Louisiana intends to break the chains of federal bondage when it comes to the recreational harvest of red snapper in the Gulf of Mexico.

The Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Commission, in effect, stuck its tongue out at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries Service when it took action Thursday to implement a “Louisiana-only” red snapper recreational season for 2013.

Nothing is set in stone as there is a 120-day public comment for the Notice of Intent on LWFC member Ronny Graham’s plan to start a weekend-only recreational red snapper season that begins the Saturday before Palm Sunday each year and ends the same year on Sept. 30. A weekend is defined as Friday, Saturday and Sunday, with the exception of Memorial Day and Labor Day, when Mondays would be classified as weekend as well, according to the state Department of Wildlife and Fisheries. Also, there will be a three-fish per day (16-inch minimum length limit) daily creel limit.

The LWFC will meet for final ratification on Sept. 6 in Baton Rouge.

Meanwhile, the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council recently announced this year’s recreational red snapper season will start June 1 and end July 10.

GMFMC also continued the federal mandate of a 16-inch minimum length and two-fish per day creel limit for recreational fishermen.

Hopefully, those short seasons will be a thing of the past when this plan is implemented.

Of course, that includes only state waters extending three miles offshore along the coast, which really doesn’t improve the situation for offshore fishermen in this part of the state who must travel at least 30 miles out to be in water deep enough to target red snapper.

However, there’s another proposal on deck to extend state waters out 10.357 miles, which helps areas below Grand Isle and Venice but, again, not below Marsh Island.

But it’s a start, a step in the right direction for the Sportsman’s Paradise.

Dr. Darryl Elias of New Iberia,who has fished offshore since 1970 and once had a big boat named “Snapper Tapper,” agreed and said about so many successive weekends of red snapper fishing, “That’s a great idea because, hell, if the weather’s bad, a whole season could go by and you couldn’t go fishing because of the weather.”

Elias said he could even live with the two-fish creel limit if weekends-only are in play.

Still, he realizes only the folks to the east would benefit from the new state regulations.

“As far as fishing out of Cypremort Point, it’s not going to help us much. We’ve got to run 30 miles before we even have a shot at catching red snapper,” the local obstetrician and accomplished saltwater fishing rodeo angler said.

A DW&F spokesman said Robert Barham, secretary of the state agency, was given the authority to modify the portions of this rule pertaining to recreational red snapper harvest limits and seasons if the NOAA Fisheries Service institutes subregional management for the species or if it is otherwise deemed necessary.

State Department of Wildlife and Fisheries assistant secretary Randy Pausina didn’t mince words Friday, the day after the state agency’s historic decision, when he talked about the state’s

bold plan and lashed out at NOAA during a midday interview on WWL 870-AM.

After a little more than four years of getting those ultra-strict red snapper regulations “rammed down our throat,” he said, it’s time to take the initiative with such action.