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Thread: Crime doesn’t pay!

  1. #1
    Thin Water Tracker
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    Crime doesn’t pay!

    About 15 years ago I fished below lake Livingston D.A.M. just about once a week. I normally went on week day or nights due to working shift work and there wasn’t always the amount of fishermen there and had more room to move around the bank. Well I had been fishing the area about three week and doing ok on the white bass and crappie. And one week my wife asked if I could take her dad up and her and the kids for a day of fishing. I didn’t mine and I would enjoy the day out with the family.
    We got a early start and was on the west bank fishing just after daylight. I had pick up so minnows which I normally didn’t fish with because, I always feel shad or the best bait that what they feed on the most. But I want to make sure I had a back up plan. The water was low may only one or two gates were open. You could just about wade all the way across the river. I started every one on minnows and I took my cast net and worked on getting some shad.. As the morning went on people started showing up and by 0900 hrs the bank was just about full with a few open spot here and there of 10 foot or so. I was able to get a good supply of shad and it was a god thing because the bite on minnows was really slow only a few to show by the time I got the shad. So we all started fishing with shad and was picking up white here and there mostly good keeper.
    As we fished I noticed there were some guy out wading the river one was throwing a cast net and the other was pulling a 48 qt. ice chest. The one guy would throw the net and dump it in the ice chest and the other guy was culling the catch in the chest. Upon looking closer and talking to the wife and father-in-law we came to the conclusion that they were keeping the bigger fish and throw the small one back best we could tell. At first I figure they were keeping the bigger shad for trot line baits. About the time they got the ice chest full I noticed that there were some guy across the river in blue jump suites watching them also. The guy that had the ice chest took it to the bank and put it in the back of a car and got another ice chest out and wade back out to his friend with the net. They start throwing and culling again. This time working closer to our side of the river. After about ten min. and watching them I told the wife they aren’t catching shad that white bass and crappie that they are keeping. Well I wasn’t going to stand for this I told her I was going to go up to the store and call a Game warden that it was wrong and that they were just being greedy. And to do it this time of day with all these people watch was like a slap in our face. Well she started point out the blue jump suites there were the three across the river and now four on our side and two up by the car there brain surgeons were driving and one guy in green which made my day they were all standing against or behind trees watching the guys clean up on what had to be one big fine. They let them fill the chest they had and the man in green stepped out and waved them to the bank. Well the guy with the cast net walked on in but the guy with the ice chest just pull the ice up and sat on it with his head down in his hands. The warden walk the guy with the net over to the car and pull the first ice chest out and open it. I could tell from my view point it was full of fish to the top. Looking back out to the guy in the river the boy in the blue jump suits had gotten to him and were walking him up with the second chest with when they opened it up was over ¾ full. Before long they were both loaded up in the warden car and were carted off to who knows were. I told my wife that I was happy that they got busted mainly because there were so many people there that day with their families and for someone to do that type of thing so blatantly in front of everyone. They were not only stealing from the state but everyone fishing there that day.
    Game theft is crime that in my book is wrong no matter what the case. And it made me feel that my tax dollars were spent for the right thing that day. I would have like to known the out come of that case because these guy were not only breaking the laws by using a cast net but I think they were also a little over limit. I’m not sure what the number is in your area but in the 281 area code game theft is 281-842-8100 or you can always call the lake patrol on the lake your on to report it they will thanks you for it.

  2. #2
    Administrator Master in FishingTX Gentleben's Avatar
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    Mar 2003
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    Tony Barretta used to sing "don't do the crime, if you can't do the time " til he got caught , good story TWT..
    I too appreciate it when I see them guys doing their job instead of hanging out in the stop & go or donut shop .

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