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Is red snapper data flawed?
Without a doubt, the most contentious fisheries management issue in Louisiana today is about how red snappers are being managed.[…]
Creature Feature
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Crawfish: It’s what’s for dinner
The sheer numbers of crawfish in the Atchafalaya Basin is amazing, if only for the reason that Louisiana has the lowest number (39) of species of crawfish of all the southeastern states in the U.S.[…]
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Creature Feature: Shark biology 1001
Finding most sharks difficult to identify, with the risk of keeping a protected species and getting a ticket, most sportsmen simply release them.[…]
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This pompano relative calls Louisiana waters home
Permit, the glamor fish of tropical flats fishing, are more common in Louisiana than most people realize.[…]
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Creature Feature: The little shad is a good shad
In this month’s Creature Feature column, Jerald Horst tells you everything you wanted to know — and more — about differences between gizzard and threadfin shad. […]
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Let’s call a spade a spade
They are everywhere. If you fish offshore at oil and gas platforms, clouds of the convict-striped fish are often visible underwater. Atlantic spadefish are a dominant species in the fish communities that develop around platforms.[…]
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The bigorneaux is escargot
There’s a vicious predator out there.
It lurks deep in Louisiana’s vast coastal marshes.[…]
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So what’s a sunperch?
Louisiana’s bream fishermen have a pile of fish to choose from. Tops on the list are bluegills and redear sunfish (also called lake runners or chinquapin). And fat-bellied goggle-eyes are always in the mix somewhere. In a lot of places, you can throw in some green sunfish (slick perch) or red-spotted sunfish (stumpknockers). […]
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Tarpon are quirky creatures
For all their glitz and glamour, tarpon are very close to just being giant pogies (menhaden) that eat fish. They are really primitive beasts. On the evolutionary scale, they and their close cousins ladyfish and bonefish are just one step ahead of garfish and bowfin (choupique), but more primitive than eels, shad, sardines and pogies.[…]
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The silver king
When an angler sets a hook in a tarpon, there is an explosion. There’s no delayed action fuse in this fish. The water erupts and a platinum-silver streak shears the surface with the force of a depth charge exploding.[…]
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Venom puts the sting in stingrays
If there is a fish that saltwater anglers dislike hooking more than a hardhead catfish, it’s got to be a stingray. The presence of the truly venomous sting on their tail means there really is no good way to unhook them. […]
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Gaspergou are everywhere
As common as gaspergou are in Louisiana and the United States, few people realize how unique this freshwater species really is. Virtually any waters that connect with the Mississippi, Pearl and Mobile river systems and all the Great Lakes except Lake Superior are home to the species — 27 states.[…]
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Meet the best-tasting grouper: yellowedge
In recent years, a whole new world has opened up for offshore fishermen. Beset by lengthy season closures for gag and scamp groupers, red snappers, amberjacks and even triggerfish, as well as tight bag limits and restrictive size limits, many offshore fishermen began to wonder if owning a boat was worth it.[…]
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Pompano: The glamour fish
Some fish are work horses: They’re strong and can pull heavy loads all day. That’s a redfish. Others are race horses. They are sleek and fast, but poop out quickly — that’s a speckled trout.[…]
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Crappie can be hard to figure out
Winston Churchill coined the term “a riddle, wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.” He was referring to Russia, but he could just as likely have been talking about crappie management.[…]
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Cubera snapper
Some people call them “menacing.”
But pound for pound, cubera snappers probably are no meaner than red snappers, themselves well-known bullies. […]