Another Reason to Boycott S.T.A.R.: Tripletail regulations passed

[Ratdog]

It's like a speed trap.
They want more pay .......someone is getting a raise or some new swat threads .
Might be buying bullets like the mail man.
Whatever it is they will use it as a last resort to fine y'all.
It's like a big boat stops for reds and goes to fed water with said red then gets fined. It's a trap like taxation without rep.

This crap is getting way out of hand and out of touch with reality.

This is all messed up.

["W"]

Originally Posted by meaux fishing

how come the regulations dont show up on the LDWF website is what Im wondering?

Pass it like the health care bill, I'm sure it works the same way!!

[Spunt Drag]

I'm ****in done wit em

[Ratdog]

What gets me is I might be blind but I see nothing good come from fines payed just better boats more flack jackets and basically more armor and weapons . Nothing is going to take care of the big problems just to support the ability to rake in more money and distribut it for inforcement.seems the LWF have become militarized . I guess the turit mounts are going to be bought soon.

[Spunt Drag]

Draconian

[Spunt Drag]

Sound science

[Natural Light Kid]

Originally Posted by Goooh

Click that link and find the fella with Lake Charles by his name

Was just curiously W would actually call him out by name. I don't have a dog in this particular hunt but I've heard a person and a guide service get called out but their names weren't mentioned. If you want to call someone out, go ahead and call em out like a big boy. Don't imply it.

["W"]

Originally Posted by Natural Light Kid

Was just curiously W would actually call him out by name. I don't have a dog in this particular hunt but I've heard a person and a guide service get called out but their names weren't mentioned. If you want to call someone out, go ahead and call em out like a big boy. Don't imply it.

Here you go;

Several anglers contacted Henry Mouton, a member of the Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Commission from Lafayette, La., asking him to submit a regulation reducing the trout limit in the Calcasieu Estuary south of Lake Charles, La.

Mouton said he may submit a recommendation to the LWFC in July 2005 after he heard what the members of the Lake Charles chapter of the Coastal Conservation Association wanted to do. The members debated several options, including reducing the limit to 15, 12 or 10 specks per day.

“I can remember counting fish by the number of 150-quart ice chests we filled,” Mouton said. “Now, if we can fill half an ice chest, we’ve had a great day. I think we need to take a hard look at this. Let’s do something on the proactive mode. If we leave more fish in the water, we’ll produce more fish. That can’t be bad.”

If the resolution passes, it will probably apply only from the Mermentau River to the Texas state line. However, it could extend to other parts of the state in the future. Mouton said that he heard from people in other parts of the state who also want to reduce the limit.

“Just a couple years ago, it was almost inconceivable to talk about reducing the trout limit in southeastern Louisiana,” he said. “Now, there’s more traction for a statewide reduction. If we do Calcasieu Lake now, it might take another year or two to do the rest of the state. The feedback that I’m hearing is running 100 to 1 in favor of reducing the limit.”

Biological observations

Biologists don’t see a problem with the trout population in Calcasieu Lake. They said that anglers might catch fewer specks because fish simply don’t bite occasionally or they move to find better food, temperatures or water conditions.

“The speckled trout population in the Calcasieu Estuary is healthy,” said Mike Harbison, a biologist with the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries in Lake Charles. “I don’t see a biological need to change the limit. We are finding fish in our sampling. If something is not broken, why fix it?”

Trout spawn from April through September with the peak in June, Harbison said. A speck reaches sexual maturity after one year. One large trout can produce 1.65 million eggs in a spawning season.

A trout may live 13 years, but most die before they live one year. More than 90 percent of trout die before they live four years. About four percent reach 25 inches long. One percent reaches 26 inches. Natural mortality from predators or other environmental factors take 66 percent of the trout regardless of fishing pressure. If the state banned fishing entirely, that percentage will not change, Harbison said.

