NEW ORLEANS — Louisiana did not reach its red snapper quota limit for this year, leaving many anglers with high hopes that the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries would reopen a second red snapper season this fall.
Those hopes were crushed — at least temporarily — last week when the Wildlife and Fisheries Commission did not hold a vote on the possibility of opening the second season.
The federal government granted a 39-day extension that allowed recreational anglers to fish up to 200 miles out for red snapper (it ended Labor Day weekend), but because the state hadn’t reached its limit, many had hoped there would be a shorter secondary season added.
The commissioners said they didn’t have the vote because the four other Gulf coast states have not yet submitted their state totals. If any other states had gone over their projected numbers, then that would possibly impose more restrictions Gulf wide for the 2018 Red Snapper Season.
It has not been confirmed that there will be no second season, but commissioners said they wanted to wait until snapper numbers have been submitted from surrounding states before making the decision to possibly allow more snapper fishing.
With amberjack, trigger fish and red snapper seasons closed, reef anglers have very few target species to enjoy until 2018. Grouper, sheephead, mangrove snapper and cobia are reef fish still open to catch.