On June 20th, 2024 the redfish creel limit was lowered based upon changes to Louisiana's coast and, by extension, the redfish population.
This has some people up in arms, while others are just doing a quick search to see what the hell is going on.
Well, I'm no journalist or pro writer. Nope! I'm just a guy who has spent entirely too much time fishing Louisiana's coast, has a few facts about the new redfish creel limit as well as an opinion (or two) based upon my inshore fishing experience.
Keep scrolling and you may get a new insight that's different from the same ol' thing being regurgitated on social media.
I'll begin by defining the new creel limit set forth by Louisiana Department of Wildlife & Fisheries (LDWF) and answer some questions that have come up since changing the redfish limit became an issue in the first place:
What is the new redfish creel limit for Louisiana?
The new redfish creel limit in Louisiana is:
- 4 redfish daily limit per angler
- 18-inch minimum and 27-inch maximum
- no bull reds (red drum over 27 inches)
- no guide limits
The above graphic is straight from LDWF's website. The link described at the bottom of the graphic can be found here.
When does this new creel limit go into effect?
The new redfish creel limit went into effect on June 20th, 2024.
How is this different from the previous redfish bag limit?
The old redfish creel limit in Louisiana was:
- 5 redfish daily limit per angler
- 16-inch minimum and 27-inch maximum
- 1 bull red (redfish over 27 inches)
- guide limits allowed
The difference here is that you get to keep one less redfish, and that redfish must be two inches longer than what was previously allowed.
Furthermore, you used to be able to keep one redfish over 27 inches in length, whereas now you cannot keep redfish that long.
On top of that, if you were on a chartered fishing trip, the guide was allowed to catch his limit and give it to you. This also included a deckhand's limit. With the new limit, that is no longer the case, though they are allowed to help you catch your limit (if you so desire).
Why did we drop the limit for redfish in Louisiana?
The short of it is that the redfish population is in dire straits. Simply put, there's not as many redfish as there used to be, and the number of sexually mature redfish required to maintain the stock have been reduced.
This has happened to such a point that they cannot replenish the redfish population faster than we are depleting it.
Yes, I understand that there's a lot of different things that people say otherwise and place their blame on! There's a lot of good points people have said regarding the issue of dropping the redfish limit. If you keep reading, I'll acknowledge those arguments and give you some ideas to consider.
Going back to the redfish limit being dropped:
The biologists at LDWF made a stock assessment in 2022 that indicated something was terribly wrong with Louisiana's redfish population:
You can see that stock assessment in its 148 page splendor at this link here. Let me warn you: it is not for the faint of heart! They have that kind of math with letters in it and more than a few $10 words adorning its pages.
But, if you could make your way through it, a lot of the questions and issues people bring up will be addressed and you'll be that much more knowledgeable about the problem.
Either way, it does paint a pretty damning picture: something is wrong with Louisiana's redfish. Now here come some broad brushstrokes: there was a lot of back and forth between Louisiana Wildlife Commission, a slew of fishing guides of different pedigrees, the Coastal Association (see what I did there?), Joint Natural Resources Committee, and even yours truly.
Don't say I never tried, because I did!
There was a lot of back and forth on the best way to handle the redfish creel limit, and that's putting it lightly. That's because some people just weren't having any problems catching redfish. They thought there was no problem with Louisiana's redfish population because they weren't experiencing such a problem!
This is a fair observation, which leads us to our next question:
But aren't people still catching a bunch of redfish?
Yes! And no! The answer really depends on where you're fishing in Louisiana.
For example, some areas have just been more productive than others. If I wanted to catch a bunch of redfish I would go to a place like Venice, especially when the river is low. I really wouldn't bother with the marsh around Lake Pontchartrain, because there just aren't as many redfish there.
I think what happened is that some people are fishing in the best destinations in Louisiana and aren't seeing much of a difference, whereas people in other parts of Louisiana are scratching their head wondering what happened to the redfish.
This has been my experience, depending on where I am fishing: some places I have found lots of redfish and other places not so much. After all, I don't fish just one area, but across Louisiana's coast.
So, if other people's anecdotal evidence counts, then so does mine: I'd say that there's been an overall decline in the redfish population in Louisiana, with some places being hit harder than others.
