One of the hundreds of avid offshore fishermen making plans to fish the first day of the recreational red snapper season has been getting his big boat ready for more than a month.

Jacques Hebert of Patoutville, an accomplished boat captain, has Sea Mistress in dry dock at Bayview Inn, Cypremort Point, where he is cleaning the hull and doing maintenance on the twin 430-h.p. C Series Cummins engines that power the 36-foot Lafco hull. He enjoys every minute of preparation leading up to the May 26 opener in Louisiana’s state and federal waters.

“I like working on boats. I like driving boats. I like fishing on boats,” Hebert said recently.

The Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Commission announced the season opening date for the recreational harvest of red snapper on April 6. The season includes seven days a week with a daily creel limit of three red snapper per person and a 16-inch minimum length limit.

The 2023 season will remain open until recreational landings approach or reach the state’s recreational allocation of 934,587 pounds, up from 809,315 in 2022. LWFC officials will attempt to preserve enough allocation for the Labor Day Weekend.

Hebert, 63-year-old owner of Streamline Industries, an innovative leader in machining and manufacturing of specialized equipment for various industries, including oil and gas, wholeheartedly welcomes the seven days a week season.

“I’m happy with seven days. There are plenty of fish out there. They’re not being overfished,” he said, adding inclement weather on weekends have ruined plans for many offshore fishing trips over the years.

“This gives you flexibility,” he said.

Jason Adriance, Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries biologist, said the red snapper fisheries has been in good shape the past five years.

“I don’t see any issues with the fisheries at this time,” Adriance said April 6.

That’s a major reason regulations for the recreational harvest of red snapper have been loosened for offshore anglers in the Sportsman’s Paradise.

Weather permitting, Sea Mistress will be heading into the Gulf to tap the red snapper population that Friday. He’ll have the boat in the water as soon as the cleaning and maintenance is finished and that should be in plenty of time.

“When it’s ready, we’ll ride out there, catch our fish and come back. If we don’t catch anything, that’s all right, too,” Hebert said.

Sea Mistress usually ventures out for overnight trips with a crew of four to five anglers as the storied boat comfortably sleeps four people but on a one-day outing goes out with as many as seven anglers.

Hebert has yet to line up a crew for the season opener but said with a knowing chuckle, “I’m sure Lannie Buteau will be waiting at the dock with a fishing rod.”

Hebert and Buteau, of New Iberia, have fished the Gulf of Mexico together for decades. It’s rare they don’t return from those offshore trips with fish packed in ice chests.

The 62-year-old Buteau can’t wait to wet a line. When told he’d probably be waiting at the dock he said, “That’s for sure. I’d have to say I’m more than ready to get out there and catch some (red) snapper and not just snapper. That mangrove (snapper) fishing is a lot of fun trying to get the mangrove out of a rig. So I’m looking forward to doing that after we get our limit of (red) snapper.”

Buteau, a service coordinator for Halliburton who also works weekends as co-owner of Landry’s Restaurant of New Iberia, wondered aloud if he’ll know what to do with the fishing rod in hand.

“I just hope I can remember how to catch a fish. It’s been a while,” he said with a soft laugh.

He’ll welcome the break, for sure, he said.

As for the rest of the crew, he said, “I would love to get the old crew together, Paul and Malcolm (Paul Migues and his father, Malcolm Migues). It would be great to get out there with those guys. Catch some mangroves, catch some snapper.”

Like Hebert, Buteau likes the seven days a week season as opposed to the three-day weekends of the past up until last year.

“I think you get more opportunities, get more days. Weather’s not always going to cooperate, so when you have just weekends and you get bad weather you don’t get much opportunities,” Buteau said.

The first opp is right around the corner.