So I called the dnr!

[AlTheFisherman313]

Guys excuse me before I rant, but I saw something this weekend I never hope to see again and it sickened me to a point where I called the dnr.

 

I caught this piece of trash pulling these out of his boat, with him and his son, immediately snapped a photo and called the dnr poaching hotline.

 

apparently this guy wants to teach his 12 year old son how to poach large mouth bass. This is just sick, wrong, harmful and cruel. 

 

 

32 large mouths 

many undersized

michigan is a 5 14+ state.

 

 

does this tick everyone off as bad as I did or am I a fishing snitch 

[Scott F]

So did the DNR get the guy?

[ike8120]

Yes it does , 

[AlTheFisherman313]

I was actually gonna give a follow up call. I got his license plate so I’m sure they did, hopefully while he was cleaning them so he couldn’t do anything but look dumb!

[BoatSquirrel]

Good work.  I hate poachers and would have done the same.  

[Team9nine]

Sucks, but I really just want to know what bait he was using to land 32 bass ? I need to buy a couple...

 

jk - you did good.

[813basstard]

Uncalled for. 

Even if he didn’t know the limit (which is 100% his responsibility) at some point human brain should kick in and say “hey, I think I’ve got enough”

Just dumb. 

[Phil B]

I have no sympathy for poaching of any kind. Here in mo. our governor just signed a law increasing penalties for poaching. We have a new elk population started and three young bulls were shot and left laying. When you have people that knowingly take over the legal limits they’re hurting all of us. And with animal rights activists making a stink over hunting and fishing, it gives all of us a bad reputation. Sorry everybody but I had to rant a little bit. 

[BassNJake]

Good job, now lets hope the DNR followed up and cited this guy.

[Rip_lipz]

I don't believe personally in keeping fish, but its your right if you want to keep your catch LEGALLY. Hope this guy loses his rights to fish for a long time. My best guess is he probably doesn't have a sportsman license.

[Koz]

7 minutes ago, Rip_lipz said:

I don't believe personally in keeping fish, but its your right if you want to keep your catch LEGALLY. Hope this guy loses his rights to fish for a long time. My best guess is he probably doesn't have a sportsman license.

Unfortunately, even if he loses his fishing license it probably won't stop him. Do you ever watch Live PD? Look how many people they stop every week that have no driver's license yet continue to drive. You can't fix stupid.

[A-Jay]

1 minute ago, Koz said:

Unfortunately, even if he loses his fishing license it probably won't stop him. Do you ever watch Live PD? Look how many people they stop every week that have no driver's license yet continue to drive. You can't fix stupid.

Perhaps not ~

But there's a special place for humans who continue that behavior.

We just have to be able to recognize the need and follow through.

If we do not, then we have no one to blame but ourselves.

Make the call & allow the system to work.

A-Jay

 

[Fishes in trees]

a few questions . . .  Did you call the DNR for an update on if they got the guy or not?    As mentioned previously, any clue as to what bait he was using?  Where was he fishing?   Which brings me to a story.   Back in the day (early 80's) I got permission to fish a VERY private piece of property.   An older woman lived on the property, went through a period of extreme paranoia, and didn't allow any fishing on the lake at all for a dozen years or so.  The result was that the lake was extremely stunted.  50 fish days were common and 100 fish days happened several times each year, the catch was that 90% of the fish were between 10" and 12" long.   As part of the deal, we were expected to keep all the fish we caught under 13" and release everything over 13".  I'm pretty sure that once or twice someone drove by my house after we'd returned from a trip to "Bass Valhalla" and wondered I don't understand, those are a lot of undersized fish.

The point is that I had permission from the land owner to take those fish and over time, me and a few other guys more or less restored the balance to the lake and no one had to use chemicals or nets to do it.  I'd want to know the whole story prior to passing judgement on the alleged poacher.  

In my case, I had permission (and the MO Conservation Dept. knew about it, she was pals with those folks and they approved this plan).  Got to wonder about the rest of the story.

 

That being said, I'm not big on taking more than you're supposed to on public waters.

 

[AlTheFisherman313]

I got an update the suspect was cited!

 

They called me back this morning! They thanked me in my efforts in conservation of our water ways!

 

And to the guy who spoke of pond management, we have to take some bass from my buddies pond up north, but managing a pond and poaching are vastly different. 

 

This was not a management situation! The waters were public! The biggest red flag of not being private in the picture was the face he had fish from 10-17 inches? It’s hard to say, but no one who harvests a pond would take something that sized out

 

I still don’t know what repercussions he will face, but they did cite him for poaching. I’m still mad he basically had a bass genocide, but hopefully he learns something from this. I doubt it, I’m sure the guy will be out again poaching any day.

 

and as far as bait, I didn’t ask the dnr or the guy, I’m a hockey player, I might have been confrontational ?. I’m not even kidding when I saw it I felt my blood boil.