My Own Anecdotal Evidence: Redfish Numbers While Sight Fishing
Whenever I go sight fishing for redfish (which is highly recommended for your own inshore fishing development) I bring along a clicker to keep count of how many redfish I see.
This is not redfish caught, but redfish seen. I do this to give me an idea as to how many fish are in an area.
That's a helluva day of sight fishing right there!
On a standard Louisiana sight fishing trip, I'd say that it's average to see about 60 redfish. A really good day would be 200+ or more. Sometimes I would come across schools of redfish that would stretch as far as I could see. These schools are really uncountable, but you get the idea.
However, in recent years, I would go out and count only 20-something redfish after a long day of hitting the water. These are the same bodies of water that I'd easily count 60+ fish in.
So what happened? Well, obviously their numbers aren't exploding.
What I think probably happened to Louisiana's redfish...
Now, what follows are just my own thoughts and ideas. If you want hard science then you need to scroll up and navigate to that 148 page stock assessment.
I think that there are a multitude of things that have contributed to killing redfish and not allowing them to reproduce:
All of those to some degree have contributed to the loss of redfish over the years, but I think the big one was The Freshening.
What is The Freshening?
It's the period of historical flooding from freshwater rivers that took place on Louisiana's coast from 2011 to 2020. In a nutshell, I feel that habitat used by redfish to spawn was made inaccessible.
If you've read this redfish fact sheet, then you know that redfish need a particular salinity in order to spawn, just like speckled trout. Yes, redfish can survive in freshwater, but they still need salty water to reproduce!
I think that salinity was made scarce for sexually mature redfish (aka "bull reds) due to record flooding from rivers across Louisiana's coast, most notably the the Mississippi and Atchafalaya rivers.
That's it in a nutshell, but there is a lot more to it, so you'll find this guide to The Freshening most helpful.
That's a whole lotta river water!
But aren't the bowfishing guides destroying all the redfish?
While this method of taking redfish does not appeal to me — and I've seen less-than-stellar behavior from its proponents — the fact of the matter is that we do not know how many redfish are taken by bowfishing.
Would these redfish be on the table if they had rods instead of bows?
That's why LDWF established a bow fishing permit in order to begin accounting for this effort, which is fair.
After that, the elephant in the room has always been recreational fishermen. Nothing has killed more redfish than dead shrimp on a jighead.
With that said, I do think there's an obvious disparity between the fish having the choice to bite and the fish having no choice of being shot, and that there is a giant difference between destroying marsh with a surface drive and calmly anchoring and casting a line.
Simply put: bowfishing harms Louisiana's fishing more without having to kill as many redfish. But I digress: this guide is not about fishing ethics, it is about the new redfish creel limit. So I'll press on.
Aren't the pogey boats killing all the redfish?
Yes, they definitely kill some and leave them floating in the water. But not as many as recreational anglers take home in an ice chest, at least not according to page 128 of the 2022 Stock Assessment, where recreational anglers still account for 97.9% of the redfish catch:
However, I presume this bycatch is mostly bull reds responsible for spawning new redfish, and not the juvenile slot redfish routinely targeted by inshore anglers.
With that said, when we inshore anglers point our fingers at the menhaden reduction industry for their bull red bycatch, I feel that we are missing the point: what they are actually killing is far worse for Louisiana's entire fishery as a whole.
If you're not sure, then you really ought to save this article I wrote about it to read once you're done here.
The menhaden reduction industry is deadweight on Louisiana's coast, but hasn't hurt redfish as much as the Freshening.
Can Louisiana's redfish population make a comeback?
My personal opinion: maybe.
And that's a big maybe depending on a few things: fishing pressure, the Saltening, the return of speckled trout, subsequent decreased fishing pressure on redfish, and maybe the new redfish limit helping out. I'll explain:
The Saltening, Return of Speckled Trout & Less Fishing Pressure
Again, please keep in mind that these are my opinions based upon personal experience fishing across Louisiana's coast in different boats using a variety of methods over a period of years. Translated: I know just enough to f&#$ this up!
The Fishing Pressure On Redfish Increased During The 2010s
I feel there was an increased fishing effort for redfish during the Freshening, largely due to the fact that speckled trout were pushed further out and made scarce by the record amount of river water.
