This is my post for #freewriters 2175 prompt economic loss hosted by 
Today was the last day that we were allowed to catch trout. We will not be able to sell one until next May. It has been the worst year either of us has ever had on catching trout.
I think I went twice and my husband went maybe 10 times or maybe less than that. I caught 5 trout and my husband caught less than 50 pounds, this year has been a huge economic loss for us.
Since the seagrass died we have not been catching them like we used to do but later in the season, we were able to catch enough to make a paycheck, this was because what seagrass is left grew tall enough for trout to hide in and later in the season we would get what we call rolling grass, it is really a type of algae but when it bunches trout can hide in it.
This year we got a lot of rain which caused huge algae blooms that depleted the oxygen in the river when we set our bait traps, the bait that got in them could not swim away from the blooms and they all died so we quit setting the traps and had nothing to fish with.
I think of the old timers and wonder what they would say about the condition of the river and all of the laws. They would not believe that all the seagrass died and now some comes back every year but it does not get long like it used to be and there are huge areas where it used to be that now stays bare sand. They would not believe that you can not run a net over in the river or within 3 miles of the beach. They would not believe that you have to buy a license to fish. What would they say if told you could only idle your boat on the entire west shore? They would not believe that there are closed seasons for fish and there are fish that we can not sell but sports can still keep them. Now this year they passed a law where nobody can keep a redfish this is year round. All of these things have happened in the last 38 years since I started fishing.
photo is mine