 

you can say I overreacted, but being born and bred in Michigan, we take our waterways seriously! The only thing that directly prevented me from talking to the guy was the fact that he had his child with him, and I could only see it escalating to where I could be potentially in a situation where I’m in trouble. Like I said I don’t wanna get in a fist fight and spend the night in jail with the poacher, just wanted him to get caught, plus at that point the deed had been done, if they were In a live well when I saw it I would have probably started recording saying release those fish, but like I said they were laid out like he was proud of what he did.

[TnRiver46]

Kudos to you for turning him in. 

[12poundbass]

Where in Michigan was it? 

[the reel ess]

21 hours ago, 813basstard said:

Uncalled for. 

Even if he didn’t know the limit (which is 100% his responsibility) at some point human brain should kick in and say “hey, I think I’ve got enough”

Just dumb. 

There are two things going on with this guy. There's the whole "I never catch this many so I'm not hurting anything by doing it this time" mentality. And there's the "It didn't really happen if I don't kill and freeze every one" mentality. My dad had this attitude. He and another man filled the freezer with over 180 crappie in one day. He didn't understand why I would throw back any fish, especially big ones. But then, we didn't have a camera in our pocket back then.

 

This guy could easily have shown the kid how to be a good steward while having fun and started throwing them back after the limit. I assume in that state you can catch and release all day, right?

[fishballer06]

I wish I had local waters that I could go out and catch 32 bass of that size in an outing. 

 

 

You did the right thing. A few guys like that and you won't have a fishery like that too much longer. 

[Harold Scoggins]

That's just wrong.

[NYWayfarer]

I am normally not a snitch, but I have no tolerance for poachers.

 

You did the right thing.

 

 

[cookieman]

just  read in Iowa where this same thing happened>they caught the guy and gave him a 300 dollar fine and lost his licence. same guy was caught a few months later again. Most cases the fines are so small its a waste of dnr time  but still needs to be reported by everyone. I fish a small lake where nothing under 15 inches can be kept. had a family that was keeping everything. when i saw i spoke with the guy and told him this length limit but did not release. i keep dnr phone numbers on my phone , calling area dnr guy , he was there in a half hour which impressed me. he had the guy release all fish and had him leave the lake.

[Cheetahsneverprosper]

There are some small to medium size ponds in the small town where I work.  There used to be lots of largemouth in there and tons of bluegill and crappie.  I'd go fishing at least 2 or 3 times per week, catch some nice bass and release them.

 

What happened?  Morons were constantly walking away with 20 or 30 or 50 panfish per person, and even any bass they caught.  Within 4 years, every single pond in town was devoid of fish.

 

What did the town do?  Just this year they finally put up a few 'Catch and Release Only' signs.

There aren't any fish, but it's catch and release only.

Idiots.

[AlTheFisherman313]

18 hours ago, the reel ess said:

There are two things going on with this guy. There's the whole "I never catch this many so I'm not hurting anything by doing it this time" mentality. And there's the "It didn't really happen if I don't kill and freeze every one" mentality. My dad had this attitude. He and another man filled the freezer with over 180 crappie in one day. He didn't understand why I would throw back any fish, especially big ones. But then, we didn't have a camera in our pocket back then.

 

This guy could easily have shown the kid how to be a good steward while having fun and started throwing them back after the limit. I assume in that state you can catch and release all day, right?

You can continue to fish catch and release absolutely! You just cannot keep more than 5 per day in my area.

 

considering all things are said and done I’m happy with what I did. I mean honestly I might not have called if it was 12 legal fish aka 2 over for his son and dad. I realize that’s over and I don’t keep anything unless it’s a walleye I catch bass fishing, but you know I could live with a guy who fishes 2 times a year and keeps 1 extra fish each time. Let’s be real to catch that many bass, he had to have some experience. And I do realize some people fish everyday and take their limits, hence why I said I could live with the 1-2 trip angler with an extra fish over the people who take 5 legal largemouth EVERYDAY from my local 500 acre public impoundment. Since these dudes started showing up I am noticing the bass are slowly going missing. They started after ice out and have been taking 5 every single day. I wish they would fish somewhere else!

 

not sure what to do about that, they are taking legal bass also, it’s just ruining it as a sport lake for me and it’s 15 minutes away! ? 

[Smokinal]

You did the right thing. The way I see it is, everything over the legal limit are fish that some kid can't catch now.

[FishinBuck07]

On 7/18/2019 at 6:22 AM, Smokinal said:

You did the right thing. The way I see it is, everything over the legal limit are fish that some kid can't catch now.

This is the correct thought process as far as I am concerned.  We are not conserving the resource for ourselves, it is for future generations that we conserve for.  I have caught plenty of bass in my lifetime, but there needs to be fish left for generations to come to enjoy!