I reported this story to Captain Joe Kent of "The Galveston County News" to post an article about this. Hopefully he will and end some of this poaching.

The story: My wife and I arrived at Sea Wolf Park Friday morning around daylight. We were surprised to see so many people there on a weekday but still decided to give it a try anyway. To make a long story short we caught one 10" flounder and released it and one 15" which we kept for the pit. We fished on the cement walkway around the corned in front of the WW II ship and submarine where most of the flounder fishermen went. We witnessed all day people catching undersized flounder and keeping them. What they are doing is putting them in their floating baskets and minnow buckets which the game wardens were not looking in. The game wardens showed up twice and looked in a few coolers and never asked for fishing licenses. Several fishermen commented they were happy the game wardens did not check licenses because they had none. Close to the end of the day around 5:00PM I witnessed one Bull red caught by an Asian fisherman who appeared to start filleting the fish and then left it lying in the sun for an hour before one of the fisherman came and put it in their cooler without a tag. After he cut it I knew he wasn't going to release it and it did make me mad at the waste. A short time later I witnessed another Asian fishermen caught another Bull red and I asked my wife to go take a picture of it and measure it and it was 36". They placed the fish in a cooler without tagging it also. I was enraged to see several separate occasions of obvious game violations. I had Operation Gamethief on my cell phone address book and called them to report the violation. I was asked by the operator for description and a possible license number to their vehicle. I followed them as they loaded up to leave and called Operation Gamethief back with the license number. Luckily the game warden was able to apprehend the people who kept the fish without a tag around FM518 and I-45 the warden thanked me profusely and said these people had used all his families bull red tags which proves that reporting game violations does work. I was so happy justice was served this day. People need to start calling Operation Gamethief at 800-792-GAME (4263) to report violations. Also please post the website for them at http://www.ogttx.com/

I don't know about you but I'm going to the website and make a donation to protecting Texas against gamethiefs.

Thanks!!

I agree brother that is one thing that gets my blood flowing. And one of the reasons I dont like fishing around other people. I'll make sure to call when I see something like that.

thanks i will definetely use this,, question tho.. say late at night say 12am-6am, will they still answer and or take action???

I'm quite sure they take calls 24 hrs a day.

i got a friend that is a game worden,they take calls 24/7.

I concure!

They do take call calls 24/7, but doesn't mean the Game Warden will show up. We call them before to report people netting game fish. We stay there and witness for 4 hours and not a Game Warden insight. And this was around 3 or 4 in the morning.

Maybe they are like your regular cops......is there a Dunkin Donuts on the way to the crime scene?



**Cautionary**

The above is a parody and meant for levity only.

Yup and they only come when you don't need them to. When they do, there's not one game warden but 5 of them come.

Next time I pack me a dozen of glaze donuts and hot coffee ... lol

Can't speak for the game wardens, but I would show up for donuts and coffee!

Did you get a financial reward?

Yeah, I never understood why people would take a chance and keep illegal oversized or undersized fish. They take a risk getting caught and paying fines and have legal problems or whatever happens over a fish?? Just not worth it.

Personally I am a catch and release fisherman. I'll keep a legal trout or two or a flounder here and there, but I can imagine there are a lot of fisherman out there that either don't know the rules or simply don't care about the size limits and bag/possession limits and so forth or they just get greedy and think they can get away with it or something.

What happens when they catch somebody keeping illegal fish? Do they fine them for each fish or do they get arrested and go to jail or have to go to court or get their fishing license suspended or what?

A friend of mine one time got caught without a fishing license while wade fishing out by Rockport. But the game warden was cool and gave him a pass as long as he went straight to the nearest Academy to get a fishing license that same day. Which my friend did but that kinda stuff is just not worth risking.

AJ Perez wrote:

I doubt any Game Warden here in Rockport mentioned "Academy" because: 1) I know all the Game wardens here - I coach some of their kids at Jr. Lge. and LL baseball - and 2) they all know the nearest Academy is 45 miles away off SPID in Corpus Christi.

In Rockport it's EASY to get a Fishing License because the Speedy Stops, Wal-Mart, Rockport Tackle Town, etc. etc. all sell a Fishing License.

