Texans Continuing Croaker Debate

What’s the furor over a little finfish? Texas guides’ opinions, always a hotbed for change and divergent views, are once again raising debate over the use of live croakers to catch trophy trout.

After a yearlong fight in the Lower Laguna Madre (LLM) concerning a 20-year declining trout population, Dr. Larry McKinney, Head of Coastal Fisheries for the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD), and concerned anglers lobbied the court of public opinion and won lower bag limits for the famed waters. The rule changes effectively regionalized the Texas coastal waters much as Florida has. Throughout the discourse, professional guides, local fishing publications and concerned recreational fishermen raised a number of issues detailing the source of the decline. The most common concerns were water quality and the use of croaker as bait.

Not surprisingly, concerns about declining trout stocks have migrated north of the LLM. Top guides such as Bill Pustejovsky and Walter Schelle are fearing a downturn in the number of trophy trout catches in the landlocked bay system of Matagorda. Capt. Pustejovsky says, “The decline started when livewells began appearing on guide boats.” Pustejovsky has guided anglers on Matagorda Bay for 40 years, so his comments do not fall on deaf ears at TPWD.

However, Texas Parks and Wildlife’s data did not confirm a downturn in speckled trout populations. Contrarily, the information represented a healthy and thriving Matagorda Bay trout population. The assessment was “TPWD has the largest and oldest data sets regarding fish populations of all natural resource departments, and the spring gill net studies in Matagorda showed the healthiest population and largest trophy trout gill net catch in the last twenty years.”

Fall gill net studies came back indicating a small downturn in trout populations, according to Bill Balboa, TPWD biologist appointed as Ecosystem leader of the Galveston Bay complex. Balboa says excessive rainfall runoff is the culprit for the small drop in populations in the fall gill nets. Due to heavy summer rainfall at the height of the trout spawn, the Colorado River drained an entire year’s worth of runoff into the Matagorda Bay system in July alone. And trout spawning requires higher salinity than what was present for egg incubation.

Although concerned anglers are pleading for statewide trout regulation changes, TPWD currently has no plan to lower trout bag limits, ban baiting with croaker, or prevent guides from using croaker in Matagorda. However, Balboa and TPWD will continue to monitor the trout populations in Matagorda Bay.

In the interim, officials at TPWD have agreed to investigate the situation further if increasing numbers of recreational anglers rally for change. The landlocked topography of Matagorda will make a great test bed for a change in current regulations. Captains Pustejovsky www.goldtipguideservice.com and Schelle www.matagorda-bay.com are actively petitioning anglers to support the ban of croaker as bait through their Web sites.
--Brandon Shuler

The Numbers are In: Conservation Equals Good Fishing

If you have ever grumbled about strict recreational bag limits and closed seasons and such, consider this: Fishing participation data for specific marine fisheries indicate that conservation measures improved sport fishing.

For example, Atlantic Coast marine fishing trips for striped bass grew from one million to seven million per year after severe harvest restrictions were placed on stripers from 1986 to 1996. That many anglers aren’t out for fresh air alone. The fishing has rebounded tremendously. In Florida, since redfish were given gamefish status in the late ’80s, red drum fishing trips increased nearly 220 percent by 2003. From 1991 to 2003, coinciding with commercial net restrictions and tighter recreation bag limits, snook fishing trips increased by approximately 950 percent.

New Artificial Reef placed in Louisiana’s Calcasieu Lake

A new artificial reef near Turner’s Bay Island in Calcasieu Lake, Louisiana is now in place. The enhancement to the Louisiana Artificial Reef Program will increase hard-bottom habitat. The Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries (LDWF), in partnership with the Coastal Conservation Association of Louisiana, coordinated this reef project. The Chevron Corporation, Dynamic Industries and Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Foundation funded the project and in-kind contributions were provided by Matt Durand Construction and NOAA Lafayette.

“Partnerships of this type make up the backbone of LDWF’s Artificial Reef Programs,” said Mike Harbison, LDWF Marine Fisheries Division biologist manager, Lake Charles.

The reef is constructed of crushed limestone which is ideal for building low-profile artificial reefs. It minimizes the impacts on other user groups such as shrimping and navigational interests. The reef material was unloaded and placed on the bottom of Calcasieu Lake at latitude 30 degrees 03 minutes 20.114 seconds N and longitude 93 degrees 18 minutes 26.509 seconds W.

Stripers Forever Calls for a Ban on Striper Yo-Yoing

The practice of “yo-yoing,” a destructive fishing technique commonly used by commercial striped bass fishermen in Massachusetts and elsewhere, should be outlawed, according to Brad Burns, President of Stripers Forever.

In a letter to Massachusetts Department of Marine Fisheries Director Paul Diodati, Stripers Forever calls for putting an end to this practice. Yo-yoing, a technique in which sinkers often containing large amounts of lead are inserted into dead baitfish and connected to a treble hook, kills excessive numbers of striped bass.

“Undersize bass that swallow a yo-yo rig can’t be released and larger fish that escape with these rigs in their bellies are doomed,” said Burns. “The problem with this barbaric fishing technique goes even further. The weights often contain large amounts of lead which can be fatal to stripers, and affected fish are a potential health hazard to anyone who eats them.”

Stripers Forever is a national, Internet-based organization that advocates gamefish status for the wild striped bass by eliminating all commercial fishing for the species in state waters—through a fair buyout program if necessary—and managing the resource for the three million-plus anglers who fish for stripers from North Carolina to Maine.

Stripers Forever encourages concerned recreational striper anglers to contact Massachusetts Marine Fisheries Director Paul Diodati at (617) 626-1530; or email him at paul.diodati@state.ma.us to voice disapproval of commercial yo-yoing. For further information, contact Brad Burns, President of Stripers Forever, at stripers@whatifnet.com or visit www.stripersforever.org.

SWA