Curious
What is the slot or is there a slot in Miss on reds & specs. What are the limits for those species? Thanks
3 reds between 18 and 27 in, but can keep 1 over 27in slot. I let everything go over 25in and under 20in. Love to eat them, but prefer the 20 to 22in fish. We have near optimal growing conditions here for them, and population is strong. Not quite as plentiful as Louisiana marsh though. But WAY more fish than Florida for example.
Trout are 15 fish with minimum length of 15in. Used to be 13in, but population was on the decline and the state raised it to 15in about 5 or 6 years ago. I'm all in favor of the 15 in limit, but recreational fishermen were not causing the population decline. That was caused by the commercial gill netters drawing thru their early summer spawning grounds just off our barrier islands. Now they aren't supposed to commercially trawl for them within a mile of the barrier islands.
Finding 15 trout over 15 in is not easy for sure, so limiting out is actually quite rare. Talked to the game warden on the water Fri afternoon, and most folks he checked 5 miles to the east from where I was fishing had 7 or 8. Even though I knew trout were over there, I didn't want to get in the middle of the crowd. Where I was fishing I saw only 1 other boat Fri, and 1 boat Saturday (plus another boat running dogs for hogs, not fishing). Of course I was past a spot I had to trim the motor out of the water and pole over a sand flat that was only about 5in deep at low tide, so that keeps most folks away in that area. The spots I hit had trout in them back in December, but salinity where I was was fishing was down to zero from all the recent rains, and salinity was a tad better further to the east away from the freshwater rivers, so I suspect the trout migrated there.
