Red Snapper (photo courtesy of Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries)
LDWF closed the private recreational Red Snapper season in state and federal waters off the Louisiana coast earlier this month, but there is a hope there will be another Red Snapper fishing opportunity again this summer. LDWF assistant secretary Ryan Montague says the season had to close because Louisiana is approaching its statewide quota, but LA creel is still counting what was caught during the first week of August.
“Our hope is that we are able to reopen the season and allow fishing through Labor Day Weekend,” Montague said.
There is disappointment among some anglers that the Red Snapper season ended in August, but Montague says this year’s Red Snapper season has been a great success thanks to active state management through LA Creel.
“We still had a 101-day season, and we’ve caught close to 882,000 pounds of fish,” Montague noted.
Montague says last year’s Red Snapper season did not end until November, but red snapper was overfished last year, so that lowered the quota to 882,000 pounds of Red Snapper that were allowed to be harvested this year. He says it’s hard to predict when the red snapper season will end, there are a lot of variables.
“We can’t predict the season end date because it totally depends on weather and it depends on fishing effort; and that changes very often,” Montague explained.
LDWF Secretary Tyler Bosworth adds that anglers showed up and showed for the two 5-fish holiday weekend limits.
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