This past Wednesday, the Louisiana House Natural Resources Committee met to consider several legislative bills, including HB604. This bill would’ve established a program for purchasing tags to kill red drum over the 27 inch maximum size limit. A limited number of tags would be sold for a fee of $25 each.
We’re relieved to say that, after receiving numerous emails and phone calls in opposition, and further testimony at the hearing from opponents, that the author has retracted the bill, essentially killing it for the 2025 session.
During the comment period, Capt. Ty Hibbs (representing a consortium of fly fishing guides) and Glen ‘Catch’ Cormier, representing the FFI Gulf Coast Council, testified that this proposal comes just a year after the LWF Commission passed new regulations which have Louisiana managing redfish at the margins – essentially 26 years of recovery to meet the Spawning Potential Ratio (SPR) conservation standard of 30 percent.
Hibbs also mentioned that no complete assessment of the record freeze back in January has been released, in which thousands of redfish were killed. And that now was a horrible time to consider increasing harvest. Cormier pointed out that these same legislators voted unanimously just 16 months ago for a resolution asking LDWF to ban the take of all mature red drum.
After this testimony, the bill’s author, Rep. Joseph Orgeron, then asked the committee to pull HB604 from consideration.
Many kudos to our friends in the American Saltwater Guides Association, in particular Tony Friedrich and Capt. Bailey Short, the Louisiana Wildlife Federation, and the Louisiana fly fishing and kayak fishing community who responded with emails and phone calls to help squash this terrible and untimely legislation.
