Illegal Fishermen Suck - A Part of my WI Trip - please read.

[Andrew R]

This is a small documentary that I wrote up for my site. Sorry for the poor usage of words. If you don't like it, I can understand and I apologise.

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The Story of how the Warden and Andrew became friends in assisting " Lake Pescado" and from saving it from invaders




While on my trip to the Northwoods from August 7-14, 2004, there were many occurrences happening on my beloved 23 acre lake. I have never seen things such as this bad happen to my lake.


JIG's Classification of Bucketpeople

- Those who dump boats into lakes that shoudln't have public access
- Those who rape and are selfish
- Those who only have friends named "stringer" or "bucket"
- Those who are uneducated and who don't give a crap about the resource


While spending time on the "Lake Pescado", I witnessed two parties of Illegal fishermen.

1)



This man is "cooky" and messed up. He's been in trouble with the law before just for doing stupid things. The information that is listed below is really stupid.


On 8/10/04, This weird man was targeted for his illegal activity. After my near-fishless outing, I was "spying" on this man. I saw him throw an undersized bass into the bucket and for three straight days, he was keeping every "bigger" bass and every bluegill that he caught.

At 3pm, CST, I gave Warden Thomas Kroeplin (of Minocqua, WI) a call because this guy was keeping an undersized Bass. When the warden came to my lake and stopped me, he gave me a card and told me to call him whenever I saw a problem. The best thing is that the warden lives only 1 mile west of my cabin.

At 4pm, CST, the warden comes over t the cabin and we were sitting in the driveway and talking for about 1 hr and spying on the guy. We were mainly talking about the job as a warden and on fishing, in general.

At 5pm, CST, the warden drives across the lake and went to the guys house.

What Happened? - - - - - - We Busted his Ass!!!!

The warden was over there for a good 10-15mins.

About 20 mins later, Warden Tom gives me a call and tells me what happened.

The Consequences - - - - - a Fine of $220 for an undersized Bass, but nothing happens to the fish stored int he freezer........but there's more to the story........


Here are his stats for Illegal Activity

Sunday 8/8 - 50 fish taken (Bass and Bluegill) - 20 fish over daily limit
Monday 8/9 - 35 fish taken (Bass and Bluegill) - 5 over daily limit

Tuesday 8/10 - Was over the limit at the time of bust. Also took undersize Bass.


Over my three days of Lake Pescado Stewardship, I witnessed this man keep a good number of 2-4lb Bass with undersized ones mixed in. The fish that he released, he chucked them 30ft in front of his dock.

He would also fish for 4 hrs straight, then take a 1hr break and take his bucket of fish to the house. Then he woudl come back and do it all over again. This pattern was quite obvious.

I have a few connections to this guy, mostly from my next door Neighbor, Penny. She has a friend who knows this guy and she told me that this guy doesn't even live on the lake, nor does he know how to cook, and nor does he have a stove in his house. This man lives near the lake in a shack, type of shelter, so I'm certain that he'll be back.

This man used to be an alcoholic and now he's supposed to be clean. For a fact, I know he was drunk on one of the nights he was fishing.

My neighbors and I came up with the assumption that this man sells his fish for beer money. The Indian tribes in the area that Spear walleyes during the spring spearing season do that with their fish.... I mean, why the hell would this guy want to fish out the lake anyways..........??????

My "connections" say that this guy gets in trouble a lot for doing stupid things. Since 8/10/04, I haven't seen this guy on the lake, not even once. I'm sure he knows that someone's watching him!!!!!

Whatever he was fined for, he deserved it, and it's not worth it!





Part II

2)


Bastards from Oshkosh, WI

Boat I.D # - WS 7720DK

If you ever see these people and this boat number, pick a fight with them. They are assholes too.

These guys pulled their trailer into my lake, right off the road. The were fishing out my lake and were throwing undersized bass onto their friend named "stringer". These men are so lame that they have only two friends in the entire world, "Stringer" and "Bucket".






I really don't have anything else to say except that these guys were reported and Warden Kropelin tracked them down for me. No fines were issued yet, but they'll be watched closely.


After all of these occurrences , Warden Kroeplin invited me to join him for a day of being a warden and to see what the Job is all about. It should be very interesting and this will take place sometime next week.

I feel very motivated to bust people's butts for illegally fishing. I like it!



JIG's final thoughts

- Never ignore any illegal activity that you see while out on the water.

- Report anything strange that you see by calling your state's Department of Natural Resources, or for foreign countries, your local Fishery Department of Ministry. If you don't report, the consequences might hurt you and most importantly, your favorite body of water.


- For a small 23 acre lake, the Wisconsin daily limits are a complete joke.

5 Bass Daily - Must be 14"

These limits will allow small lakes to get raped and it takes much longer for small lakes to grow and to produce trophies. It also hurts the lake by preventing it from having a larger, self-sustaining fishery.

Since my lake has Public access, it never gets stocked by the DNR.

As a conservationist and extreme fisherman/ outdoorsman, I believe that small lakes such as my "Lake Pescado" should have trophy limits. One fish per day at 18".



