Finally Today - Can you believe this crap?

Can you believe this crap?

Of course it's not in the online edition and I left the Outdoors section of yesterday's Florida Today newspaper at my parent's house, so I'll do what I can to remember this stuff correctly, and I'll try to remember to either edit this for pertinent information tomorrow when I'm at my parent's house or bring the section home and do that here, but anyway... Can't remember what lake it was, but Florida FWC officers responded to a tip on Friday and caught ~two~ people with something near 1800 fish that they had decided to keep... mostly panfish, a few undersized bass, etc... from out of state, stealing OUR fish like that... People, I don't care ~what~ your fishing regulations back home are, I follow your state's regulations when I go fishing there, you better damn follow ours while you're here, because if ~I~ find you with that many fish, I'm gonna do more than confiscate your equipment and give you a fine... As if your legal limit on panfish isn't enough... 50 per person per day and you're allowed to have two day's limit... that's freakin' 200 fish right there and if that ain't enough for your fish fry you better uninvite some people... Yeah, can we say "long pig"? Come on, all together now... Makes me so MAD! And it's people like that who have made the state put major limitations on harvest of softshell turtles and the like... dangit, even if you're doing a big fry, you don't need more than a couple, people, now they're saying all we can take is one per person per day?! And there's still gonna be the closed season on 'em too?! Come on, one turtle isn't enough to contribute to a fish fry... I don't need TWENTY like the limit was, but I sure need more than one... Basalcell, limit's going down for commercial collection, too, keep your eyes open and be careful... I don't go after turtles too often, but they come in their own bowl for a reason... mmmmm Now... to pick an answer..... and yes, for whoever it was, it ~was~ more of a rant than a question, but deal with it, if you're going to gripe about questions that aren't questions, there's plenty of them out there, and as you can see, this one didn't irk the regular contributors to this category, so , as my bait says to the fish... BITE ME! Charles, yep, either the banjo minnow or flying lures... not sure which, the article didn't say. *smirk*

Public Comments

Oh wow.. lol That's freaking terrible!! What the hell were they planning on doing with all of those fish?! I never learned the fishing regulations... ill i did when i was in florida (because i boyfriends dumb uncle said if you fish off the beach, you dont have to have a license which i didnt believe...) but if i didnt know what it was, i didnt keep it, and i never kept more than three of anything that i did catch... man... 1,800??? wow...
hey man, yea i can believe it. there hasn't been to many times that i have went out fishing and just slap cleaned up but there has been times that i was able to catch me a cooler full. i have never kept more than probably 10 fish a day at most for the main reason that i dont want to clean them and that is well enough fish to feed 3 or 4 people that might want fish when i get back. hell just about the only time i keep fish lately if when notice that i am going fishin and ask me to bring them some back. I am in ga and i was fortunate enough last year to stay a week in astor fl. dont know if you know that lil town but it is just a small fishing town next to the st johns river. i about teared up when i saw that river for the first time and i can promise you that i left that river after a week cleaner than it was when i got there. i picked up bottles and cans out of the water when i was fishing couldn't believe that someone would throw trash in such a beautiful river. and i kept a few fish close to the end of the week. i want to think between the 4 of us there that we kept about 15 bass. for a couple fish frys. but keep up the good fishin down there and keep that river beautiful, my wife told me the other day that she was ready to go back so hopefully i will be seeing that river again soon.
I hate greedy bastards like that! I'm with you on the doing more than getting a fine thing. They should be hung, or shot, or both.
WOW! Lucky the DNR guys found those hoodlums before you did!!!! It's amazing how the swamps of FL "swallow up" people; esp people with 8 X their limit on fish ....(wink). You know, you can make some fine "BBQ" out of most ANY type of meat; not just fish.............(wink wink, nudge nudge). (lol) All joking aside, those fools are fixin' to be in a world of hurt! In a related story- Two years ago, a MN DNR officer caught 2 Illinois fishermen with over 200 Walleye fillets on their way home to Chicago. They immed seized their boat, gear, and truck. Their out of state fishing license's were revoked (without chance of renewing) and they had to pay a $12,000 fine, (or do 2 years in the Pen). Add in the cost of the boat, ($8000), gear ( $1000) and truck, ($10,000) and the total cost was roughly $30,000! That would ruin anyone's day................ Hopefully, the FL G & FFC will do the same! If they decide to only slap them on the wrist I hope they will at least disclose their names & where they live................I LOVE BBQ ala "Fried Green Tomato's" style! (LOL). LOL@ "long pig"! I'll bring the Garlic! (LOL)
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... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... wow ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...! BP is speechless...!
I hate when people still all our perfectly good fish! OK, a dinner full is enough, don't still the whole damn lake full! People just has to understand that taking more than what's worth is a felony, and they deserve jail time! (P.S., those guys had to be fishing with the Banjo Minnow to catch that many fish (Wink, wink =) ...
maybe you should go rant and rave and threaten people at your local bar instead where is the real question here
Every once in a while I run into idiots who keep more than their limit or under-sized fish. I've kicked buckets into the water, got into some scuffles and then some over it in the past years. I believe we should all treat the areas we fish as our own and be the Captains of our area to prevent things like this from happening. Not all want to be and that's when a quick phone call to the FWC smacks the living crap out of the poachers and put's some change in your pocket. Unfortunately, people have been coming to our state and jacking all the fish by the cooler load (especially the Crappie) but we're fighting back and this case you mentioned is just another notch in the belt. ~good luck catchin'.
If they were Mayan cichlid or another no bag limit fish I could understand taking that many fish, for various reasons. But leave the game fish alone. Only take what ya need, y'know? Turtles? I don't do turtles, but I catch alot of them in a privy lake. I don't think there's a bag limit on softshells from a private lake. I'll ask the FWC. With a commercial fishermans license you can take an additional 15 turtles per day. I think it cost $10-15 dollars above a regular fishing license per year.
Such an extreme misuse of natural resources makes the rest of us sportspeople look bad! If we don't police ourselves the we will be even more controlled. I hope that those people are prosecuted as much is possible. Maybe they should be banned from ever having a fishing or hunting license again! (as well as pay a fine)Hey why not some community service time as well. Maybe something like cleaning up garbage around the area they committed the crime in. Maybe for the rest of their freaking lives! I have long thought that the future of outdoor recreation like hunting and fishing is in the hands of the people who engage in such activities because they care the most. If we don't take of what is left of the natural world there won't be any left in the future. If we (humanity) let this happen then our species does not desrve to continue.
Normally when someone "takes" a huge overlimit, it's not for personal consumption, but rather to sell the fish. If the authorities are serious about fighting this, they have to not only get the poachers, but locate their "fence" (fish market or restaurant) and lock them up, too. Unfortunately, there are too many judges and law enforcement people who don't treat poaching as a serious crime, but they should treat the 1800 fish as merchandise worth the going rate, and get these guys for stealing several thousands of dollars worth of public property.
no i defintaltty cannot believe that crap ok