Attention Louisiana Spearfisherman

[SpearMax]

Originally Posted by Louis Rossignol

It's gone, we won.

Good riddance to that bill!

[ROBERTO REYES]

Chad
As I read this one, I could see the carbon fiber , 6 bands,enclosed
pen all over it.
We need more of this.

Originally Posted by Griswold

Here's what I sent Senator Claitor


Mr. Claitor:

First this is coming at a time when I think most people in this country are not in the mood for more government. We are getting more than enough of that from the Federal level right now.

Regarding shooting of undersized or oversized fish, each person is allowed one fish over 27 inches. While I have not been bow fishing, my experience from hook and line fishing is that redfish over 27 inches are not all that common in the marsh where this activity takes place. I don’t think that there is a big problem with too many oversized fish being taken. Regarding undersized fish, your same argument could be made for shooting deer, when it comes to the number of spikes, etc. Should we ban deer hunting? Also, I have been a spearfisherman for over 30 years and can count the number of undersized fish that I have injured on one hand - mainly due to a second smaller fish being behind a larger target fish. I have injured far more fish by pulling them up from the depths with a hook in their mouth. Should we ban fishing with hooks?

There are those who would and do make the argument that fishing with a hook is like hunting in the same manner. What if we hooked a deer and then winched it in while it was thrashing about for sport. We could then unhook it and let to go. How is this so different from catch and release fishing?

My point with these examples is that we must be very careful when we start down the road of forcing our definition of “sporting” on others. Lest we forget that there are those who would love to force their opinion that all hunting and fishing is evil on us. Take a look at some of PETA’s work if you doubt this.

If this were a gear type such as gill nets which cause great harm to this and other fish populations I would be all for the measure. The reality is that the redfish population in Louisiana is very healthy and probably less than 1 percent of redfish are taken with a bow. In fact I would bet that it is less than 0.1%. Yet CCA sends out an email entitled “End bowhunting of Louisiana's last gamefish”. To the uninformed this sure sounds like bow fishing is depleting the resource – dirty politics in my opinion.

As a freedive spearfisherman, I see this as an attack on my sport. Our form of fishing, which happens to be the most selective, with almost ZERO bycatch, is being portrayed as unsporting. Earlier this week I dove to 100 feet with sharks all around, shoot a big amberjack, fought to keep it out of the rig, and made it back to the surface all on 1 breath of air. When I get back home I was greeted by an email from CCA singling out what I do as unsporting. Is it really some much more sporting to be sitting on a boat drinking a cold one, winching up fish one after the other and picking through them to select the few that are in season and inside the size limits?

By the way, I have never taken a redfish with a spear. It is almost impossible to see them inside of state waters. The visibility does not allow it.

Getting back to my initial point, is this really how you want to spend your time in public office? I think we need people fighting for less government – not more, more individual freedom – not less. I hope to see evidence that you share this opinion through your actions during your term in office. This bill is nothing more than a special interest pushing their opinion on others because they have someone in power willing to do it.

I am sending a copy of this to all the divers that I know. As a group, we have had more than enough of regulators and politicians pushing their agendas on us.

Sincerely,

Chad Morris