Fishermen caught red handed

• By JOE MACALUSO
• Advocate Outdoors writer
• Published: May 2, 2008 - Page: 15A - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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Long-established Fourchon charterboat skipper David Harrelson, deckhand Donald Humphrey and 18 out-of-state clients aboard the 65-foot “Captain Charlie” were issued a total of 96 citations after returning to the dock with more than 900 red snapper Monday night.

The red snapper recreational season is closed. Even when the season opens June 1, the daily per-fisherman limit is two fish measuring at least 16 inches long.

Harrelson, 52, said none of the red snapper was taken from the ice boxes on the “Captain Charlie,” a charterboat named in honor of the late charter skipper Charlie Hardison, who founded the charter industry in the Fourchon area of lower Lafourche Parish.

“There was only one fish in our boxes, and it was a legal lemonfish,” Harrelson said. “These guys bring their own ice chests on the boat and what they catch goes into their ice chests. They don’t share their fish.

“I tell them the rules and what they can keep and what they can’t keep,” Harrelson said. “What I was taught years ago was that I was responsible for what goes in my (ice) box, and what goes in their boxes they’re responsible for it.”

Harrelson said the clients are annual customers from Georgia, and said they told him they didn’t care about rules or that the season was closed.

“And, we got caught,” he said.

Capt. Sammy Martin, Wildlife and Fisheries Enforcement Division regional supervisor, said agents were waiting for the boat at the Belle Pass Marina dock.

“The agents asked, ‘Can we see your fish captain,’ and I said yes, but they didn’t go to my chest, they went to one of the ice chests brought onto the boat,” Harrelson said.

Martin said agents seized 27 ice chests.

“It was overwhelming,” Martin said Thursday. “Our agents measured every fish in those ice chests and we’re not talking about 48-quart chests. Most were 150-quart ice chests. It took them 6-7 hours.”

The final count was 909 red snapper weighing 2,459 pounds with 287 of the fish measuring less than 16 inches long. Standard procedures allow for the LDWF to sell seized catches. Martin reported the fish were sold for $9,221.25.

All 20 men were cited for taking fish during a closed season, taking over the limit of a species and taking undersized fish. All are violations of federal and state regulations. Martin said he expects those charges to be handled in federal court.