Proposed Darbonne regulations
Hello All,
The Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries is recommending changes to fishing regulations on Darbonne Lake. The proposed changes would set a possession of 50 fish daily with a maximum of 7 fish over 12”, per person.
Was there ever any other considerations on limit’s discussed? 10 over 12”, limit 20, as an example. Anything?
One might ask, why 7? The general thought is to accommodate tournaments. I would think we could all agree that the big tournament series and the smaller non professional tournaments bring a lot of positive economic impact to the surrounding area. So, are the changes a political decision to make Darbonne a trophy lake or keep stringer weights up for economic reasons, one might ask. I don’t know. What I do think is the average fisherman that lives anywhere close to Darbonne that fishes the lake daily or weekly, also generate economic impact as well. There are license purchases, tackle, fuel, boats, taxes, electronics, drinks, insurance, homes, food etc, etc, on and on. Maybe tournament considerations had nothing to do with the 7 over 12” limit. Again, I don’t know.
The LWF stated the the goal of the proposed changes is to improve the growth rates of crappie. The idea as I understand it is to push the fisherman to keep more of the smaller fish in the 10-11” range. For the sake of discussion, right or wrong, I wonder if this will be an effective way to get the desired result. Early this year I heard there were proposed changes being discussed about 10” fish. I personally started evaluating and measuring a lot of the 10” crappie I caught. In my uneducated opinion, unless you are whole frying smaller fish(and I love eating them whole), fileting 10” fish on Darbonne does not yield much. Maybe this because the growth rate is not where it should be, I don’t know. But for arguments sake, if a fisherman/woman living in the surrounding area is trying to decide where they want to crappie fish, to put some crappie in his freezer. And let’s say he has the River, the Bayou, Caney, Darbonne, Poverty and Claiborne as their choices to fish. And let’s say that he is in a time where everything he is doing is costing him more dollars to enjoy this sport. I wonder if he will choose Darbonne and 7 over 12” or will he go somewhere else where he might get a better return on his investments. If they choose to go to other fisheries regularly, then the 10-11” fish consumption goes down on Darbonne. The 12” and above would also not have the pressure. Are we gaining anything? Again, I don’t know. What about the people who like to yo-yo, whether you like them or not. How’s that going to go? What’s going to happen to the bigger fish caught once their over 7? Throw the 12” dead fish back in the lake for the Osprey? Again, I don’t know.
Some of you may remember that at one time Caney Lake was producing state record bass on a regular basis. Forgive me if my memory is incorrect but at some point the LWF biologists decided carp needed to be introduced into the lake. If my memory is correct, this turned into a disaster and the numbers of state records dropped. I’m not sure if Caney ever fully recovered, some of you surly know more about this than I. The only point that I’m trying to make is that once the government (LWF) submits their regulation changes to the commission, what’s done is done, good or bad, right or wrong for at least 3 years.
I have fished Darbonne exclusively for the last 7 years. I and others I have talked to, think we have seen a decline in the number of bigger fish over the last couple of years. Everyone one of us have an opinion, whether there’s been a decline or not. Many people still have no problem catching lots of big fish. You might hear that drawdowns, nets, tournaments, Livescopes, too high limits, etc etc., are what are causing issues. I don’t know, I’m not a biologist. Could be all of those things and others things about Mother Nature that we don’t know about that could be part of the problem, if there really is one. I don’t know.
I personally reached out to the Mayor of Farmerville and to the biologists at the Monroe office to get a better understanding of this issue. It is now a week later and I have yet to hear from either of them. Why aren’t the powers at be not having community discussions on this issue ? Do we the people have any say? How about a community meeting in Farmerville, Ruston or Monroe? It is my understanding that the Lake Commission has no say in this. Is that truth? Again, I don’t know.
One thing is pretty probable, changes are coming. The proposed changes will be sent to a state commission around August 31, 2022. It may take into 2023 for the rule changes to be put into place. I have started this thread to hear some discussion. I certainly don’t have the answers and would love to hear other opinions. This forum is a great place to express your opinions. Please reach out, for or against the proposed changes to the Monroe office of the LWF to let them hear your thoughts. Thanks for reading.
K
