Louisiana State Rep. Joseph Orgeron's House Bill 604, introduced April 4, would allow anglers to get their hands on a bull red, currently outlawed, for a $25 tag. THE DAILY IBERIAN FILES

Outdoorsmen around here and across the state probably foresaw a recent legislative action coming ever since new creel limit and size limit restrictions on the recreational redfish harvest went into effect last year on June 20 in Louisiana.

One of the new regulations prohibited keeping any redfish more than 27 inches long across Louisiana’s Gulf Coast. Other new redfish regulations implemented that day included a reduction from a five-fish daily limit per angler to four fish and a size limit with a minimum of 18 inches and a maximum of 27 inches.

The reception among the state’s many saltwater fishermen was mixed from just west of Lake Charles all the way east to Slidell. Banning the possession of bull reds, those big redfish over 27 inches long, struck a raw nerve among many anglers who enjoy catching and keeping bull reds.

There were and still are beaucoup sport fishermen, including those across Acadiana, who like to target bull reds and would like to bring home one over 27 inches long, which was allowed by law before June 2024. Also allowed for a few decades up until then was a five-redfish creel limit and a size limit all between 16 and 27 inches with one of the redfish over 27.

But that was then and this is now. There was grumbling and a gnashing of teeth, of course, when the new law took effect and some of those bull red fishing aficionados pointed to our neighboring state, Texas, and its regulation allowing one bonus bull red per year at an extra cost.

Fast forward 10 months from June 20. State Rep. Joseph Orgeron, who lives in Golden Meadow, introduced a bill April 4 in the 2025 Regular Legislative Session authorizing the state Department of Wildlife and Fisheries and Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Commission to make rules and regulations to establish a “red drum” program to allow taking a redfish larger than 27 inches in Louisiana. It has been referred to the House Natural Resources and Environment Committee.

HB 604 filed by the Republican from District 54 requires the health of the redfish population to be considered in specific, designated areas along our coast when making tags available for killing redfish larger than 27 inches. It also established a $25 fee for the special tag and provides for the expenditure of the fee.

Orgeron’s bill also stipulates money generated by the additional fee for a bull red tag be used to fund the program and any remaining money be deposited into the new Marine Finfish Stock Enhancement Fund. In other words, to fund a finfish hatchery.

There are outdoorsmen who are all for this bill and the opportunity it gives people to ice down a bull red. And others not so much.

One interested observer informed me he prefers a price for the bull redfish tag be comparable to what someone would pay for civil restitution of the redfish as if it was caught over the limit. That’s an idea to consider, for sure.

At least one group, the American Saltwater Guide Association, went on record April 11 totally against HR 604.

“Can you imagine a world where big redfish will be harvested again in Louisiana for a mere $25 to fund a hatchery to grow biologically substandard fingerling redfish? We couldn’t either, but then House Bill 604 arrived courtesy of Representative Orgeron,” the ASGA wrote in a story posted on its website April 11.

“Going back to killing redfish is a terrible idea, especially considering the current state of the stock and the freeze event this winter. … Having anglers pay to kill these fish to fund a private hatchery to stock fingerling redfish goes beyond a terrible idea.”

Bull reds, finfish biologists and others agree, are the foundation of the fishery. That was the impetus behind the unanimous approval of a resolution in May 2023 from Sen. Bret Allain, R-Franklin, that urged the LWFC to adopt a new limit prohibiting anglers from keeping redfish over 27 inches long. That started the wheels rolling to the day the new redfish law went into effect in June 2024.

An LDWF stock assessment in 2022 showed recreational landings were at the lowest level recorded since the 1980s, and the amount of redfish spawning was trending downward since 2005. Allain’s resolution signaled legislative support for new redfish regulations to the LWFC. That eventually happened within the period of a little more than one year.

It’ll be interesting to follow the path of the new bull red bill by Orgeron. Will it sink or swim?

DON SHOOPMAN is outdoors editor of The Daily Iberian.