At their upcoming monthly meeting on Thursday, October 6, the Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Commission will consider a Notice of Intent (NOI) to modify limits on speckled trout. Currently the daily bag limit is 25 fish with a 12 inch minimum size, except for the Calcasieu/Sabine estuaries where the daily limit is 15. A NOI is a proposal that must go through a period of public comment for 90 days, after which it can be voted on by the Commission into regulation.
As we’ve documented here before (CLICK HERE), the recruitment of spawning spotted seatrout in Louisiana has been below the conservation standard for nearly 8 years. Many of us have witnessed first-hand the decline in speckled trout fishing over the past decade. There are several factors for this, but none of the solutions can be easily addressed.
At this time, the only viable solution is to increase the number of juvenile trout entering the fishery. LDWF biologists have proposed several scenarios which encompass either (a) increasing the size limit, (b) lowering the daily creel limit, (c) some combination of both.
After attending the first trout assessment meeting and a couple of public meetings involving the issue, we at the FFI Gulf Coast Council drafted a letter of support for a 14-inch minimum size limit, with either a 15 or 20 fish daily bag limit. We continue to support a 14-inch minimum size limit as the only viable solution to this problem.
Our friends at CCA Louisiana are pushing for a 12-inch, 15 daily bag limit. Their press release stated, “The CCA Louisiana’s Science Committee and many others have concerns about the impact on female trout if a shift to a larger minimum size adjustment occurs. Moving to a 13-inch or 13.5-inch minimum size seems drastic and unnecessary. Such a change could damage the female population, and have tremendous negative impacts…”.
As you can see from the graph, CCA’s position is not only invalid, but their language is overly dramatic. Yes, male trout grow slower and not as large as female trout. But a male trout reaches 14 inches only a few months after its female counterpart. After which, there are nearly equal numbers of harvestable male trout as there are female trout, even if the average male size is smaller than the female for a given age.
What’s more, CCA’s science doesn’t jive with the science of fisheries managers of 9 other states that regulate spotted seatrout. NONE of those states have a minimum size less than 14 inches. What does CCA know that they don’t?
Here’s what we on the GCC Conservation Committee know: that at 14 inches, a female trout has spawned several times and laid more than sufficient eggs to perpetuate the species even under moderately-high fishing pressure. And that, based on the LDWF biologists data, retaining a 12-inch limit would have minimal effect unless the daily limit is drastically lowered (like to 10 fish).
Please let the LWF Commission know what you support a 14″ minimum size limit. We also encourage members to attend the Commission meeting on October 6th at 9:30 at LDWF Headquarters on 2000 Quail Dr in Baton Rouge, or to email your comments at comments@wlf.la.gov
