and, to a lesser extent, Sabine Lake triggered concerns by some Louisiana anglers that the speckled trout population faced overharvest and needed additional protection.
Earlier this decade, concern over anglers, particularly Texas anglers, catching and retaining many large speckled trout from the Calcasieu Lake system generated a move to restrict harvest of those large trout.
The LWF Commission imposed a rule limiting anglers fishing Louisiana waters in the Calcasieu and Sabine systems and the corresponding offshore waters under Louisiana jurisdiction to retaining no more than two speckled trout measuring 25 inches or more.
The move to cut the daily bag limit from 25 specks to 15 was pushed by a coalition including the Louisiana chapter of the Coastal Conservation Association and some of the fishing guides and outfitters operating on Calcasieu Lake.
In January, when the proposal to reduce the trout bag limit in the Calcasieu and Sabine systems was officially proposed, the Louisiana CCA issued a "position paper" on the issue.
The organization said a survey of its 30,000 members indicated 85 percent who regularly fished Calcasieu Lake and 76 percent of all members supported the bag limit reduction in the southwest corner of the state.
During the LWF Commis-
sion meeting, Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries coastal fisheries staff told the group the agency's biological data indicates speckled trout fisheries in the bay systems were healthy and said reducing the bag limit would not guarantee increased trout populations in the affected areas.
Those opposed to the bag limit reduction said the fisheries staff's assessment showed the move was not scientifically justified and should not be imposed.