Seriously, that's what I saw! Guides and anglers who were traditionally trout-diehards were forced to turn their sights to redfish. When I used to guide from 2011-2013 out of Shell Beach, it was somewhat of a heresy to focus only on redfish. Redfish were a Plan B to speckled trout! A guide who came back to the dock with a limit of speckled trout was held in higher regard than another who came back with only a limit of redfish.
Obviously, this didn't apply to everyone, but I definitely saw that culture, and that culture was somewhat changed by the Freshening.
This fishing trip from 2012 wouldn't have been possible had it not been for Plan Redfish! But if the wind laid down we would have certainly tried for trout instead.
Then, all of a sudden, people working part-time non-fishing jobs realized the low barrier-to-entry to becoming a charter captain and the associated easy weekend cash to be made. Yeah, it's not hard passing the Coast Guard's OUPV exam, and it's even less hard to sit in the nearest pond with a bucket of dead shrimp and catch the hell out of redfish.
Anybody becoming a charter captain for any reason other than the love of it (because you had better be about that life!) isn't going to see the virtue of going all-out for a limit of speckled trout. That requires getting up earlier, riding further, cleaning more fish, paying for live bait, etc.
Then there was tournament fishing...
This also coincides with the rise in redfish tournament fishing. Now, these are mostly catch and release tournaments!
I understand that, but even if the discard mortality rate is zero and no redfish ever dies in the livewell or at weigh-in, there's still that many more boats zipping around, burning shorelines, scattering schools and otherwise making life for redfish a living hell. I'm not saying it's right or wrong, I'm saying that's what I've seen.
So, my point here is that the Freshening put more fishing pressure on redfish, and that coincided with an increase in newcomers to inshore fishing (especially the guide industry and tournament fishing) who focused on redfish.
More redfish are being shot, hooked, thrown in a ice chest, run over by a tower boat and all the while their spawns are diminished by the record flooding.
But now the Saltening is upon us!
I feel that the Saltening is helping Louisiana's coastal fishery as a whole bounce back. Oysters, shrimp, trout, redfish, everything!
What is this Saltening? It's the opposite of a Freshening: when Louisiana's rivers go down, the water is able to clear, salinity rise and habitat for inshore species is restored.
Note the amount of river water from the height of the Freshening in 2019 to the last year's Saltening. Big difference!
That it's in a nutshell, but if you're interested to learn more (and see some cool data) then please check out this guide to The Saltening here. Spoiler alert: it's happened before and we know what to expect!
Moving on: now that we have this Saltening, we are seeing the speckled trout make a comeback which, of course, is aided by the new limit introduced last November.
In addition to that, the redfish will be able to get in some good spawns and make new redfish, and there will be good habitat for those redfish to grow in.
So, it's a safe assumption that this could take some of the fishing pressure off the redfish. I certainly hope so!
But will the new redfish limit actually help restore the population?
Given everything mentioned above, it's possible that the redfish population could make a comeback to its former glory without having reduced the bag limit.
But there's a problem: redfish grow slow.
See, I was (and still am) optimistic for speckled trout bouncing back because they grow fast. They become sexually mature in about a year, maybe less depending when they were spawned.
But not redfish! Redfish take about five years to become sexually mature. That's five long years of dodging tower boats, ducking arrows, sidestepping dead shrimp and staying out of an ice chest just to make it to where they can spawn in the first place.
That's why I like the idea of releasing bull reds: those are the breeders we need to restore Louisiana's redfish population.
But they have to get to be that size in the first place, which is why I am not a fan of reducing the bag limit by one and the size limit by two inches. That's because it only reduces the redfish harvest by 36.9%, which barely clears the 35% reduction recommended by LDWF's biologists.
Why the 4-fish bag limit is not that great
The new redfish creel limit isn't great because it puts the population on track to be restored by the year 2050.
Gee, what can possibly go wrong in the next 26 years? Another BP Oil Spill? Another Freshening? More coastal erosion? Another Hurricane Katrina? Hurricane Rita? Ida? I can go on and on!
Twenty-six years! Do you think that's an acceptable time to wait?
What we had originally pushed was a 3-fish bag, 18-24", no bull reds and no guide limits. That would have reduced the annual redfish harvest by 55% and put Louisiana on track to have her redfish population back by 2034.
Ten years or 26 years? Which sounds better to you? Comment below!
