Government & Policy

MARSH MAN MASSON: Is The State Seeing A MAJOR Flounder Boom?

By Todd Masson

June 04, 2025

I’ve caught at least one flounder on five consecutive trips, and on some of those, I caught multiple flounder. So what’s going on? Are Louisiana’s flounder stocks spring-boarding back after years of decline? Is the annual moratorium in the fall having a significant impact?

Or I have I just gotten really lucky lately?

Well, to try to gain an answer to that, let’s look at the data. The Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries administers a program called LA Creel that intercepts recreational anglers, records their catch and extrapolates that to determine overall catch totals.

To show how far flounder stocks have fallen, less than a decade ago, in 2016, anglers caught 222,000 flounder. By 2018, just two years later, that number had cratered to 64,000.

The numbers stayed well below the long-term average until the state implemented a 47-day moratorium every fall beginning in 2022. Harvest that year declined, of course, because anglers had fewer days to harvest the fish, and the moratorium is right in the middle of the season when most flounder are caught.

In 2021, before the moratorium, anglers harvested 88,000 flounder, and that number dropped to 81,000 in 2022. The decline continued to 74,000 in 2023.

But here’s the good news: It rebounded pretty significantly to 91,000 in 2024. Certainly that’s nowhere near the catch total we had a decade ago, but it shows a solid trend in the right direction.

So what have you been finding on your fishing trips. More flounder than recent years? Fewer? Right about the same?

I’d love to hear from you. Let us know in the comments, and be sure to state the general area you fish most often, even if you’re out of state.

Check out the video for all the details!

#fishing #marshfishing #louisianafishing

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