Recreational saltwater fishermen who enjoy keeping five legal size redfish, including one more than 27 inches long, never will forget July 6.

To quote a well-known scribe’s work from the 1800s: “Nevermore,” unless there is a drastic turn of events between now and December.

The Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Commission adopted a Notice of Intent last Thursday to decrease the daily creel limit from five redfish to three and increase the minimum size limit from 16 inches to 18 inches with a 24-inch maximum size limit. Also, LWFC members also prohibited keeping any redfish longer than 24 inches as well as prohibiting a charter boat captain and crew member(s) from keeping redfish during guide trips. In other words, guides and crew can fish and show anglers how to catch redfish but they cannot harvest any.

The LWFC’s regular meeting dropped that bombshell but also dropped the ball on imposing regulations on recreational fishing for speckled trout again because they were unable to come to an agreement. A fresh proposal to divide the waters off Louisiana’s coast into at least three of the state’s coastal basins and come up with a plan for size and creel limits for each was tabled until the LWFC’s meeting in August.

Why that improbable scenario? Recreational speckled trout fishermen east of the Mississippi River have expressed much discontent via public comment for the proposal from state biologists that was on the table going into the LWFC meeting last Thursday. That proposal, which didn’t fly, would have limited anglers to 15 fish per day within a “slot” of 12-19 inches with two speckled trout longer than 19 inches allowed in the daily creel limit per person. And charter boat captains and crew wouldn’t have had a creel limit of their own.

Those guys to the east reportedly didn’t like that proposal at all because, they claim, they catch larger speckled trout than anglers west of the Big Muddy.

If LWFC members approve the latest speckled trout proposal in August, a public comment period and Legislative oversight will follow, which would mean without opposition the Rule goes into effect Nov. 20.

LWFC’s vote to table was 4-2.

After going back and forth discussing ways to manage speckled trout, which the state has been trying to do for nearly four years running now, commissioners turned their attention to redfish.

A proposed 18- to 27-inch slot limit for redfish with a four-fish daily creel limit (none over 27 inches) failed. That plan entailed a 30-year rebuilding period, Jason Adriance, Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries marine biologist and finfish program manager, said.

Commissioner Joe McPherson took public comment into consideration and introduced another motion to reduce the plan to an 18- to 24-inch slot limit with a day creel limit of three redfish per person (none over 24 inches) with charter boat captains and crew unable to harvest redfish.

Adriance said available data indicates McPherson’s plan will cut recovery time to as little as 11 years. The veteran marine biologist said the “escapement” rate for juvenile redfish is too low, i.e., the percentage of young redfish passing through the recreational fishery from inshore waters to the spawning stock offshore is 20 percent when the established escapement rate for management calls for 30 percent.

The redfish proposal isn’t a done deal. The NOI is the first of many steps leading to a final Rule, a process that can span between 90 days and a year. A public comment period starts after the NOI is published in the State Register. The LWFC members will take public comments into consideration and could make changes they deem necessary or appropriate.

If there are no LWFC amendments to the NOI, the proposal will be reviewed by the Legislative Oversight Committee. Upon expiration of the 30-day oversight period, or upon favorable review by the committee, the proposal can be published as final in the State Register.

According to a veteran outdoors writer for The Advocate, Joe Macaluso, in a story posted July 8, the new redfish regulations could become law the week before Christmas.

Louisiana’s many saltwater fishermen can express their thoughts on the proposed redfish Rule (ditto for the speckled trout proposal) by submitting comments to Jason Adriance, Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, Box 98000, Baton Rouge, LA. 70898-9000, or email to jadriance@wlf.la.gov before noon Thursday, Oct. 5.

DON SHOOPMAN is outdoors editor of The Daily Iberian.