Speckled sea trout populations in danger. Commission to discuss further restrictions
After nearly four years of discussions, the Wildlife and Fisheries Commission may implement restrictions to protect spotted sea trout populations.
The Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries Commission will discuss potential restrictions of the spotted sea trout at its upcoming meeting at 9:30 a.m. Thursday, Aug. 3 at the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries headquarters, 2000 Quail Dr. in Baton Rouge.
The fish has long faced overharvesting, and charter fishing captains say something must be done or Louisiana will lose one of its most valuable resources. If it is voted down at this meeting, it is likely going to take another year to protect the fish population, Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries Biologist Jason Adriance said.
"You have one year to publish those final, so, if this notice of intent is to be amended and go through the process, it has to publish by Nov. 20 of this year," he explained.
Limitations being considered include reducing the bag limits from 25 fish to 15 fish a day. Discussions about the size limit are a moving target. The size was set to increase from 12 inches minimum to 13.5 inches., but state legislators rejected that proposal after pushback from fishermen. A compromise was discussed earlier in July, creating a 12-inch minimum limit and 19-inch max, but those discussions turned sour, and it was punted to this week's meeting.
Attempts were made to contact members of the commission for comment but were unsuccessful.
Longtime charter captains say if nothing is done, the resource risks being lost.
"For me personally, I've seen the greatest fishing on the planet, and my days are coming to an end, so it's more for the younger charter guys to get involved if they are going to save the fisheries," Charter Captain Stu Scheer said. "Terrebonne Parish, we have nothing else to offer here. We have one thing here, fish, and nothing else. If we don't protect it, we're going to lose it."
Scheer said Louisiana fisheries are one of the biggest draws to the state, and probably Terrebonne Parish's second-biggest economic driver. With more than 43 years as a charter fishing captain, he said he's watching the fishing of the specks boom, and in decades prior, catching the limit could be done in just an hour every time. Now, catching the limit for each member of the boat is hit or miss.
The appeal of the speckled sea trout is that they put up a good fight on light tackle and they are good eating, whether pan fried or deep fried, Scheer explained. This, coupled with the high limit fishermen can catch in Louisiana, make them a good target for charter captains trying to please their clients on a trip.
This prized status has damaged the specks' population. Scheer estimated that nowadays about 30% of his trips max out every passengers' limit of specks, 50% of the time it's close, and 20% they are hard to come by. This is a far cry from decades ago.
"It was almost automatic," he said. "Back in the '70s or '80s it was almost ridiculous, it was crazy. All you had to do was get out there. If I had to fish past 9 o'clock, to catch 250 fish, something was wrong."
Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries held open hearings in Terrebonne in 2020 for public input, and hundreds of charter captains showed up to see Adraince's data. The audience was polled and he was able to shift 12% of the crowd to be concerned about the specks' population numbers.
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Other Gulf states share similar restrictions on the speckled trout, and if these limits pass, Louisiana would still allow fishers to bring in a bigger haul, Sheer said. The bag limit will help, he said, but the size limit is much more important, and he added that it should go even further.
"Even a trout that's one years old produces eggs," he said. "I don't know how many, but the bigger the fish, the more eggs they produce. To improve our fisheries and to get it back to where it was several years ago, we need to raise the minimum size limit to 14 inches."
Winona "Bebe" McElroy is a charter captain in Cocodrie and fishes nearly everyday since retirement. She said she considers herself more of a tour guide to Cocodrie who does a bit of fishing on the side.
Her preferred catch is the redfish, also known as a red drum, but her husband, Victor, enjoys specks. She spoke via cellphone, just after a day spent fishing with Victor.
Fishing for trout is a very active style of fishing, she said, and is likely the appeal. Captains seek out birds, which are a sign that specks are below. Then, to explain the technique, she compared the way she and Victor had fished that very day.
"I positioned the boat where I could cast into the grass and look for a red, or wait for a red to come by," she said. "My husband, on the other hand, is fishing for trout, so he's a little bit deeper than me, he's into the cooler water, where it is moving, where schools of trout come by and he casts. Fishing for trout, he might cast 10 times to my one cast. I'm going to cast and bob around so I can pull a red up. He's going to cast and reel and cast and reel in. That wears me out."
McElroy said she couldn't comment on what fishing for specks was like in the past because she never used to seek them out, but she has since learned because it's what customers like to fish for. She did say she was very familiar with the effects of overfishing because her redfish faces the same dilemma. Just a decade ago she could max out in a very short amount of time, whereas this summer, she has yet to reach her limit in a single day.
This article originally appeared on The Courier: Specks populations are wrecked. Commission to discuss restrictions