“If we dropped the limit to 15 fish per day, we’ll only save about 14 percent of the fish caught now,” Harbison said. “If we go down to 10 fish per day, we’ll save about 29 percent of the fish now caught and kept. To make any significant changes, we’ll have to go to eight fish per day or less.”

Too much pressure

Human activity can certainly make fish more difficult to catch. Some people claim that the estuary produces the same amount of fish, but more anglers divide the pie into smaller pieces for each one.

Mary and Jeff Poe of Big Lake Guide Service support lowering the daily limit to 15, but only if the change occurs statewide. They feel that only reducing the limit in southwest Louisiana would send their customers eastward where they could still catch 25 trout per person.

“Jeff and I are opposed to any changes in the limits not recommended by the LDWF,” Mary said. “The department has trained professional fisheries biologists. We think that it would behoove everyone to listen to what they say. They say -- and we believe -- that Calcasieu Lake is very productive and will continue to be for many years.”

However, the Poes did acknowledge problems from too much pressure. As president of the Louisiana Charter Boat Association, Mary estimated that more than 100 licensed guides operate regularly in Calcasieu Lake. That does not include guides who legally come from Texas to fish in Louisiana or self-proclaimed, unlicensed guides who operate illegally. She said that about 30 to 40 licensed guides, more on weekends, fish Calcasieu Lake on any given day.

“The problem with Calcasieu Lake is not a lack of fish, but too much pressure,” Mary explained. “We’ve seen a large increase in the number of boats fishing the lake, both recreational and charter boats. The constant running of outboard motors scatters fish and closes their mouths. We’ve seen people fishing with live bait catch too many undersize fish without thinking of moving to find larger fish. We’ve seen an increase in night fishing from both boats and docks. The fish never get a rest.”

Trophy status

On the other side of Calcasieu Lake, Kirk Stansel of Hackberry Rod and Gun Club wants the lake granted “trophy status.” He also supports a 15-fish daily creel and wants to see the minimum size raised to 14 inches to give fish one more chance to spawn before hitting an ice chest.

“I’d like to see the lake declared ‘the trophy estuary of the Gulf Coast,’” he said. “Everyone wants to catch a limit of fish, but the majority of people who come here from other areas want to catch a big trout, not fill their freezers. If we lower the limit and the rest of the state keeps the 25-fish limit, that will hurt our business some, but if we lose our fish, we won’t have any business at all. If the lake is declared a trophy lake, that might even increase our clientele.”

Stansel said his club fishes about 10 boats per day, each with a guide and one to three anglers. They can expand to 20 boats if necessary. Their boats catch a three-person limit of 75 trout about three to five percent of the time or less.

Too many weirs

Besides fishing pressure, Stansel blames weirs blocking tributaries from entering Calcasieu Lake. Shrimp, crabs, baitfish, specks, redfish and other creatures grow up hiding among marsh reeds to avoid predators. Although “flap gates” allow some water and organisms to flow in and out of the marshes, weirs make such movement far more difficult.

“Weirs choked the life out of Calcasieu Lake,” he said. “Those tributaries feed this lake. More shrimp, crabs and baitfish used to flow in and out of those marshes. Block off those tributaries and that takes the bait out of the estuary. Trout need to eat.”

Technological advances

Technological advances also contribute to people finding and catching more fish. Now, most anglers carry cell phones or radios on their boats. If one person finds fish, he or she calls friends or fellow guides. Within minutes, a flotilla of boats may surround the school of fish.

With bigger boats, people can carry more equipment. Global positioning systems can pinpoint reefs. Giant outboard motors pushing boats in excess of 60 miles per hour allow people to reach any part of the estuary quickly.

More studies needed

Will Drost, an avid angler and Lake Charles businessman, supports lowering the limit to 15 trout per day. He actually prefers 10 per day, but believes more people would support a 15-fish limit. However, he wants to see more scientific studies conducted in the estuary.

