re: Texas lowers trout limits to 3……

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Yep. Until they come to Louisiana

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This is also true. In my case, when the limit was 10 here (in the VERY few cases we limited), I was much more likely to keep and clean 10 fish than bother with cleaning 3 fish. Also, I feel one is more likely to keep fish from outside their home waters than their backyard.

I am not about to judge anyone. I grew up fishing from Cocodrie to Grand Isle and we kept everything from the bait shrimp to the 12" maybe trout to the bull reds.

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You Louisiana guys really seem to overthink the ability to keep a massive amount of small trout, I mean this with all due respect. It’s just not normal in any other state.

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I mean I think there has to be a happy medium between 3 and 25. 10 fish at 14 inches or better would be perfect in my opinion. And if any state has the ability to handle a larger limit it’s Louisiana

The fishing culture is way different in Texas. A dock shot with dozens of fish laid out isn’t “cool” to them. They want trophy fish much like some deer hunters are willing to let smaller bucks walk away.
People fish for a few reasons but there is a spectrum between enjoying the sport and wanting meat. Most Texans, and people who travel to Texas, are doing it to enjoy the sport and are willing to save tons of money by buying a prime ribeye on the way home when they want meat.

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The argument of we can’t hurt them with a rod and reel is dead, that theory was in place when there was a fraction of the people on the water 30 years ago.

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How is it dead? The places with adequate are producing just as many trout as they have in recent years. When you’ve had poor weather, high freshwater across breeding grounds it’s been poor fishing….which isn’t on the resource. So many great trout spots have bee ruined in part/completely by man. Can’t hardly catch a cold in black bay anymore……not because of a lack of trout, but the freshwater gushing from Mardi Gras pass. Same with seabrook, the closing of the mrgo killled it.

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I’d bet half the fish from these dock shots with 50+ trout and 10-20 reds gets freezer burnt and thrown out.

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Personally I never keep more than I’ll eat fresh, whatever is extra I give to friends/family.

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The fishing culture is way different in Texas. A dock shot with dozens of fish laid out isn’t “cool” to them.

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You know who started this shite? Guides did for advertising. And now they all bitch about the common folk who mess up "their" fishing.

I've seen one post something to the effect of "be a conservationist, not an assassin with a bay boat"


On the other hand you have people who limit out every time they go and then throw out the meat when it gets freezer burnt.

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3 trout isn't enough to pull that trigger

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Plenty of fish out there that fry well that you can add to the box.

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How is it dead? The places with adequate are producing just as many trout as they have in recent years.

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I admittedly haven’t fished the SE part of the state much and know it’s on another level of vast estuary compared to the west side of the state and TX coast, but you don’t think all the marsh that used to be brackish water nurseries that’s now open saltwater bay doesn’t have an effect on carrying capacity? And on top of all the marsh the state has lost, there’s a hell of a lot more fishing pressure all over. Parking lots at the launch are full during the middle of the week where used to just be on weekends, and how many more guides there are compared to 10-20 years ago.

Heard something this week that TX has 200k more fishing licenses sold annually compared to 10 years ago and something like 75% more guides. I’d imagine the per capita numbers are similar in LA .

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AwgustaDawg

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Have you fished anywhere along the gulf coast the last 10 years?

The trout fishery was devastated by the freeze in February of 2021, some areas were hit worse than others. It is clear to all the TPWD estimates immediately following the freeze were under counted especially in the middle coast area. The two slides below will point folks to the science behind the decision, the gap in the first one was for 2020 when they did not put out nets due to covid. We are well below the 10 year mean in gill net observations by the department. The second slide really shows the fall off in landing by the public, were are off well over 60% since just before the freeze despite higher pressure than ever on the fishery. Here are a couple of other numbers to chew on, in the last 10 years saltwater fishing license sales have increased over 200,000 and there has been 62% increase in guide license sales over that same time frame. Another factor that Texas uses in the decision making process, TPWD had 6 in person scoping meetings and a online webinar on the subject to gauge the public's input. They received 2,851 written comments back from the public after all of the meetings, of those 2,137 (75%) were in favor of more restrictive measures to the trout limits. For the ones complaining that it isn't worth it for three fish then good riddance, take up bowling. 3 - 18" trout, 3 - 24" reds, 5 - 18" black drum, and maybe a flounder per day for a single person seem like quite a bit of meat. I'll report back in a year, my bet the pressure will not have let up a bit.

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