Where These Figures Are Coming From
You can find these figures in the chart below, which detail the harvest reduction per slot per creel without keeping one redfish over slot. If it's not obvious, the stricter the limit, the greater the reduction. I sourced it from this report Red Drum Management Scenarios, where you can find more information like it.
You can also watch LDWF's lead marine biologist, Jason Adriance, give his presentation on the stock assessment and management scenarios in this YouTube video:
What will ultimately happen to Louisiana's redfish and inshore fishing as a whole?
All I can do is hope that the Saltening and this new redfish creel limit for Louisiana will bring the fishing back to its former glory. I really don't want to be one of those guys talking about the glory days and only have memories left. That would be tough, especially considering the conservation success stories we see elsewhere in the United States, like that of smallmouth and largemouth bass.
I can be optimistic, because the redfish action was worse during the '80s in the wake of the gill net craze. If we recovered from that, then surely we can recover from this?
After that, I'll continue to set the example by not killing every single redfish I come across. If you're also setting that example, then my hat's off to you!
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What do you think?
I'm sure you have an opinion. It seems like everyone does, especially if you peruse social media where it's easiest to join in on the fray.
But, if you have something insightful to say, even something passionate, then I encourage you to post a comment down below.
I appreciate it when people visit my website, and commenting to let me know is a great way to do that.
Thanks for reading, and tight lines!
Thank you Capt. Devin for the article, it really a very informative and well put. I do agree to the 3 fish limit, you and I fish a lot of the same areas and I have seen the numbers reduced greatly from 2020 until now. My fishing partner, “sixteen year old son” routinely sets the fishing standard on our boat at only 1 red each, he says that as much as he loves to eat reds off the grill he would rather release them for the next angler to experience the catch. We always plan our trips to include our target species, when we head down to Bay St. Louis in a few weeks my son wants to target triple tail, as an example, anything caught besides that will be five trout and 1 red each, those are our limits. When we take family fishing and other guest fishing from out of town for reds it is still one per person, because of the fishing practices that we use for non-anglers like live and dead bait under a popper. Any other time my boat is 100% artificial. I truly believe that we all want what is best for the fishery as a whole as anglers who truly love the sport. At the same time I understand the additional hardships that it could put on professional anglers who guide for a living. A few of the guides that I know say that clients don’t want to keep the fish after the dockside pictures are taken, in my opinion that is a waste to no fault of the guides, they did their job and then get stuck with the filets and the responsibility of making sure the catch doesn’t go to waste. Besides oil and gas the economic boost and draw that the guides provide to the communities in south La. is very important. In the short of it all, I really appreciate all the perspectives given in the comments and agree with all of them to a degree, thanks for providing such a great article, God bless!
You can leave it. I don’t really care about the picture.
Hey Captain John, thanks for visiting my site. I’m glad you spoke up. Yes, I did use your dock shot and, to be fair, it’s just one that came up in an image search. Then I pulled the original post, edited it so that it couldn’t be attributed to you (the cleaning tables at Hopedale Marina are public) or found in facial recognition AI searches.
Yes, I used it as an example because — in the bigger context of the entire redfish debate — bow fishermen representing their interests at the LWF Commission meetings have stated, repeatedly, that there are no problems with the redfish population and they limit out all the time. Of course, we all know better. Everybody has tough trips. Even guys running strike nets back in the day had tough trips.
But, Captain John, you’re certainly honest and well spoken and I appreciate that. If you want me to take the image down, I can do that. If you want me to give you attribution, I can do that as well. After all, you’re using your full name in the comments.
If more bow fishing proponents were as classy as yourself then they’d probably have drawn less ire from the public than what they have. After all, like I mentioned above, it’s clear that bow fishing hasn’t taken as many redfish as the river or dead shrimp on a jighead.
Thanks for visiting, thank you for speaking your mind as awesomely as you have, and I look forward to hearing what you want me to do. Tight lines!
Extremely well explained. Thanks for the thorough appraisal of the situation. More of us should follow the bass fishermen and practice more catch and release
Capt Devin,I see you used a picture from my page for your blog. I don’t want to bash anybody, but I would like to say that certain people that keep bashing bow fisherman only see the pictures on certain nights when the tables are full and don’t count for the nights we go out and don’t shoot too many fish at all. Also thousands of fish that are in deeper water that we cannot see or the biggest thing of all, clients don’t hit a lot of fish while we’re fishing every night. The clients I had on this particular night do this in Florida so they can shoot! If you look at my other posts from this year this is probably my best night of the entire year.
