Veteran, youngster take Fish of Year honors

This year’s Fish of the Year honorees is the “alpha” to the “omega” and the “yin” to the “yang” when it comes to catching fish in Louisiana.

Winners in the rod & reel and fly rod divisions range from the peach-fuzzed face of a broadly smiling youngster to the gray beard of a saltwater veteran.

The veteran is David O’Brien, a guy who thrives on tackling big fish off Louisiana’s coast.

The Baton Rouge angler took the challenge of battling red snapper over the Bongo Reef in the Gulf of Mexico and was up to the task when he boated a 14.21-pound red beauty.

After submitting his catch to the Louisiana Outdoor Writers Association, that group’s fish record committee honored O’Brien with the Fish of the Year plaque in the fly rod division. His fish stands second on the state top-10 fish records List.

The youngster is Lane Smalley, a soon-to-be-teenager from Bastrop.

Smalley was on a trip to Lake Providence where he caught a 22.3-pound black buffalo, a state record in that species, and a catch named Fish of the Year in the rod & reel division.

The judging year for these honors runs June to June, and the committee had nearly 40 submissions during that period.

LOWA has maintained the state’s fish records for more than 70 years.

For more information, go to LOWA’s website: louisianaoutdoorwriters.com or email fish records chairman Lyle Johnson: fishrecords@yahoo.com.

Continuing discussion

The long-running, head-butting confrontation between federal fisheries managers and organizations representing the recreational fishing sector continued last week with what the American Sportfishing Association called a “road map” for the next administration and both houses of Congress to follow to support recreational fishermen.

It’s more than red snapper for the five Gulf of Mexico and several South Atlantic states. It’s been about striped bass off the East Coast and salmon on the West Coast.

So, ASA and its 16 partners, issued “The Future of Sportfishing.” This consortium stopped short of calling it a “manifesto,” and labeled it a “collaborative effort aimed at guiding science-based conservation, growth in trade in commerce, increasing access and education, and advocating for the rights of the American angler.”

The treatise contained recommendations covering federal funding requests, marine policy proposals and freshwater policy proposals.

“Each year, one out of six Americans (57.7 million) go fishing — contributing $148 billion to the U.S. economy,” ASA vice president Mike Leonard said. “The next administration and Congress should clearly understand what issues our constituency cares about, and this report gives them a road map on how they can best support our community’s needs.”

Leonard pointed to fishing license sales, the federal excise tax on the sale of fishing equipment and other direct donations that contribute $1.8 billion toward aquatic resource conservation each year. It’s an economic structure this consortium said has to have a seat at the table when discussing data collection and distribution of available fishery resources.

The complete report can be found on the ASA website: asafishing.org.

Deer hunters

Pennsylvania wildlife biologist Kip Adams, working for the National Deer Association, has some interesting notes about comparing archery hunters and hunting with primitive and modern firearms hunting and hunters.

Archery hunters using both bows and crossbows account for 25% of the deer taken during an average season.

Modern firearms, shotguns and rifles, take a much larger percentage — 66% — while primitive firearms hunters take 9% of the deer taken during the 2022 season.

Adams said the percentages have changed noticeably since 2002 when the archery take was at 15%, then at 21% by 2012.

You only have to look at the states where the archery take represents a high number among the total number of deer taken in each state: New Jersey, 65%; Connecticut, 47%; Ohio, 47%; Massachusetts, 46%; Illinois, 43%; Rhode Island, 42%; and, Kansas, 40%. Ohio, Illinois and Kansas are the only Midwest states.

What to know the lowest states, percentage-wise, among archery hunters?

Yes, Louisiana and Texas are right up there at 9% with South Carolina, 8%; and, 6% each in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming.

Adams went further: New Jersey’s 65% archery take represents about 25,000 deer, while Pennsylvania tops the archery list with an estimated 148,000 deer by archery hunters.

Just so you know, after years of restricting the use of crossbow to certain hunters, Louisiana now allows all hunters to use crossbows. Adams data showed that all southeastern states allow the use of crossbows, but in every instance “vertical” bows “still dominate” the take.

He also noted “more hunters take advantage of bows, crossbows and muzzleloaders today,” and that “more options to go afield help even occasional hunters stay engaged, and it greatly enhances the opportunities to mentor youth and new hunters.”