Just got an email from the NC DEQ with info about new speckled trout management plan. I never keep trout, but looks like we now have a 14-20" slot limit, allowing for one fish to be over 26" starting on July 1. Limit also reduced from 4 fish to 3 fish.
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You beat me to it! I just copied and pasted.
I remember back when they had 12” limits.
Tasty lil fellas when they were fried..lol., Nowadays I rarely keep trout period, and never anything over slot.
I’m not upset about the trout changes, and I think we’ll see a better fishery as a result. However, I certainly understand why some are upset. It’s definitely getting harder and harder to keep fish for dinner in NC. But at least we’ll always be able to buy any fish we want from the local fish market year round…
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I’m in the same boat, I certainly wouldn’t have been upset if it was just a 14-20" slot limit, and they didn’t include the 1 fish over 26". Catching (and releasing) redfish is my passion, and I’ve been a little concerned since they’re the only inshore fish people can (legally) keep right now- people keeping redfish who usually wouldn’t, since they can’t keep a trout or flounder.
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Pretty similar to our Texas restrictions and our trout are finally recovering. People piss and moan about only being able to keep three trout here too but I’ll take that over having a terrible trout fishery.
I’m not a fan of the one over 30" here either…there is no reason to kill a trout that big when there are so many awesome taxidermists who do great replicas that look way better than any crappy skin mount.
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