May 23, 2013 — When the Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Commission announced earlier this year it would buck the federal government's authority and establish a state-specific red snapper season in waters it's not sure it really owns, the regulatory board awarded anglers an extra fishing day on Memorial Day and Labor Day weekends.
That means rather than being limited to Friday, Saturday and Sunday, anglers this weekend will also get to harvest red snapper on Monday.
That is, of course, unless they choose to obey federal law. In that case, throwing a red snapper in the ice chest any day this weekend will be highly illegal, punishable by something just short of drawing and quartering.
Dr. Victor Lunyong can tell you all about it. An avid red-snapper angler, he was elated when Louisiana announced it was making the fish accessible to anglers in expanded state territorial waters for 86 days this year.
He's watched the snapper population soar over the last several years, and knew he'd have no trouble catching his limits when capricious spring winds let him get out near the 10.357-mile line the state was now claiming.
"I have made four or five trips already this year out of Empire, and have been catching nice-sized red snapper within the state waters," he said.
But Lunyong's fun screeched to a halt on April 27 when he became the first serf sacrificed in the government's game of Storm the Castle. The neonatal intensive care unit doctor was harassed and ticketed for doing something the state says was well within his legal rights.
Read the full story at the New Orleans Times-Picayune