July 6, 2014 — The ban on harvesting red snapper in federal waters of the Gulf of Mexico took a pounding about midday Saturday under and around the pavilion along Quintana Canal.
Offshore Division boat captains and their crew members discussed it in increasingly harsh terms after spending three days in the Gulf from below Grand Isle to below Intracoastal City. They were frustrated by the large amount of red snapper they encountered while fishing the 61st annual Iberia Rod & Gun Club Saltwater Fishing Rodeo.
Some said they eventually had to just leave an oilfield structure because they couldn’t catch anything but red snapper. Others decried a scarcity of triggerfish all over and believed red snapper may be dining on the delicacies to the point where they can’t be found in their usual haunts.
Lannie Buteau was a little hot under the collar after a very successful and rewarding trip into the Gulf of Mexico on the Jacques Hebert-skippered Sea Mistress, a 36-foot long Lafco hull (see related story on Page B1). It burned Buteau’s butt that red snapper, obviously more plentiful than ever in this region of the Gulf, had to be released after being caught because the recreational harvest in federal waters is closed.
Read the full story at The Daily Iberian