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Yes, that’s true. I forget what year it happened but IIRC marinas wanted to sell live bait year round. I had one marina tell me that they made something like $400,000/year cash selling live bait. Good for them, I hope they make a good living, but this is proof that the old saying “follow the money” goes both ways.
I think live bait could help unskilled anglers catch fish when they otherwise wouldn’t, but I think what it certainly does is get people out on the water who wouldn’t otherwise go fishing with that “insurance policy”. That definitely results in more fishing pressure.
And I never really pointed fingers at it because there are certain folk who sell live shrimp who absolutely raise a stink whenever I had, and at the end of the day I have to see these folks and maintain decent relationships with them. Some just cannot be satiated, some are keyboard commandos and some aren’t bothered by it all.
On another note, that’s awesome you found this. I love learning the history of inshore fishing in Louisiana. Even reading old books at the Slidell library that were published many years ago about fishing. You never know what you may come across, or what people have forgotten.