“The Calcasieu Estuary is different from the rest of the state,” Drost said. “It should be managed differently. I believe that the data the state uses has become outdated. I don’t think the LDWF has the money to do a comprehensive study, but we don’t have the time to wait.”

What others want

In a survey conducted by Hackberry Rod and Gun Club, anglers voted overwhelmingly to reduce the trout limit. More than 84 percent of the respondents supported dropping the limit from 25 specks per day to 15 per day.

About 66 percent listed catching a 25-fish limit as “not very important” to them. About 85 percent supported raising the minimum size limit from 12 inches to 14 inches. Nearly 90 percent supported keeping only one trout per day over 25 inches instead of the two allowed now.

About 87 percent of the people from outside the area reported that changing the limit to 15 fish per day would not affect their desire to fish in Calcasieu Lake. About 88 percent also supported designating Calcasieu Lake as a “trophy” trout lake and supported managing the lake for bigger fish.

About 67 percent of the people who responded to the HRGC survey lived in Texas. In a survey I conducted of some Louisiana anglers, the results mirrored the other survey. The overwhelming majority supported dropping the daily creel to at least 15 trout with some people preferring a 10-fish limit.

Here are some random comments from my survey:

- “I almost never catch my limit. If I did, I probably wouldn’t keep 25 fish because that is too many to eat. I want to see the statewide limit reduced to 10 per day with a minimum of 14 inches.”

- “I realize that our economy benefits from Texas anglers visiting Calcasieu Lake. If we had similar regulations, maybe some of the ‘meathog’ pressure would ease up. Keep a few. Don’t try to feed the neighborhood.”

- “I do not feel that the limit should be changed, but I do not feel that changing the size requirement from 12 to 14 inches would be a big problem with most people. There are quite a few people like myself that may only get a chance to fish once or twice a month, so reducing the limit would be very disappointing. There are many days when we only get a small handful of fish.”

- “I fish in the Calcasieu Estuary a lot, but I don’t often catch a limit. I think the limit should be changed to 10. I don’t think guides should keep a limit on a paid trip.

- “I fish Calcasieu Lake nearly every weekend and sometimes during the week and on holidays. I agree that something should be done. In recent years, the pressure has been enormous. The fish are definitely getting larger since the netting stopped, but we need to protect numbers too. We should release all fish between 5 pounds and 8 pounds. I support a 14-inch minimum. Maybe we could give people one tag per year to let them keep a trout over 8 pounds. I think the entire state should be on the same program.”

- “Trophy status would open a whole can of worms. I’m against it. Do we really want the legislators determining fishing limits? It would be a convoluted mess. Fishing and hunting regulations are of limited impact at best. Laws only serve to keep honest people honest. The outlaws are already taking more than their limit. The answer in more enforcement.”

- “I fish four to six times a month, but I seldom catch a limit of speckled trout. I target other species equally. I’m not qualified to determine the limit. Let the biologists, not the politicians or the Coastal Conservation Association decide what’s best for the lake.”

- “The trout limit is way too liberal. Trout don’t freeze well. If people don’t eat them right away, a lot are wasted. If people are not going to eat trout in a day or two, they should practice catch and release.”

[Ratdog]

All that w points for more money going to inforcement . More and more regulations means the need for more inforcement . And I bet you start seeing patrols with Hevey armed and protection and I be turit mounted guns.
Police state on the water needed becouse the number of rules so high that if you set foot in a boat you broke a law.

[Goooh]

Originally Posted by Ratdog

All that w points for more money going to inforcement . More and more regulations means the need for more inforcement . And I bet you start seeing patrols with Hevey armed and protection and I be turit mounted guns.

Police state on the water needed becouse the number of rules so high that if you set foot in a boat you broke a law.

So the triple tail limits are for turrets on patrol boats?

[BuckingFastard]

Originally Posted by Spunt Drag

I'm ****in done wit em

i need to put this on the page on facebook.

