re: Louisiana’s Redfish Population Has Collapsed

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HogsWillRiseAgain

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let’s be honest the amount of fish we take with a bow is MINUTE to the amount of fish taken by rod and ree

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bowfished with my own boat for 3 years now (I don’t charter, just go with friends and family) we have limited out twice in three years

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No, yall are just terrible at it.

Blowing mud boats and airboat through protected marsh shooting fish with a bow is affecting things in more ways than one, and they've invaded Hopedale and Delacroix lately as well. On a Sunday morning, you can go fishing in basically any marsh in south LA and find a floating 14" red with a hole in it.

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probably less than ten rigs in salt water across the whole state

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You can see 10 with your eyes at any given moment on any weekend night from by buddy's porch in grand isle. You can also see a shiload of pogy boats and "shrimpers"

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Y’all need to be careful about dividing up the hunting and fishing population by what you think is right and wrong

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I'm an ex dog hunter. I used to think this way but now, frick everybody else.

Look, I'm a firm believer that man cannot compete with nature and the past 3 hurricane seasons are the biggest factor by a large margin. We cannot control that. We CAN control the year round raping and pillaging of our coastal resources. Pogy boats and fishing guides are the ones doing the pillaging. Get the damn pogy boats away from the coast, get rid of the air boats and mud boats. Quit helping mother nature bulldoze the habitat and food chain.

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You can see 10 with your eyes at any given moment on any weekend night from by buddy's porch in grand isle.

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No doubt on a weekend, the grand isle/leeville complex also has more bowfisherman than anywhere else in the state. If you had a helicopter, how many fishing rigs would you find in that same complex during the day? 300?

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We CAN control the year round raping and pillaging of our coastal resources. Pogy boats and fishing guides are the ones doing the pillaging.

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Agreed, can’t we just unite behind lowering limits for EVERYONE and controlling the commercial nonsense that goes on?

I get frustrated over the talk of outlawing everything. It’s so common now for people to say “I don’t like this thing, it should be illegal.”

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3. Bow fishing (hurting duck hunting on a far worse level).

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How is bowfishing hurting duck hunting?

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I'd have to guess it's due to the destruction of submerged vegetation and likely pushing the ducks out of staging ponds overnight.

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Forcing ducks to roost somewhere else doesn’t hurt the population. The duck population has got a lot of things working against it, but getting scared by a boat at night isn’t one of them. If this was true, then ricefields wouldn’t be having lower numbers of ducks just like the marshes. Besides, mud boats aren’t destroying submerged vegetation… at least not on any level that makes a difference. Hurricanes have a much bigger impact with land loss, saltwater intrusion, and just plain blowing vegetation out of ponds. Also, anybody that knows good places to bowfish knows that super grassy areas (that ducks like to roost in) are not good places to look for redfish. They disappear in the grass.

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can’t we just unite behind lowering limits for EVERYONE

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No. I am a rod and reel fishermen with a big arse bay boat. I couldnt tear up any marsh if I wanted to. I want to keep 5 of them per person when I do get a chance to go. The few dozen fish I keep a year don't have dick to do with this problem and I'm not willing to conceed anything here. Im not the problem or even a problem. It'll end up just like the fricking snappers did. Commercial and guides will continue to pillage and destroy while the common recreational dude like me gets arse fricked.

They don't come south and the ones that do are now way west. The overall population is way down, assumption. Marsh is dying and AG practices have ended up with less suitable habitat.

Major additions to refuges. Lots of different issues, not just one prime issue.

Is tournament redfishing a factor here as well?

For example, pulling fish (slot red near breeding size) from Venice to Delacroix for weigh in and further from the gulf?

COMMERCIAL. FISHING. SUCKS

edit- not the mom and pops, the mega boat operations

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I’m all for running off the pogie boats cause it’s ridiculous to be the only state on the gulf coast allowing them to fish as they do.

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Correct but those that have the power to squash that rape and pillage are getting their pockets lined by those mega corps.

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But let’s Make sure the fisheries is actually in decline before we start lowering limits or prohibiting specific forms of harvest.

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Since the above won't happen then ultimately it's up to those rec. anglers to make the best decisions on how much they should harvest up to their legal allowable limit. The fishing in LA has always been so bountiful so we have liberal limits to harvest and we have a ton people coming in from out of state with the sole purpose of catching as many as legally possible on top of the resident fisherman. Likely only Fl. has that type of influx from out of state anglers and they have pretty restrictive limits. I understand FL is a completely diff. fishery. I'm not saying anyone can't or shouldn't take their limit but if everyone tries their damnest to take it all every trip then what will be left?