Louisiana
Flounder make surprise summer show
Don’t know why this happens, but every summer coastal anglers are blessed with what only can be called “a bonus fish.”
One year it was dolphin, the fish not the mammal, and one year it was black drum. Sheepshead, bull croaker and giant white trout had their turns.
This year it’s flounder.
An abundance of the flat fish was first noticed at the Catholic High Alumni Rodeo in early June. There were years when a single angler with a single fish showed up on that leaderboard. This year the count stopped at 20 weighed flounder.
And, they kept coming.
Grand Isle Rodeo weighmaster Marty Bourgeois said there were more showing up in the granddaddy of all saltwater events this year, but nothing of great size.
Yet, in the Blue Boot Rodeo in Grand Isle last month, a four-pounder took the top prize — that’s a big flounder.
So, why?
Creel limits are relatively new, a 10-fish-per-day limit, along with an Oct. 15-Nov. 30 closed season, and it’s too early to tell if those new regulations have had enough time to affect this year’s catch.
So, when reading up on flounder, it appears a flounder “run” is cyclical, that water temperatures influences the sex of a flounder — the warmer the water the more male flounder in our waters — and since we came through a relatively cold winter maybe we have more female flounder, and more females mean more eggs, which means more little flounder.
No matter the reason, flounder are “in” this summer, and now you just have to be able to afford crabmeat for that stuffed flounder recipe to make tablefare fit for a king — and a queen.
Freezer Day
Hunters for the Hungry director Julie Grunewald is urging hunters to beat last year’s record-setting 21,881-pound collection in the statewide Clean Out Your Freezer campaign. This year’s collection begins next weekend.
While this organization began in the 1990s to urge hunters to clear their freezers to get ready for the upcoming hunting seasons, you don’t have to be a hunter to contribute.
The program’s target is for “…anyone and everyone to drop off properly packaged and labeled frozen goods,” which means packaged meats should be labeled and dated.
That’s because food banks won’t accept the donations that can’t be identified. Vacuum-sealed and those items from professional processor work out best, but they must be frozen.
Volunteers will staff collection sites around the state and will have ice chests to accept donations.
The list of dates, times and locations are listed elsewhere on this page. If you have questions, you can email Grunewald: julie@h4hla.org.
Big reward
State Wildlife and Fisheries and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service have posted a $12,500 reward for information leading to the person or persons responsible for killing an endangered whooping crane found in January this year in Evangeline Parish.
According to these agencies, the juvenile crane was found dead in a pond in Mamou on the south side of Besi Lane. A necropsy found a shot fractured the bird’s spine and led to internal hemorrhaging.
The reward’s total comes from funding by the Fish and Wildlife Service, the Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Foundation, the International Crane Foundation and the Dallas Zoo.
If you have information, call the Fish and Wildlife Service (985) 882-3756 or Wildlife and Fisheries’ Lake Charles Office (337) 491-2588. Callers can remain anonymous.
No dogs?
Last week the Sportsmen’s Alliance Foundation filed suit in a Michigan federal court against the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services with hopes of rescinding a new regulation restricting the importation of dogs into our country.
The two federal agencies cite a need to prevent the spread of rabies to our country as the reason for imposing the new rule.
The foundation says the new rule even applies to countries such as Canada, Great Britain, France, Germany and Italy among others are countries “… which the Center for Disease Control classifies as ‘low risk’ or ‘free’ of dog rabies.”
Guess we can be thankful a long-ago waterfowl hunter decided to bring Labrador retrievers into Louisiana.
A state lawmaker whose district includes Iberville and nine other parishes will lead the way on the drawing of a new congressional map when the committee convenes Friday.
Sen. Caleb Kleinpeter, R-Port Allen, will chair the hearings to draw a new congressional district map. He currently serves as chairman of the U.S. Senate and Governmental Affairs Committee.
On Wednesday, Kleinpeter said he has not worked on any maps. He is letting the committee members and the members of the Senate work on this with staff.
The move will come nine days after the U.S. Supreme Court on a 6-3 vote ruled one of Louisiana’s two majority-Black U.S. House districts unconstitutional.
“We can’t base it on race anymore, so the minority party is the Democrats,” he said. “The Democrats have migrated away from the New Orléans area, so we’re looking at Democrats versus Republicans, so the minority party — the Democrats — which means it’s more favored toward Baton Rouge.”
The move would work in favor of incumbent 6th District Congressman Cleo Fields, who was a candidate for the race which Gov. Jeff Lndry suspended in the wake of the Supreme Court decision.
The ruling stemmed from Louisiana vs. Callais – a consolidation of Robinson vs. Callais – that centered on racial gerrymandering and redistricting in the state of Louisiana following the 2020 United States census. The lead plaintiff, Phillip “Bert” Callais, is a resident of Brusly.
The Supreme Court vote came despite the African American population comprising nearly one-third of the state’s population.
According to the 2020 Census, the Black or African American population in Louisiana was approximately 1,464,023,representing 31.4%of the state’s total population. Louisiana has one of the highest percentages of Black residents in the United States, ranking second behind Mississippi.
The Baton Rouge district would likely be the area to undergo the remap, he said.
It amounts to an intricate balancing act.
“What far-right Republicans don’t understand is that with Congress maps, you have to be within 776, 280 votes – within 50 votes of the other districts,” Kleinpeter said. “It’s not like our legislative maps where you can be off by thousands … when you start changing a precinct, it can run down a rabbit hole chasing this precinct over here and over there.
“We can easily draw a really strong nine Republican and one strong Democrat, so if you start watering districts down you could wind up with a 4-2 map.”
Republicans currently have a two-vote super majority vote.
“But some Republican districts are strong and others are weak,” Kleinpeter said. “If you take 58 percent Democrats and put them in Republican districts, you could end up losing Republicans.
“Drawing congress maps is very difficult – you have the leader of the party, and you have the Speaker of the House you have to protect,” he said. “You don’t want to jeopardize their maps at hole.”
One other issue is looming for the state, Kleinpeter said.
“What people don’t understand is that we will have to do this all over again in five years, after the next census comes out,” he said. “Hopefully we’ll people by that time.”
The 2030 Census will play a key role in the process, but it still requires participation.
“I had plenty of next-door neighbors who didn’t want to fill out their census” he said. “I’m going to push to fill out their census. We miss out on federal money and potentially risk losing a seat. “
Neuty, the iconic Bucktown nutria visits the state capitol, with Myra Lacoste, Denny Lacoste, Lieutenant Governor Billy Nungesser, Dennis Lacoste Sr., and Louisiana state Senator J. Cameron Henry Jr. Neuty was an orphan, rescued by the Lacostes. In March 2023, LDWF agents attempted to confiscate the illegal pet.
VIDALIA, La. — Louisiana State Police arrested 18-year-old Gregory Steele early Sunday morning on two counts of vehicular homicide, one count of underage operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated, one count vehicular negligent injuring and one count careless operation, according to Concordia Parish Jail records.
Steele, 18, a white male, was arrested in connection with an accident that occurred at approximately 1:54 a.m. on Sunday morning on Minorca Road in Vidalia. Two passengers in the vehicle were killed. Steele and another passenger were able to escape the vehicle.
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