[BuckingFastard]

these people are jokes... i enjoyed reading that "W".. thanks. its crazy to think these yahoos are the ones who decided the fate of our well being. most of the logical people said "only if the studies show it needs to be decreased" yet no studies were done that show negative results... in fact they showed healthy numbers. what in the heck is hackberry rod and gun saying to turn it into a trophy lake??? its not anyones lake to do that!!!! if anything, they should be forced off the lake for thinking anyone owns it! pissed

[Smalls]

The real question here is: how do you grow more "trophy" fish by reducing a limit?

The only logic there is that by reducing a limit, you are leaving more fish in, thereby increasing the chances of growing larger fish. You are giving more opportunity for those fish to get bigger.

But on the ecological flip side of that--I think its poppycock. If you leave more fish in the system, there is greater competition for a food source, and if the food source is not increasing, you are going to see an overall decrease in size. You can't grow bigger fish by leaving more in. You have to reduce the amount of fish so there is less competition on the food source.

I don't know, that seems pretty logical to me. I mean, if there are 100 of us in a room with only 100 sandwiches, it stands to reason that, on average, one person in that group is going to eat less than one person in a group of 50 would get to eat. (Assuming everyone shares, which just about seems impossible around here )

And for all those that don't want to sift through that huge document that MG posted earlier, here is the section on Tripletail:

A. Recreational Take and Possession Limits
1. The recreational bag limit for the possession of tripletail (Lobotes surinamensis) whether caught within or without Louisiana waters shall be five fish per person, per day.
B. Commercial Take and Possession Limits
1. No person shall take, harvest, land, or possess aboard a harvesting vessel tripletail in excess of a recreational bag limit unless that person is in possession and has in his immediate possession a valid commercial fishing license, commercial gear licenses (if applicable) and a valid commercial vessel license. The holder of such valid commercial licenses (if applicable) shall not take, possess, land, sell, barter, trade or exchange or attempt to take, sell, barter, trade or exchange tripletail, whole or eviscerated, in excess of 100 pounds on any one day or on any trip, or from any trip. For the purposes of this Section:
Trip¾any fishing trip, regardless of number of days duration, that begins with departure from a dock, berth, beach, shoreline, seawall or ramp.
2. No person aboard any vessel shall transfer or cause the transfer of tripletail between vessels on state or federal waters.
3. No person shall sell, purchase, barter, trade or exchange or attempt to sell, purchase, barter, trade or exchange tripletail, whole or eviscerated, in excess of 100 pounds, except that such limitation shall not apply to the resale of tripletail by a validly licensed wholesale/retail seafood dealer who purchased such tripletail in compliance with the regulations and requirements of this Section and in compliance with other requirements of law.


C. Size Limits
1. The recreational and commercial minimum size limit for tripletail (Lobotes surinamensis) shall be 18 inches total length.

[BloodKnot]

Seems like Big Lake was the prime trophy trout fishing spot before everyone started getting involved on how to make the lake stay the same or become a "trophy" lake.

From what I have seen on this site, no one has a true factual case on whether the limit should be 25 or 15. Everyone has opinions. My opinion is I want whats best for the Lake and trout fishing. I am not sold on a number. Why not 20 per person? Does it matter?

I wish more focus was placed on our oyster reefs in the Big Lake area.

As for tripletail, they are wonderful to eat and 5 seems like an overreach of a limit. When I saw pictures of people with 50+ tripletail, I never thought poor fish population, I thought those lucky mother f*****rs.

And here is a question for some, would you support a foundation or association that only focused on Big Lake eco system? I haven't supported CCA for over 10 years but I fish regularly.

[Top Dawg]

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[Top Dawg]

Click ws link to the commission board

[BassYakR]

Here u go BuckingFastard

[BassYakR]

Welllllllll ya see.... Theres this thing called BIG MONEY! and Hes affiliated with the Lawtons.... DING DING DING

[Goooh]

And a steward, forgot about that. He's a steward too, and stewards write the rules man.

[Spunt Drag]

A Facebook photo is all the science we need.