CCA Life Membership 2020

[AntlerCollector]

It was the first time this happened.

Good to hear.

[SabineHunter]

I don't think funding is the issue. The license holder has to want to sell it. I know shrimp license buyback was fully funded something like 10 years ago, so I doubt that money is the issue.

Well, two things come to mind. First, GWs need to enforce the laws regarding Oysters (it makes big news when they do cause they don't do it enough) and second, everyone has a price. Just gotta make it higher and they'll sell.

SH

[El General]

Well, two things come to mind. First, GWs need to enforce the laws regarding Oysters (it makes big news when they do cause they don't do it enough) and second, everyone has a price. Just gotta make it higher and they'll sell.

SH

People make a living on the water and they have a right to. How much money does it take to buy someone out of his livelihood when they likely do not have another choice?

Hopefully, when TPWD has the oyster mariculture regulations in place that gives oystermen another avenue for making a living and oyster license buybacks pick up.

I don't think GW's are looking the other way. There are only so many of them patrolling an enormous area.

[hooligan]

Post it, would love to see what they said.

I'll email it to whoever wants it but it's a big file to attach to a thread.

I like CCA and used to work with the on a national level with my last company. Had I not been furloughed earlier this year I would have renewed with the life membership to take advantage of the offer vs just my annual membership. No conservation group is going to make everyone happy but I do feel like they try to balance creating opportunity for recreational fishing and sustainability. I don't think they're at the level of Bonefish and Tapron Trust but they do good

[Duckologist]

Oyster dredges are a big problem. Is oyster farming legal in Louisiana? It recently became legal here and I hope that might help take the pressure off of the oysters in Texas. Reefs in Galveston bay were decimated by Ike and Rita and by oyster dredges in many other bay systems.

I was listening to a podcast with a guide from Big Lake and he mentioned something about dredging being a problem for reefs and trout populations there.

They stopped the dredging but it was too late. Entire long time reefs are completely gone.

[SabineHunter]

People make a living on the water and they have a right to. How much money does it take to buy someone out of his livelihood when they likely do not have another choice?

Hopefully, when TPWD has the oyster mariculture regulations in place that gives oystermen another avenue for making a living and oyster license buybacks pick up.

I don't think GW's are looking the other way. There are only so many of them patrolling an enormous area.

As you know, the buyback is not a forced sale, but when the offer gets high enough, they will sell. It happened with the shrimpers. These oystermen will descend upon a reef and wipe it out in a day or two. Oysters are very important to the eco system and we need oysters a whole lot more than we need oyster harvesters. Oyster farming is a long way from happening to take away from the wild take. All fishermen need to boycott and stop buying oysters. I have.

SH

[Duckologist]

People make a living on the water and they have a right to. How much money does it take to buy someone out of his livelihood when they likely do not have another choice?

Hopefully, when TPWD has the oyster mariculture regulations in place that gives oystermen another avenue for making a living and oyster license buybacks pick up.

I don't think GW's are looking the other way. There are only so many of them patrolling an enormous area.

Before the dredges their livelyhood still existed. They could use tongs all they wanted. When they allowed dredges all the fat lazy's came out of the wood work and got to dredging quick fast and in a hurry. Gone was the habitat for the trout.

[SabineHunter]

They stopped the dredging but it was too late. Entire long time reefs are completely gone.

Dang! We don't need this in Texas. Also, the GW do need to up their surveillance of oystermen. Every time they step onboard, they find multiple violations. GWs need to keep doing it until the oystermen get it right or tired of it and sell out to the buyback program. I have no sympathy for the destroyers of oyster beds.

SH

[El General]

They stopped the dredging but it was too late. Entire long time reefs are completely gone.

That sucks.

[Duckologist]

That sucks.

I used to be a real big trout fisherman. Fished all the tourneys, fished for only big trout. I once fished a tourney that paid the top 20. I took 18th place at the time with a 6.26. 20th place was 6.22 or some such. 20 fish over 6. The next year I tied for 1st with a fish over 8. Ever since they dropped the limit to 10 we seemed inundated with pickles. No more were the big fish. It became a miracle to see a 5lber. Then came the dredges. I don't even go to the lake with a rod n reel anymore. Only in October to catch my shrimp and then it's back to bow hunting. There is a young man that is going to marry my niece next Friday. He guides for Grosse Savanne in south Lake Charles. He's eat up with the trout fishing but he wants to catch a big one. He tells me all the time how he wished he was around when I was tourney fishing. He's looking at going out of state just so he can try for a fish over 5

[panhandlehunter]

We have the same issue here with losing oyster reefs but it isn’t due to dredging. Hurricanes, floods, droughts etc. all kill oysters. Dredge baskets don’t get all the oysters, and there’s a size limit on them. Small oysters go right back on the reef.

[El General]

I used to be a real big trout fisherman. Fished all the tourneys, fished for only big trout. I once fished a tourney that paid the top 20. I took 18th place at the time with a 6.26. 20th place was 6.22 or some such. 20 fish over 6. The next year I tied for 1st with a fish over 8. Ever since they dropped the limit to 10 we seemed inundated with pickles. No more were the big fish. It became a miracle to see a 5lber. Then came the dredges. I don't even go to the lake with a rod n reel anymore. Only in October to catch my shrimp and then it's back to bow hunting. There is a young man that is going to marry my niece next Friday. He guides for Grosse Savanne in south Lake Charles. He's eat up with the trout fishing but he wants to catch a big one. He tells me all the time how he wished he was around when I was tourney fishing. He's looking at going out of state just so he can try for a fish over 5

The 10 fish limit and not having the big fish doesn't have any correlation.

[panhandlehunter]

Speaking of Grosse Savanne I’ll be there next weekend.

[Duckologist]

Small oysters go right back on the reef.

They're supposed to go back on the reef. Also, all discarded shell is supposed to go back on the reef. None of that happened here. It took too long to sit on the reef to discard shell, they did that while they were underway. They blessed us with all kinds of regs that were going to make dredging possible and boom, in a matter of a few years they raped the entire ecosystem.

[Duckologist]

Speaking of Grosse Savanne I’ll be there next weekend.

Well Andrew will not be your guide lol. He will be getting married to my niece.