re: Speckled trout meeting

Directly from LSU SeaGrant website:

LSU Sea Trout

Why do we have a 12-inch minimum size on speckled trout?
A minimum size of 12 inches allows most fish to spawn at least once before reaching harvestable size. All of the males and more than 75% of the females are sexually mature at 12 inches long. The minimum size also increases the overall yield of the fishery. Each year since the regulation went into effect, the average size of recreationally caught specks has been more than 13 inches. Before the minimum size requirement, the average size of recreationally taken specks was as low as 10 inches.

Why don’t we have a larger minimum size, such as 14 inches?
Speckled trout have sex-specific growth and survival rates. Males grow slower and don’t grow as large as females. In Louisiana, males do not reach a size of 14 inches until their third or fourth years. Since few specks live beyond age 5, and more than 70% of the total speckled trout population is age 3 or younger, very few males grow to larger sizes. This would result in a loss of recreational opportunity to harvest the males and could possibly cause a shift of harvest pressure to females.

What is the future of recreational speckled trout fishing?
The future of the fishery depends on two factors: good habitat and good management. If our coastal areas remain unpolluted and coastal erosion is controlled, management will be the key. Very few more speckled trout can be produced from other sources. If the entire commercial speckled trout harvest were divided up equally among Louisiana’s over 400 thousand recreational anglers, each sport fisherman would get less than one fish per person per year. Research has also shown that very few speckled trout appear in shrimp trawl bycatch. This means that gains and losses will be the result of management within the recreational fishery. Management priorities, as set by recreational leadership, will determine whether the fishery is managed for liberal limits and smaller fish or restrictive creel limits and larger fish.



Coastal erosion has not been controlled and we have had terrible management from the State. So here we are.

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The biologists have gathered data and created models of you will that show what each action (lower limits only, increased length only, lower limits plus increased lengths, etc) would do for the fishery. For instance if you want to have everything back in place by 2025, then option A would do that, They are simply laying out the science and the options and it is up to the LWFC to make the decision 

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Too bad where they took their numbers didnt have trout because of the opening of the spillway... and that's where they took majority of their samples...

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The 25 fish they catch do not have the impact of a hard core fisherman that catches 1000 in a year.

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Neither one of these people has an effect on the fisheries.

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You even seen the pocket on a skimmer pushing shallow bays in the marsh? No you haven’t

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I grew up on the back of a skimmer and a larger trawl boat.

You think a skimmer pushes fast and that a skimmer goes faster than trout can swim ??

Is he calling you a dogfaced pony soldier?

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If you believe their numbers, which I do not.
Not relevant because the decision makers do.

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where do you come up with this shite? The reports from other meetings have been that they decision makers are skeptical on the science.

Jerri Smitko was at the meeting in Houma. In fact she said there wasn’t a meeting scheduled for this area and she requested one be scheduled here. All I know of her is that she is a lawyer and was appointed by Edwards.

As many years as I've butterflied and trawled, the only trout we ever ended up with are white trout. Guess we need to push faster

LINK


Damn, look at all those trout in there