Big Lake fires back at board

["W"]

Photo submitted by Capt. Nick Poe
The possibility of further reducing the creel limit for speckled trout in Southwestern Louisiana could be up for discussion at Thursday morning's Wildlife and Fisheries Commission meeting in Baton Rouge.
A Big Lake fishing guide is curious about the discussion slated for Thursday morning’s Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Commission meeting concerning the possibility of further reducing the creel limit for speckled trout in the western part of the state.

“It’s the craziest thing I’ve ever heard. I mean, there’s no other way to put it,” said Capt. Nick Poe, with Big Lake Guide Service. “I don’t know what the reasoning is behind it, and that’s what I want to know.

“Why?”

Agenda item No. 10 calls for a discussion on “what effects changes to the current management regulations will have on red drum and spotted sea trout stocks.”

The discussion on redfish concerns the possibility of reducing the minimum size limit to make keeping redfish under 16 inches legal, according to Randy Pausina, head of fisheries for the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries.

On Tuesday, Pausina said the speckled trout issue along the southwestern coast was “social,” not biological.

“Texas recently dropped their spotted sea trout limit in most, if not all, of their bays over there, so there’s a lot of pressure on that side of the state to look at ours because we have more liberal regulations and a lot of people come over to Louisiana to fish and there’s always a conflict,” Pausina said.

Poe disagreed, and said decreasing the limit from 25 to 15 in 2005 hasn’t produced the larger fish that were talked about back then.

“I fish a pretty good bit during the winter and I don’t see very many Texas guides out there so I don’t know what the real reason is,” he said. “So what’s the point? We went from 25 to 15 and everybody who pushed for it claimed it was to make the fish bigger.

“And now there’s not a single person who can sit and tell you straight to your face without lying to you that they’re bigger than they were. It hadn’t done anything.”

David Cresson, executive director for Coastal Conservation Association-Louisiana, said Thursday’s meeting should be interesting, but pointed out these are discussion items only.

“There certainly has been some concern over the last several months about the slow fishing in Big Lake, and coupled with some expected changes to Texas law, that’s gotten some fishermen wondering what the best course of action might be,” Cresson said. “But Thursday is strictly a discussion item on the agenda.

“We can’t speculate on management changes until we have good science to go on.”

The commission meeting is scheduled to begin at 9:30 Thursday morning at the Wildlife and Fisheries Building at 2000 Quail Drive in Baton Rouge.

[AubreyLaHaye458]

The fact that they're trying to use this being a "slow year" as a reason is dumb to me! And I know very little about catching fish on BL. Everything in the world around us is behind at least a month due to the super winter we had. The people can not get that through their skulls. It was the same thing they were hollering about with the crawfish and now they're catching more than they know what to do with.


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["W"]

Nick hit it dead on , we talked a good bit Tues and both have same mind frame on the issue


25 to 15 trout limit has done zero to the lake and might even made it worst that was . The trout size has took a major hit after the change and the ones who use "big trout cycle" are running out of years now to use it!

This time Big Lake is going to win


We have a problem but it's not a fish problem it's a habitat problem

Rock wash out and 9 mile

Open weirs 365

And stop oystering for next 5 years and this lake will be back to 1998 style


Limits are 50 a person and they we're strike netting the hell out of this lake everyday catching 1000,s of trout a day every day and never was a fish problem.

Fix the problem don't cover it up with limit changes

[sledgehammer]

Well said


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[marshrunner757]

Well said by both of you. They keep making excuses to cover up personal gain and personal agenda. Excessive tidal flow and oyster dredging is destroying our eco system. The weirs were built to protect the marsh. Had they thought past their noses and wallets, they would have choked down the overall tidal flow and saved the lake and the marsh.

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[Ratdog]

Ok so there is this guy that has a tomato plant. He feeds the nabohood with tomatoes. His water supply gets contaminated on a regular basis. And now the tomatoes are smaller.so the neighbors impose a rule that they each get only two tomatoes a week. They decide this will increese the size of the tomatoes. After two more years of small tomatoes and bad water the neighbors decide to cut back to one tomato. Some even speculate the guy is not fertilizing well enough so they help out with fertilizer. Still the tomatoes are small and accusations fly about the other neighborhood hudlums raiding the plant. All and all a social brackdown ensues. But the guy still grows the tomato. After seeing all the strife and unneighborly conduct addition of fertilizer and even more time with less tomatoes the guy gets fed up and realizes all he knows is growing tomatoes not how they grow or why.even the neighbors can't help in this aspect as they just know we're to get them. So the guy brakes down and calls a tomato scientist.guess what the scientist points out the contamination it's Origen and how to remedy it. So the guy takes his advice and gets water the old way elevating the contamination all together and low and behold the tomatoes grew. They grew even without fertilizer . And the neghiorber hood got happyer and happyer and eventually wone da big national tomato contest.


Ya that says it all.

[keakar]

I think its clear what needs to be done, if they feel the need to be in line with texas (god only knows why) then its obvious they need to put immediate pressure on texas to increase speck limits state wide to 25 per person with a 12" minimum and then BL can match that

situation resolved and the do gooders can skip along happily knowing they did something to make themselves feel useful

I hate to agree with anything these idiots are saying but im behind them on changing the reds size limit to 14" instead of 16" and I wouldn't even mind if they also decided to make a slot limit to only keep reds from 14" to 26" and keep none over 26" because the bigger reds aren't as good eating and its better to let them go offshore to spawn. while doing this though they should remove all limits from black drum because they never needed any limits and it was only done out of fear they would be targeted for restaurants selling them as redfish.

[BuckingFastard]

yep been had dat

[captray]

10 Trout 15"
No guides on weekend
now that will improve fishn!!