Intersting thread for those who didn't attend TPWD meeting

[shallowist]

I didn't see much of a showing from my FWE brothers and sisters, so here's a good thread from the other place about what was said last night in Dickinson.

http://2coolfishing.com/ttmbforum/showthread.php?t=319871

[nokatchin]

Min.14 inches,keep the first 10.Folks that dont know how to catch and release fish kill more than survive.Maybe start by opening up cuts that have silted in over the years and let the bay systems "breathe" again.

[Curmudgeon]

Thanks for the update, Steve. I couldn't make it.

Now, since I'm a newbie, I don't think I've ever come close to catching 10 specks, but they might have a point. But why reduce the limits by half? Why not 7 or 8?

[Curmudgeon]

D'oh! Now I understand why 5 instead of 7.

[Oleander Kayaker]

Steve, you made a good point about culling.

If the limits are reduced, catches during the course of the day will tend to be culled (smaller trout thrown back, as more desirable are caught) and the culled fish will not as likely survive the treatment, hence more killed fish.

For that alone I'd support leaving the limits as they are.

[Swells]

The TPWD has a very good fact sheet about the various proposals for managing trout especially in the middle coast such as Aransas and San Antonio Bay. The trout aren't over-fished and there is no overfishing, but still the numbers bump around sometimes quite low.

As the fact sheet explains, it's not really the fishermen killing the fish, but rather a problem where there aren't enough juveniles, called recruitment. So if you reduce some of the fishing pressure, in theory recruitment could get better. Note that TPWD cant really prove this, and down here by the Lower Laguna Madre, we haven't noticed a big difference with the 5 fish limit, although there do seem to be a few larger ones.

[Steve_A]

The point was made that maybe redfish populations are causing a problem with trout stocks (eating trout fry, depleting available forage for trout.....) The response was that the commission has offered to increase the redfish limit and it was declined by those surveyed.

I thought this was a good point, I would be interested in seeing the limits for reds go to 5, and 18"-27" for the slot. Maybe take some of the pressure off the trout. Lot of good points and different opinions, but you're not going to please everyone. I don't believe the fishermen are having much effect on the fish populations. If they were really interested in increasing the fishery, they would stop dragging nets on the bay floors, but that will never happen with all the money that is involved

[Swells]

Wow I forgot about the redfish problem, and down here we have a snook problem too - they're out competing the trout for bait.

But I got a very depressing PM from a gentleman this morning who said that a bunch of very large Louisiana oyster dredge boats were working in the area between Matty and Port A, churning up the bottom really bad. He said it was some deal with BP because of the oil spill. I wasn't aware of that, although I know it's oyster season now. So they're dredging the eel grass and oyster beds really fast and that's never good for the fish usually.

[Muddskipper]

I was there with my statement.

Couple of points need to be made.
1st -Manage the coast in 3 sections - upper middle, and lower
2nd - the upper coast is doing just fine in surveys, its the middle coast that has the delcine
with that point, the middle and lower coast tend to do more trophy fishing than the upper coast who like to do more fihsing for the table.
If the limits are chnaged to 5 the over all size of bigger fish will go up as we wont be keeping the volume.
3rd -The data that TPWD is collecting is by far the best in the nation, we as fisherman need to have a better understanding of that data so we can come to our on conclusion on how we would like the resource to be managed.
4th - Education is key like the above statement. But there are so many out there that do not know who to properly hold a fish that is going to be released, or don't understand conservation measures. We have Boaters education, and hunters education - WHY NOT FISHING EDUCATION ...... it would not be mandtory, but think of how many could benifit from it, and there would need to be a perk if someone did it!
LAST - PEOPLE are drawing a conclusion with out seeing the positive data on certain systems, like Galveston. For instance, there was a vote last night at the CCA Sugarland chapter that they all felt there needed to be a 5 torut limit. BUT NONE HAD seen the data that was being presented at the TPWD meeting the same night 30 miles away!!!!
- KNOW WHAT your voting for before making the vote and have all your information to understand it!!!!

[TTU Wader]

I'm just curious, all these throwback trout that die...where do they go? With the armada of boats in upper west bay culling through them in the winter, you think you would see them floating around everywhere, right?

[Oleander Kayaker]

I'm just curious, all these throwback trout that die...where do they go? With the armada of boats in upper west bay culling through them in the winter, you think you would see them floating around everywhere, right?

Good point, there are an awful lot of postings that document throwbacks, undersize catches and empty stringers. But they get thrown back shortly after catching, with a better chance of survival.

Though, my earlier post implies removing slots off the stringer for a better fish, later in the day, to stay under the limit. Don't know how common (if at all) that might be or become with a smaller limit.

[Robalo]

If anything is to be done, drop the size to 14". Look at Sleaziana-25 trout, 12" minimum. At 14" they at least spawn twice is my understanding-also increase reds to 5 between 18-27". The purpose of red limits was due to Paul Prudhomme's bullchit and purse seiners swooping up entire schools-well that chit stopped, so go back to eatable sized reds and be done with it. My worthless 2 cents.

Alex: They get et by crabs, hardheads, piggies and sharks-they become part of food chain.

[TTU Wader]

Alex: They get et by crabs, hardheads, piggies and sharks-they become part of food chain.

Ya ya I know that happens eventually but on a weekend when there are a chit ton of boats out throwing back undersized trout, you figure you would see a bunch of dead ones floating.

[WestEndAngler]

I emailed Art Morris and shared with him my thoughts since I was out of town for the meeting.

[shallowist]

They actually brought up the point that the size could be raised to 16 inches and possibly would create greater "recruitment" ie, more juveniles due to increased spawning population. The by product was thought to be....again.....increased mortality from so many undersized fish being handled incorrectly.