Overtime Outdoors: Ready or not, speckled trout limit laws change on Nov. 20 for La.

Published 12:00 pm Tuesday, November 14, 2023

Speckled trout harvest regulations on speckled trout are scheduled to change Nov. 20 across Louisiana. After several years of studies, public hearings and back and forth claims about the health of the fishery, Monday ushers in a new era of a 13- to 20-inch minimum length limit and a 15-inch creel limit, of which two fish over 20 inches are allowed (photo provided)

Love it or hate it, a new era of recreational speckled trout fishing starts Nov. 20 in Louisiana.

The countdown to the last days of the current size and creel limit ends Monday when the speckled trout size and daily creel limits change significantly to a 13- to 20-inch minimum size limit and to a 15-fish daily creel limit, of which two fish can be more than 20 inches long, according to a prepared statement released Nov. 7 by the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries. Also, charter boat captains and crew members cannot keep a creel limit while chartering.

Those who violate the limits face fines up to $350, plus restitution costs of $28.97 per illegal speckled trout.

Currently, Louisiana speckled trout fishermen must follow a 12-inch minimum length limit while keeping up to 25 speckled trout in the daily creel limit. That ends Nov. 20.

The new speckled trout laws affect everyone, some more than others, who fishes for the species recreationally.

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On his Facebook page Nov. 10, Acadiana Charters LLC owner Shane Johnson, a veteran charter boat guide on Vermilion Bay and accomplished bass fishing guide at Toledo Bend, posted this message above a photo showing beaucoup speckled trout on a large cleaning table: “… I’m sad that today could possibly by my last day fishing under the existing trout regulations, and the last full table of trout I’ll ever be part of. If that’s the case, we (are) going out with a bang after what’s shaping up as the best year of trout fishing in at least a decade for all estuaries across the entire coast.”

The New Iberia outdoorsman noted he and his wife, Quinlynn, were leaving Saturday for a 10th-year anniversary six-day vacation in Arizona. Before Johnson headed west, he spoke about the new laws, sometimes with bitterness.

When Johnson says, “You know what? I’m not worried about it,” he’s talking about the 15-fish daily creel limit as it affects him personally and professionally as a highly successful charter boat captain. However, as a saltwater fisherman who cares, he fears for the future of speckled trout because of the new 13- to 20-inch “slot limit.”

“Fifteen fish is fine for me. I’m not a greedy person,” he said.

Johnson has polled regular customers over the past few months and they have said the daily creel limit won’t keep them from going on repeat charters with him.

He draws the line in the sand over the 13-inch minimum length limit.

“When you bump the limit to 13, that’s going to bump up the mortality rate on smaller trout,” he said, citing records from his trips over the last half-a-decade that small male fish will be impacted the most by overfishing and, as a result, smaller female speckled trout. That’s a double whammy in his book.

He wonders aloud about the science, or, perhaps, the lack of it, behind the size limit changes. He is baffled by the fact charter boat captains’ experiences and knowledge basically was ignored, he said, by those studying the issue the past few years.

“It’s going to hurt the small ones and hurt the big ones … all over 1 inch. I’ve been saying that from the beginning. It’s something dear to me. I’m passionate about it,” he said.

Johnson said he was hopeful the “speckled trout biomass was resilient enough” to survive the impact of the state’s recent decision.

Sport fishing for speckled trout was unregulated until 1977, when a 50-fish daily creel limit was slapped on speckled trout and redfish. In 1984, the possession limit was reduced again and a new saltwater fishing license was introduced.

The 12-inch minimum size limit was imposed in 1987 and the daily creel limit cut to 25 in 1988 for Louisiana’s sport fishermen. Those regulations remain until Monday.

The new size limit and creel limit will be in effect for at least five more years.

According to the prepared statement released Nov. 8 by the LDWF, the new regulations are scheduled to “sunset:” at midnight Jan. 1, 2028. LDWF staffers are required to give an up-to-date stock assessment before the LWFC monthly meeting in April 2027, to give commissioners an opportunity to modify the regulations, if necessary, before January 2028.

No one can argue speckled trout have a big target on their back. Anglers caught an average of 6.5 million speckled trout each year since 2013. The best year for recreational harvest was 9.6 million fish in 2000 while the poorest year was 2.6 million fish in 1990.

Keo Khamphilavong and Bo Amy, two of the Teche Area’s most avid recreational saltwater fishermen, also chimed in on the upcoming changes. They said they were OK with the reduced creel limit, and, for the most part, the larger minimum length limit.

Khamphilavong, of New Iberia, said Nov. 10 while in a deer stand on his lease in the Midwest, “You know what? I’m fine with that. Fifteen speckled trout is plenty. We don’t keep many. We fish so much we give fish away.

“We’re still going to fish. We’re not going to do anything different, you know?”

As for the 13-inch minimum length limit, Khamphilavong, 59, said he thought it was a stretch to go from 12 inches to 13 inches.

“You know how many 12-inchers are going to be dead?” he asked, rhetorically.

At the same time, he said, filets from a 13-inch fish present more meat than from a 12-inch fish.

Amy, who started fishing speckled trout with his dad, Troy Amy, when he was 4, agreed with Khamphilavong.

“I mean, with a 12-inch trout, you get little filet out of that. A 13- to 20-inch trout,” the 36-year-old outdoorsman said, offers plenty of filet.

Amy also said about the daily creel limit, “I think it’s a good thing, to be honest with you. Dad feels the same way. Fifteen trout really is all you need. We don’t fill up the freezer like we used to do. We don’t do that anymore.”

Most of the time these days he’ll keep five fish, which is enough for the family, he said.

Amy, 36-year-old thread rep for VAM USA, also said proposed changes in redfish regulations are a “bunch of b.s., to be honest with you.”

Khamphilavong, like Amy, agreed anglers who probably will feel the brunt of the new speckled trout laws are charter boat captains. The Keo’s Construction owner, who has been fishing inside waters around here since 1982, said he realizes how much the new regs adversely affect charter boat captains who operate in and around Vermilion Bay.

The speckled trout season here, he said, is seasonal down here.

“We’re so influenced by the river water (Atchafalaya River stage),” Khamphilavong said, noting high water usually into June, sometimes July.

Until the Atchaflaya River stage at Butte La Rose falls below 10.0 feet, the water’s generally too fresh for speckled trout to come in. Much of the fishing pressure is on redfish until then and even later.

Johnson’s argument against denying charter boat captains a limit while on a trip is that he has a valid resident saltwater fishing license, just like anyone else, and has a right to keep fish he catches.

The new era and whatever it brings begins Monday.

DON SHOOPMAN is outdoors editor of The Daily Iberian.