Great article and take on it all. Guaranteed to piss everyone off! Lol! Agree it is complicated and has many contributing factors. Probably the best article I have read yet. Good job!!!
Great article. Very well put together. I was also hopeful for a 3 fish limit. My boys and I spend the majority of our free time fishing together in the Hopedale and Shell Beach zones targeting trout and reds. We only keep what we will eat that week and have always released the mature fish of both species. We anglers need to protect these species for the generations of anglers to come no matter what the government decides is an acceptable limit.
Same here. I just don’t hear people talking about the fish they thawed out to eat. That and fish fillets just don’t keep as well as other kinds of meat (i.e steak, bacon, sausage) and I’m never excited to eat thawed out fish. Which I do eat every week! I have to be very disciplined about it to make it work and I’m just not sure that everyone else keeping fish has that same mindset. I think the mileage varies depending on the person.
After that, I think the idea of keeping fish for a dock shot, “to have them”, is a mindset that we all journey into, but not all journey out of. I know I was big on that: coming back to the dock with a bunch of fish to show off. It took years, but I grew out of it. So I think that, when it comes to managing our fish, people aren’t concerned about managing the fish so much as they are about managing themselves. It’s more psychological than anything, if that makes sense.
I think Louisiana will get there, just twenty years later like she does on everything else.
Either way, thank you for visiting my website! I appreciate that!
I wish more people thought like you did! Thank you so much for visiting my website and taking time to comment!
Fresh fish 100% tastes better. I think Todd Masson does something like what you’re doing and it works for him. I always wondered how many frozen fish ended up getting tossed out after getting freezer burned.
Thank you for visiting my website!
Kerry, you’re welcome!
IIRC, there is a comparison of recreational vs charter catch for redfish in the assessment and the recreational portion was the lion’s share, something like 80-90%. I don’t remember the exact number, but the tens of thousands of private boats certainly took the majority of the redfish harvest. IIRC, it was something similar for speckled trout, too.
Either way, I hope the redfish make a comeback. Thank you for visiting my website, I really appreciate that!
John, I think everyone who’s being honest has noticed a marked change. Again, some places have been hit harder than others, but we are definitely not seeing them shallow like we used to. Thanks for visiting!
Bob, that’s a great point about the crabs. If you could link up any data you have that would be great. Thanks for visiting!
Time will tell. Thank you for visiting my website, Bill!
Good stuff. I wish they went to 3 fish limit too. Hope we can recover it.
You’ve made an excellent point. I think most people just want to overhead cast a cork on spinning tackle, and that their brain recoils in horror at the sight of flipping a Texas Rig on casting tackle. LOL I know, I know, bass can be caught under a cork, but there’s nothing like getting in those reeds in Venice with a flipping rod. It’s bass mania, especially when the river goes down.
With the Freshening we did see more people go to other species. Bass definitely picked up then, but we are seeing them diminish now. They’ll always be there in the fresher parts of the marsh, though. I know sheepshead picked up a bunch. Which is great. There’s tons of those. But something else we’ll see pick back up with the Saltening are the puppy drum.
What’s interesting is that during the Freshening the puppy drum we used to catch on a regular basis practically disappeared! But no one bat an eye, there was no call to lower the limit, it was never part of the conversation. I really didn’t think of that until now. So you’re right, we do have an infatuation with specks and reds that causes us to be blind to great fishing opportunities for other species.
Very good point. I’m glad you brought it up.
Same here! “Cautiously optimistic” is a good way to put it. Ultimately time will tell, and that’s what this whole thing is, a lot of waiting, seeing and experiencing. I really do hope the redfish come back and I can see them in their former glory. After that, I’m just ready for the river to go down and the good sight fishing in the marsh next to it to pick up. Thanks for visiting!
You say nothing about the semi loads of crabs leaving Louisiana headed for Maryland every day.
Six operations in Delacroix now , used to be two. We don’t see crabs on the bottom now , or in the bellies.
No crabs = no reds.
Been chasing reds for over 50 years and I own a place in the Cro. Recreational fishermen always catch the blame while commercial money operations are ignored , every time.
