re: First speckled trout, now LDWF is saying Redfish stocks are depleted

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All I can tell you is that places that I fished in Hopedale or Lafitte or Port Sulphur do not hold the same amount of fish it use to. You would see wakes and hear fish busting in the ponds while fishing but in some ponds, I see NOTHING moving. No wakes, no mud billows, nothing......

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As anecdotal as this sounds, it's honestly mind blowing to me how different the redfish stock in lower St. Bernard is compared to what it was 10 years ago. I'm 32 and have fished and hunted the area for the majority of my life. As an outdoorsman, I've never seen a resource change so drastically over a given time period, other than the shift in the duck population. I'm of the opinion that there are several issues.

I am not a fan of bowfishing habits. I know guides and I know how some of them operate. Redfish are pretty local at certain times of the year, and if one guide gets on a big group around Lena, he's gonna call all of his buddies and they are going to shoot the shite out of them in Lena until they're gone. This heavy level of traffic beats up the fish (obviously), the ponds, and runs ducks off during the migration season. I don't think that anybody can reasonably argue otherwise that running around a pond at night in an airboat or a surface drive is a hell of a lot more disturbing to the fish than a guy cruising around on a trolling motor. I think bowfishing needs to be regulated - be it a season, time limitation, equipment limitation, or something else.

The decline in population also coincided with a significant increase in tournament redfishing over that same time period. This seems to have slowed down a bit over the last couple of years, but burn boat habits are also bad. Those heavy slot and slightly over slot fish used to school up in significant numbers in the Reggio and Delacroix marsh during the spring time. Over the years, I can't tell you how many times I've seen burn boats burn 10' off a bank right through a school of pushing fish. They mark the spot, and show back up on tournament day. For the longest time, there was no regulation on this by tournament organizers on pre-fishing time limitations. A lot of these guys also focused on the Reggio area, and burning banks didn't do any favors for land loss up there.

That brings up the next issue, which is obviously habitat loss. Reggio and Myrtle Grove have been hit by it worse than anywhere else I've seen, and both of those areas used to be slot redfish havens. There are entire islands that I used to duck hunt on that are completely gone. My current dog's first hunt was on a piece of ground probably 200 yards by 100 yards wide. It doesn't exist anymore.

For whatever reason, Biloxi Marsh has been saved to an extent. Delacroix has gotten hit with it, but not quite as bad. I think the lack of marsh diversity and protected areas inside has really had a major effect on smaller slot fish habitation and movement.

Also, obviously, pogy boats. I agree with the earlier poster that said if LDWF is going to take a position on harvest numbers but not take a position on pogy boats, something is hilariously wrong.

Bringing all that back around, if this is LDWF suggesting that they are going to start taking a position on redfish stock, I'm all for it. Something needs to change or we are going to end up like Florida.