When I meant Academy I meant fishing place. Here in Austin we only have Academy so that is the only place I know here but the game warden basically told him to get a fishing license at the nearest place or to get one asap. I don't know if he said Academy but my friend told me that the game warden said to get a fishing license right away. And I think my friend said that he ended up stopping at an Academy somewhere and got his license that same day. Unless my friend got his license somewhere else. But he said the game warden didn't give him a ticket or anything, just told him to go and get a license right away at the nearest place. My friend ended up getting a license that same day and nothing happened to him. He was done fishing that day and heading back to Austin.

He was wade fishing with a friend of his. I wasn't with him at the time. And when he was done wade fishing and loading up the gear into the car that's when a game warden came and asked him for the license. His friend had one but my friend didn't.

I loaned him some of my gear for the trip. And I told him to get a license but he didn't bother. And after he told me what happened I told him he should have gotten a fishing license. But he said the game warden was pretty cool and gave him a pass that day as long as he got his license right away. I don't know if the game warden had a way of checking the next day if my friend got his fishing license.

Hey Hey Im a cop we perfer Shipleys

Yeah - I know AJ - I was just didn't want anyone thinkin' we had an Academy here then wasting a tank of gas trying to find it when they could get one quick at the places I mentioned and get back to fishin'.

If it's late call the local LEOs to come take control of the situation till the GW gets there. The GW bails the local PD's out often when it comes to doing search and seizure plus lots of cops are outdoorsmen and women and would be glad to help the GW out.

hey it says there is a promotion on no fishing license needed at state parks...... http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/fishboat/fish/programs/familyfish/stateparks/ does that count for sea wolf? so i can take the old man for the 1st time 2 see if he likes it

I don't know about that. Back in October of this year, everyone at the park was asked to show fishing license. Game Wardens are going to be there enforcing the law during this 2 flounder limit, I wouldn't take any chances fishing there without license.

No, Seawolf Park is not a State Park.

Here is a list of State Parks on the Texas Gulf Coast:

Battleship TEXAS SHS
Brazos Bend SP
Copano Bay State Fishing Pier
Fulton Mansion SHS
Galveston Island SP
Goose Island SP
Lake Corpus Christi SP
Lake Houston Park - Operated by the City of Houston
Lake Texana SP
Lipantitlan SHS
Matagorda Island WMA
Mustang Island SP
Port Isabel Lighthouse SHS -
Operated by the City of Port Isabel
Sabine Pass Battleground SP & SHS
San Jacinto Battleground SHS
San Jacinto Monument
Sea Rim SP
Sheldon Lake SP &
Environmental Learning Center
Varner-Hogg Plantation SHS

hey yall, im 32 yr old asian male and i been fishing at sea wolf and surrounding areas since i was 13 (thats how old i was when i moved to houston from over sea) i tell you what it makes me very very angry when i see my own people breaking the law by keeping undersize/oversized fish and over the daily limit. when i see them i would tell them they cant keep it because the regulation, sometimes they listen and when they dont i will call the warden. these are the people making us look bad and killing the fish population. im all for calling OPERATION GAMETHIEF!!!!!

You are the same age as me then, I'm 32 as well. I grew up in Houston but left Houston to go to Austin at about 17 and been here since. But I love to fish the Galveston Bay area every chance I get since saltwater fishing in the Galveston Bay Complex is what I grew up doing since I was 5 years old.

As far as the game wardens I wouldn't even want to mess with them and break any laws. I never have kept an illegal fish in my entire life of fishing and don't intend to since I do catch-and-release but I just can't see people wanting to take that risk over some fish. Just so much easier to get a fishing license and obey the laws than have to go through the embarassment and not to mention possible fines and whatever in entails over some fish. Just not worth it. Not worth the risk or the embarassment of getting caught.

yes AJ, i agree..the few extra fish you kept is def not worth the 150-200 fine, right i can def use that money for better thing, haha..like new rods n reels, lol!!!

man i called that number to report some ppl but they ever showed, poor lil 10 inh black drums never got the chance to turn into some bulls