Over the last several years I have certainly noticed a decrease in Redfish in some of my best inshore spots around Cocodrie. Not a pro fisherman but they are becoming scarcer. Something has changed. Glad action is being taken. Hope it’s not too little too late. Thank you for your clear and informative explanation.
Well said. My own anecdotal evidence comes from fishing the Hopedale/Shell Beach area since 1996. The Redfish population in that area is definitely a lot lower than it has been in the past. As you stated, I am not only catching far fewer Reds in that area, I am SEEING far fewer Reds in that area. I personally have not kept a Bull Red since around 2005 or so, and I agree that a 3 fish limit would be more effective. Look at the drastic measures that brought the population back in the 80s; from no limit to 5 fish 16″-27″! Something had to be done, so I am cautiously optimistic for now.
I just can’t help but feel that everyone is jumping on the band wagon to chasing after these two species and if they can’t find them, that’s it they don’t know what to do with themselves, like a kid playing all of his video games and when he’s done, he’s clueless of what to do with himself. When I go out with my wife and dad, my initial target is of course trout and redfish BUT I’m not opposed to chasing after some marsh bass and bringing home a limit of marsh bass. I think we just need to quit holding these two fish like they’re the all-mighty holy grail to where if we can’t find them, that’s it we’re done with the fishing trip, and be more open to chasing after our by catches, which includes marsh bass. The mentality of the Roland martins, jimmy Houston, bill dance, etc I feel is completely irrelevant to our coastal estuary. There is a reason why our bass limit is 10 per person with no size limit, let’s start taking advantage of that so our holy grail species can make a comeback. Capt Devin, correct me if I’m wrong but I believe you had mentioned you know some guides are having to study on becoming bass guides when they were trout/redfish guides. Is it really that bad to go after a limit of marsh bass? They eat the same stuff trout and reds eat for crying out loud! I don’t agree with changing the bag limit or size either but like you capt Devin, I’m optimistic on this change as well.
Very informative and useful info on Redfish limit change. Thank You!
I fish from Lafitte only as far as around Little Lake, Mud Lake areas. Usually catch my redfish limit, long before and especially after hurricane Ida. That storm chopped and diced some marshland shorelines in the area, although it seemed to create more nooks and crannies and openings to concentrate on fishing Reds.
The LDWF Stock Assessment Summary states that Redfish overfishing is occurring.
It also states that Red Drum has been a recreational-only fishery since 1988, No commercial harvests exists. I’ve known this, but disagree. I believe that Charter fishing is akin to commercial harvesting.
From my perspective, the Charter fishing industry in south Louisiana has exploded in the last decade or more, reducing Redfish population and now the weekend fisherman’s limit is reduced. However, I am pleased with the new steps taken regarding Charters.
Here’s a conservation idea: I quit freezing fish and only keep what my family can consume in the 5 days after my trip. For me, most of the fish I would freeze ended up lost and wasted. Also, I find fresh tastes better.
I’m fine with the new limits, and would actually have preferred the three-fish limit as originally proposed. We do need to help them recover, and four (or three) nice slot reds makes for plenty of good eating. If you’re really catching them on a particular day, they make a great catch-and-release target after you’ve filled your limit – strong, tough fighters that are quite hardy and able to survive to be caught again another day. You can always scout new spots, target speckled trout – or flounder, sheepshead, tripletail, etc. – once you’ve got your redfish limit…
I’ve always wondered how many people eat all the fish that are kept anyway. If 4 guys and a guide caught 25 redfish, are they really consuming that. Especially if they travelled from out of state, are they getting that fish home. Same thing with trout when I’ve heard stories of people getting their limit multiple times a week, that’s a lot of fish. If you want/need the fish to eat, awesome, but don’t keep a box of fish just to have a picture to brag about on social media.
I kindly disagree. I think that more inshore anglers need to become part of the civic process. Thanks for visiting! Hope you come back!
Thank you!
Well said capt!
I think the menhaden boats need to move out farther but they wont because too many politicians and Wildlife people have their money coming in from the kickbacks.
Thank you so much for taking time to visit my website! I know checking out blogs like mine isn’t as interesting or attention getting as stuff on social media, so the few people who make their way here are greatly appreciated! Thank you so much!