You guys are the current and next generation of fishermen. Don't let illegal activity hurt your fishing!



andrew

[JapanReels]

Dude, I would be scared just to be near your water.
You scare me.

[seasicknes]

200 buck fine, thats it ?
come out to california. There alot more !

But, over here (california). They keep on changing there minds on the fish size. So you better keep up or else. Plus they change there minds on which fish to keep or not.

DFG(california) has the worse web page I have ever seen. Pictures are terrible and the description is very vague.

I am all for wardens, but over here in california they got to clearify a bit more.

Ken

[Jinz000]

Andrew thanks for the entertaining story and pictures. Japan theres nothing I should be worried about since im following the laws .

[Shimanoman]

Good for you Andrew- Keep it up! Regards,-Shimanoman

[JapanReels]

Andrew would make a great PI. 8)

[Timbo]

Gday Andrew,

You will have to excuse my ignorance in this post as some of the concepts are new to me.

When you say "your" lake does that mean that you own it ?
If so, why cant you boot their stock raping asses out. I am assuming there is some legislation preventing you from doing so.

Also the bag limits seem very high to me.....I mean who NEEDS 30 fish a day (I am assuming the bag limit is daily). 5 seems like a far more reasonable numer, as mentioned by you. On the most East Coast of Australia the bag limit for Bass is 2 fish per day (Not Sure On Minimum size). We dont have bass on the West Coast but our main light line sportfish the Black Bream is restricted to a 25cm (10inch) size limit with a bag limit of 4 with only 2 being allowed to be over 40cm (16inch).

And god help you if you break the rules here, our fisheries department can freeze assets, confiscate boat and fishing equipment and had out some big ass fines. However I only said thet CAN not will. trying to get Fisheries interested in some guy with an undersized bream in his bucket can be like trying to get blood from a stone here. However they do act in some areas, usually the easy way by steaking out the ocean boat ramps, where they do catch some fishing stock rapists, they come down on the like a tonne of bricks too. But unfortunalty its as rare as rocking horse sh*t that they actually catch some one so the problem continues.

Ummmm where was I

Oh yea so If you wanna let me know how it works there I am interested to find out.

TightLines,
Tim.

[Andrew R]

Hi Tim.

Sorry for the late reply. I've been very busy lately with my fishing and with school.

I don't mind your ignorance. It's always good to educate someone who's unfamiliar with the rules and regulations from various regions in the United States.

When you say "your" lake does that mean that you own it ? If so, why cant you boot their stock raping asses out. I am assuming there is some legislation preventing you from doing so.

No, I don't own it, but I wish that I did.

Out of 15 households that live, or visit the lake, only 2 of them hold fishermen. Me, and my next-door neighbor.

Nothing I can do about giving the illegals a kick in the ass. Technically, my lake shouldn't even have any sort of public access for that matter. The illegals created a path through the woods, off a road that leads to my lake and they basically invade it. I've talked about this to the conservation wardens and they said that there's nothing they can do about it. Their access area is directly on state-owned land.

Also the bag limits seem very high to me.....I mean who NEEDS 30 fish a day (I am assuming the bag limit is daily). 5 seems like a far more reasonable numer, as mentioned by you. On the most East Coast of Australia the bag limit for Bass is 2 fish per day (Not Sure On Minimum size). We dont have bass on the West Coast but our main light line sportfish the Black Bream is restricted to a 25cm (10inch) size limit with a bag limit of 4 with only 2 being allowed to be over 40cm (16inch).

You might be confused on this one. My lake holds North American, freshwater Black Bass; Largemouth Bass.

The statewide limits for these fish are a total joke and should be looked at closeley by the department of natural Resources.

5 Fish daily - Must be 14"

Smaller lakes such as mine need to be more strict with the limits. Some lakes have classifications as "trophy water". these types of lakes/ rivers have a 1 fish daily limit and a minimum size of 18". Other waters have slot limits, but that's rare for any water in Wisconsin to have a slot for Bass.

I've also talked to the conservation warden about this issue and he said that there's nothing they could do about, even though it would be nice to see it happen.

And god help you if you break the rules here, our fisheries department can freeze assets, confiscate boat and fishing equipment and had out some big ass fines. However I only said thet CAN not will. trying to get Fisheries interested in some guy with an undersized bream in his bucket can be like trying to get blood from a stone here. However they do act in some areas, usually the easy way by steaking out the ocean boat ramps, where they do catch some fishing stock rapists, they come down on the like a tonne of bricks too. But unfortunalty its as rare as rocking horse sh*t that they actually catch some one so the problem continues.

LOL.........That's exactly what happens to the 'hard-core" violators here in the United states. usually this happens if people have a long history of violations and if they perform these illegal acts multiple times.

All the wardens check fishermen for licenses and see what they have in their buckets;/ livewells. If you go over the limits, keep undersize fish, or don't have proper boat registration and without a valid license, the fines are pretty hefty and large.

Wardens do this by stopping at the boat landings, main public access areas and by boat travel by stopping at fishermens boats.

Overall, they have a tough job, here in the States.



feel free to ask away!



andrew

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