2023 Flounder Season Set to Shut in Louisiana Waters

With one 12 months underneath its belt, the statewide closure of the harvest of Southern Flounder in Louisiana water enters its second 12 months of enactment. The LDWF reminds anglers that the closed season will run from October 15 to November 30, 2023. Throughout this time no flounder shall be permitted to be harvested by any sector and it applies to all gear sorts, together with any flounder caught as bycatch in some other fishery. Exemptions that beforehand existed for southern flounder caught as bycatch on a shrimping journey are now not relevant. 

Whereas no official harvest research have been carried out for the reason that first closure, judging by the stories from anglers, flounder numbers have improved since final 12 months and look to progressively enhance with the assistance of the brand new regulation. 

In accordance with the Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Fee, the 7-year plan, which is in its second 12 months, is important to aim to get better the inventory of Southern Flounder, which is overfished primarily based on outcomes from the newest flounder inventory evaluation.

Whereas most anglers agree that there’s a particular downside with regards to the flounder inhabitants, many aren’t so fast to go together with the division’s claimes that leisure fisherman are guilty. Chip Clement of Loranger LA, is one angler who doesn’t blame the issue on overfishing. “I don’t assume it’s being overfished. I feel the decline in flounder in southeast Louisiana is a direct results of the Deep Water Horizon oil spill in 2010,” Clement stated. “On the time of the oil spill I used to be catching 2 to eight each journey, however after the spill, I couldn’t discover a flounder anyplace and that was earlier than the document spillway openings.” 

The division claims that the annual closed season within the fall will enable for the mature feminine flounder to flee inshore waters and transfer offshore to spawn. The closed season is projected to create a 50% discount in mature feminine Southern Flounder harvest. The closed season is an try to assist the inventory get better to a wholesome biomass goal by 2028.

Keith Lusher

Keith Lusher is an award profitable out of doors journalist that resides in Covington, Louisiana. He owns and operates NorthshoreFishingReport.com and writes a weekly out of doors column for the Slidell Unbiased Newspaper. He additionally writes for the St.Tammany Parish Tourism Fee’s LouisianaNorthshore.com and Louisiana Northshore Discover Journal. He’s the previous host of The Northshore Fishing Report Radio Present and is on the board of the Louisiana Outside Writers Affiliation. Keith contributes to quite a few publications each on-line and in print and prides himself on selling South Louisiana’s distinctive fishery.