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1
Posted on 1/28/24 at 9:26 am to hall59tiger
quote:
I’ve paid thousands to come home with none multiple times. I genuinely enjoy just being out there and having a chance at a big fish in TX and FL
That’s not the point. Anyone that fishes knows that.
What I’m talking about is guides pushing lower limits.
Posted on 1/28/24 at 9:45 am to elprez00
Guides are out there more than anyone and I’d argue have the best perspective about the increased pressure and decline in the fishery.
Posted on 1/28/24 at 10:25 am to Larry Gooseman
I know quite a few guides, the best ones that have the best and most loyal clients figured out long ago its about the experience rather than the amount of filets at the end of the day. If the new Texas regs thin the herd a bit of guides then it's a win win. There are way too many "professional" guides in Texas that don't show up until the yellow croaker flags start flying in the spring, they work during the week in San Antonio, Houston, and Austin then show up on Friday to run 4 or 5 trips over the weekend taking meat haulers out to kill all they can on barking monkeys. I am very surprised there isn't way more conflict between those two different groups of the same industry, it's boiling right under the surface though.
Posted on 1/28/24 at 10:47 am to TxWadingFool
quote:
There are way too many "professional" guides in Texas that don't show up until the yellow croaker flags start flying in the spring, they work during the week in San Antonio, Houston, and Austin then show up on Friday to run 4 or 5 trips over the weekend taking meat haulers out to kill all they can on barking monkeys.
I really have no dog in the Texas fight, but why should they have less access to the resource than you do?
Posted on 1/28/24 at 12:15 pm to TJG210
They do have the same access, doesn't mean I have to like it.
Posted on 1/28/24 at 12:42 pm to elprez00
quote:
That’s not the point. Anyone that fishes knows that. What I’m talking about is guides pushing lower limits.
The guides pushing it take clients who don’t care about keeping fish. Plenty of people go there to target trophy fish
Posted on 1/28/24 at 1:48 pm to elprez00
quote:
What I’m talking about is guides pushing lower limits.
Most guides understand that they either need to speak up or someone else will and that someone else may not have an interest in their livelihood.
I can’t speak for SE La but there has been a pretty steep decline in the number of FT guides on Big lake in the past five years. 99.9% are onboard with the changes made by WL&F.
Posted on 1/28/24 at 4:10 pm to KemoSabe65
my son was a guide in the corpus area for 10 years. Frequently clients would show up at the dock hung over bad. More than half use the guided trip as excuse for a boys weekend and did not give a crap about the fishing experience. The money was okay, but between getting bait, boat in the water, fish , clean fish etc, it was a 10 hour day for 500 bucks. Minus bait/gas cost. and eventually a new motor.
Posted on 1/29/24 at 9:59 pm to TxWadingFool
quote:
I am very surprised there isn't way more conflict between those two different groups of the same industry, it's boiling right under the surface though.
My sources tell me there is wayyy too much money in revenue tied to croaker fishing and it’s not even something TPWD would even consider banning at this point.
Posted on 1/29/24 at 10:29 pm to TJG210
The small bag compared to Louisiana takes getting used to but the trout are consistently bigger. An 18” trout produces two absolute slabs of meat. You’d be insane to pay a guide for a bag of 3 but 6 slab filets is a nice day for a guy putting around in his boat or on the roadside.
Posted on 1/29/24 at 10:42 pm to The Boat
Is there anything to LA actually thinking about lowering the limit again on trout or is that just talk?
Posted on 1/30/24 at 6:36 am to GREENHEAD22
Limit was changed from the mermentau river east to 15 trout and size limit statewide back in November. Those guys are still beotching about losing 10 trout out of their former limit of 25.
They should just name themselves the “Sovereign Fishermen”
They should just name themselves the “Sovereign Fishermen”
Posted on 1/30/24 at 8:39 am to TxWadingFool
quote:
There are way too many "professional" guides in Texas that don't show up until the yellow croaker flags start flying in the spring, they work during the week in San Antonio, Houston, and Austin then show up on Friday to run 4 or 5 trips over the weekend taking meat haulers out to kill all they can on barking monkeys.
quote:
TxWadingFool
I don’t think it could have been described any better. I just don’t get the enjoyment that’s comes with being a croaker soaker. 
Posted on 1/30/24 at 8:52 am to GREENHEAD22
quote:
Is there anything to LA actually thinking about lowering the limit again on trout or is that just talk?
Seems like a lot of people are getting bent out of shape in Louisiana over what Texas is doing with their fishery management. I haven't seen anything that suggests LA is considering further changes to the speckled trout limit.
Posted on 1/30/24 at 4:22 pm to hall59tiger
quote:
The guides pushing it take clients who don’t care about keeping fish. Plenty of people go there to target trophy fish
This is fact. There a number of guides (primarily in the mid/lower coast area) with full calendars who are taking clients on high dollar wade trips to target trophy trout. Many of these same guides either highly encourage catch and release or outright enforce it. The largest threat to that business model, are croaker fisherman catching the same fish in deeper channels adjacent to the flats they target.
I am admittingly biased as 99% of the time, I choose to fish the same way, but I can tell you from experience, a morning encountering 15-20 boats freelining croaker with the radio blasting with 4-5 clients each pulling in a 10 fish limit of 18" plus trout was a common occurrence prior to 2019 when the limit statewide was lowered to 5. I did it a few times myself with my 70 plus year old dad, and it was the closest thing to fish in a barrel I can describe.
With the huge fish kill of 2021, these new regs can only help the trout population, regardless of who or what is behind it.
Posted on 1/30/24 at 4:47 pm to Basura Blanco
quote:
a morning encountering 15-20 boats freelining croaker with the radio blasting with 4-5 clients each pulling in a 10 fish limit of 18" plus trout was a common occurrence prior to 2019
Welcome to Baffin or the LM in June. I enjoy fishing croaker but I guess I got to much of the LA meat haul/offshore mentality still left in me. I actually would rather watch paint dry than wade a flat throwing a topwater where I might catch a legit stud but more than likely strike out and not catch a thing. Also probably the reason why I like duck hunting way more than deer hunting. To each his own.
Posted on 1/30/24 at 5:30 pm to MWP
quote:
wade a flat throwing a topwater where I might catch a legit stud but more than likely strike out and not catch a thing.
The amount of time, effort, and money I spend doing this exact thing are embarrassingly high on my end. And I cant wait to do it again. I will say, the not catching a thing part has at least diminished (slightly) over time.
And you are accurate with the deer hunter analogy. That type fishing is the closest thing to deer hunting I can think of, yet I lost all interest in that 20 years ago.
This post was edited on 1/30/24 at 5:34 pm
Posted on 1/30/24 at 6:06 pm to Basura Blanco
But you get moist when that bump actually starts peeling drag. I always have compared wade fishing to bow hunting.
Posted on 1/30/24 at 7:01 pm to KemoSabe65
quote:
I always have compared wade fishing to bow hunting.
Yep. And topwater wade fishing is akin to turning the handle on a jack-in-the-box for a half hour (or longer) waiting for it to pop up and slam the shite out of a rapala skitterwalk. That half second when that happens is crack cocaine to me. I am so damn addicted to it I will continue throwing a topwater long past the time anyone with any sense wouldve gone to a tout or swimbait or at least a corky.
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