Speckled Trout and Flounder limits take effect Aug 1, 2019

Jayhook sez:

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THIS IS A LONG READ BUT SOME BEHIND THE SCENES INFO FROM 28-30 YEARS AGO. So the new regs passed by the CAB for trout are 6 fish within a slot of 15-22” with an allowance of one fish being over the maximum. This is the first change in Alabama regs on speckled trout since sometime in the early to mid 90’s when the limit was 10 and it had a provision for 2 undersized fish. The provision was in place to allow anglers to keep fish that may have been hooked deeply and were not going to survive and they could be utilized rather than just thrown back. Through our roving creel surveys, it had been documented that a majority of anglers were just simply keeping the first 2 underside trout and using the undersized portion of the reg in a way that was unintended so the 2 fish allowance was taken away so to speak.
We Caught 1,000 undersized trout and stocked them in the ponds at the hatchery at Claude Peter Mariculture Center. They were then Caught again using artificial and live bait, single and treble hooks They were released into separate ponds and harvested 30 days later. Overall survival was much better than expected.
The biologist in charge is no longer there and the former hatchery manager/Director Vernon Minton has since passed away. There were so many variables that could have been measured that it was decided to just catch them and release and give no direction on how to handle the fish (this was an attempt to replicate all the different ways that average and experienced fisherman alike might release their fish) but just to keep a very accurate count of the number of fish released into the pond. We held them for 30 days after they were caught, drained the pond and got a survival count. Some fish were handled with towels, both wet and dry, and others simply by hand.
Worst mortality was less than 20% if I remember. Best was between 0 and 10%. We had some lifelong fisherman and some that were average at best. There was no silver bullet that pointed to fish being caught on artificial lures or bait (whether single or treble hook) being more apt to not survive or not.
In all fairness to the results of the study, released fish usually die for several reasons in the wild all being stress related...hooked deeply, incorrectly handled or out of the water too long, delayed mortality from infection (usually Vibrio sp.) due to protective slime layer loss, and predation from larger fish. We didn’t have the predation issue in ponds.
WHAT WE DID DECIDE...AND THERE WAS NO WAY TO MEASURE so it wasn’t conclusive and not written up but The fish caught by the more experienced fishermen lived best. WHY? Again, no way to measure....BUT... those fishermen, due to experience, released the fish the fastest and none of them used towels at all. They handled them strictly by hand.
Agencies back then did not have the internet as we know it and information exchange was so much slower than in today’s society. Agiencies DO NOT take changing regs as lightly as some may think.
Hope you enjoyed it...so if they are too big or too small...handle with care, wet hands or the newer rubber fish gloves are best, stay away from the gills and get them back in the water ASAP!
Trout grow fast. They reach 15” in their 3rd year and make contributions as spawning females in their 2nd year as 12-14” fish. We hormone induced some 12”-13” female fish in the late 80’s that produced 40-50,000 quality eggs just to see if they could make a contribution to stocks and if they would produce viable larvae. As designed this reg should produce measurable gains in 3 years and many more CPR of the large fish over 22” or about 3-3 1/2 lbs in year 5.
Remember, stay the course! Each of us has a course to choose. We all have to be part of the solution!