Outlaws

[PALongbow]

The bait crowd that complains about special regulation stretches of stream are just complaining. They have 1,000 of miles of open stream that are stocked and open to fishing. So what is the issue? They want it all....It's called Entitlement!!!!

Ron

 

[albud1962]

Brown71 wrote:
It is well known on here that I do a lot of bait fishing. What I don't get, is why, with all the miles and miles of water that you can fish bait legally on, and with all the miles of water that big trout are available(not just big put and take stockers), that one would want to fish these sections illegally as if they are the only places to get a trout/large trout.

Really pathetic actually. What clowns, I hope this situation is resolved.

It’s laziness. It is an instinctual thing. Not sure it will ever disappear. Many examples in the animal kingdom like wolves killing livestock, herons parked at a hole loaded with dumb trout and yes the bucketeers fishing in FFO and DHALO’s with power bait.

 

[Fly-Swatter]

My understanding of the historic reason for trout stocking: As I'm sure you all know, brook trout are the only salmonid native to PA.
Mainly during 19th century, lumber workers depleted the abundant brook trout fisheries as needed food. Add to that the clear-cut deforestation and the brook trout population plummeted.

Of course, fishermen complained to the government to fix the situation. Thus stocking began, including the introduction of "experimental" stockings of german brown trout, etc. Initially there were no creel limits. Those were set in place when the government saw the cost of stocking becoming untenable.

Seeing the stocked trout as easily replenished, anglers kept limits of trout and more. As a result, we become dependent upon stocking as a way to replenish fish in over harvested waterways.

Fast forward to the 21st century...

Many of the opening day anglers creel as many fish as they legally can (some more than is legal). The easily caught stockies are quickly depleted. The delayed harvest sections are not depleted. So, seeing an opportunity, some unethical anglers poach those trout.

It's a microcosm of the lumber workers depleting entire watersheds of trout. The difference is the workers needed the food the lumber barons did not provide. Most modern poachers don't need the food.

Stocked trout are a cultural entitlement. It's now a generational problem.

I'm sure there are historical inaccuracies and simplifications here. However, I am also sure I am close to correct.

 

[tomgamber]

the alternative to opening day is many opening days (hours more like it) every time the white truck dumps a load. Opening day gets it all over with at once.

 

[Lkyboots]

I don't think poaching is a big deal, there are always a few jerks who break the law. I've been fishing a long time and only have seen a few poachers. I usually tell them it's $100.00 a fish if they get caught. Heavy fines are the way to go.

I retired from the Dept of Corr. When I started there were 9 prisons in Pa. when I retired 26 years later there were 26 prisons in Pa. and they were all full. We spend more on our prisons than we do on educating our children. So locking up someone for catching a few fish isn't a priority to law enforcement.lol

 

[PALongbow]

You don't need to lock them up but the fines need to be implemented in such a way to make the entitled think before they do....

Ron

 

[afishinado]

You don't need to lock them up but the fines need to be implemented in such a way to make the entitled think before they do....

Ron

^ this has already been done >

Pennsylvania is setting the hook on wildlife poachers. In 2010, the state Game Code was amended to significantly increase poaching penalties, adding for the first time jail sentences for some first-time offenders. Last week, Gov. Tom Corbett signed into law House Bill 2293, which increases the maximum fine for illegally harvesting fish from $200 to $5,000 and gives the state Fish and Boat Commission authority to revoke fishing and boating privileges for as long as five years.

The law went into effect immediately. It adds a new section to the Fish and Boat Code for "serious unlawful take," increasing the penalty for harvesting more than the daily limit from a summary offense of the first degree to a misdemeanor of the second degree. It also enables the PFBC to charge violators for the costs of replacing illegally harvested fish, and increases poaching prison sentences from a maximum of 90 days to two years.

Link to source: https://www.post-gazette.com/sports/hunting-fishing/2012/10/28/Outdoors-Notebook-Fines-and-prison-sentences-increased-for-fish-poaching/stories/201210280180


But without WCO's in the field, poachers and illegal activity is on the increase because the offenders are seldom apprehended and punished.

The PFBC has been forced to forego two graduating classes for WCO candidates because of the budget crunch. Thus the numbers of WCO's have been cut, and district sizes have increased to the point where law enforcement is so thin because of lack of manpower in the field the chances of being caught are somewhere between slim to none.

 

[Fredrick]

I want a voluntary WCO permit nothing worse than skimping on any kind of law enforcement .