There is no mistake in keeping undersize fish. Size and bag limits are written in the hand book when you get your lic. . I would have said something and then if they were ugly about it ,i would have called the game warden. Ignorance is no excuse for the law. Throw em back if there is any doubt

I guess I am just a lot more laid back then a lot of the folks on this forum. When I go fishing I go to have a good time and catch fish, not monitor what others are doing on the water. "I also noticed that they were keeping nearly everything they caught...." that is certainly some close monitoring. Really how can you tell from 20 or 30 feet what size fish they are catching? I certainly would not have said anything to them and most definitely would not have called a Game Warden on them.


GMB

From 30ft. away anyone who fishes occasionally can tell the difference!!!

Fast guy's observation was prompted by the fact that he was fishing 20 feet away and fastguy himself was catching 10 to 1 undersized hybrids from probably the same school the other boat was . So i can see where he would question the type of fish the people were keeping. 20 feet is the length of a boat. I can see good at twenty feet and i wear glasses.

On the other subject of the kid with no life jacket . That is against the law period

Guess those who fish occasionally have better eye sight than I do. No way I could tell if a fish was a 15 inch sand bass or a 16 inch hybrid from 10 feet, never mind 30 feet. Heck I couldn't tell you if a fish was a sand bass or a hybrid from 30 feet, unless it was a really nice hybrid. But that is just me.

But I have no doubt you can tell the difference, but honestly I can't.

GMB

Agree if the boat was drifting or moving, it is against the law. But I still wouldn't have said anything or called the Game Warden. Of course, I probably would not have notice the kid not wearing a PDF.

Again, if you held up a 17 inch hybrid at the other end of the boat, I wouldn't be able to tell you whether or not it was legal hybrid. My eyes are just not that good. I couldn't tell you if a 14 inch fish was a sand bass or hybrid from the other end of the boat. I just don't know my fish that well.

If you saw a person driving down the road with a child not in a seat beat or child seat would you confront them or call the police? I wouldn't. Would you call the police if you saw someone speeding or not using their turn signal?


GMB

Excellent question !!! I'm not going to police anyone but me ...
But some people love to police the lake ......

Okay, I am not going to call the authorities and i am not going to as you say POLICE the LAKE . So i am going to bow out of this thread. If i see some one keeping undersize fish, so be it. If they get caught I DO NOT CARE. If the kid drowns I DO NOT CARE

THEY SURE DO!!!!!

First off, all kids wear PFD's on my boat at all times. And yes, I might politely say something about the pfd and the small fish if I had been in the OP's shoes.

Secondly, the OP said he was catching small hybrid 10;1 over sandbass. Now I might not be able to determine the legality of a 17" hybrid from 20-30' away, but I can tell the difference in a 10-14" fish from an 18"ish fish at that distance. And most of the time I can tell you from one end of my boat to the other if a fish is a sandie or hybrid, I monitor all fish that go in my live-well because the ticket would be mine.

I had a noob on the boat with me last weekend and he was wondering how I could tell the difference so easily. He couldn't tell until I showed him the difference in how they are built, the lines where they hit the tail, and lastly the tooth patch. I even started calling mine before we could see them, and was right every time based solely on the way they fight. I'm not bragging, just saying different people pick up on different things, and it seems I've become fairly adept at distinguishing a sandie from a hybrid pretty quickly. But, as I noted above, noobs likely would never know there even was a difference at all. That's no excuse though, the reg's are available for all to read. When in doubt, chunk it back.

And no, I have no desire to police other people on the water. But at the same time, I realize that the hybrid fisheries are "give and take" fisheries as well. Too many people keeping those undersized fish can have a direct effect in the coming years. Most people who would keep a small hybrid would do so out of ignorance. So I don't see at all where it hurts to help someone understand the difference. If I got attitude in return then I'd just move on. But no, I typically do not give a dam what is happening on another person's boat unless there is a hottie with a bikini on the front deck sun bathing.

Very well put Psycho .... The Hubbard guys are very used to fishing in tight quarters and we welcome all that trolls up to a grouped up school of fish ....or boats! We gladly will help and or call out what we see is not working on other boats (with open arms) Call it da police if ya want LOL. We love our fishing. We love helping people. We love our hybrids......George I'm on vaca in a couple weeks and we gonna HOOK UP

Safety First.


I would have said something in a very nice way about the hybrids. Like there are lots of small hybrids were catch be carful the GM is on the lake. He will write a ticket for everyone one.

I agree with BCJ82, I will politely confront them every time about both issues. All they can do is tell me it is none of my business. Words can't hurt me, but if that kid was do drowned or those people get fined tons, then I would feel really bad. By the way, I can tell you that one undersized Hybrid cost over $250. Accidents happen and are expensive.

To many people in this world that wants to dictate to other people how to live their lives. All busy bodies, teacher's pet, stay out of other peoples lives. Junior game wardens, wannabe a cop, amateur child protective service agent. One off my pet peeves. Respect the others person's right to do what he want how he want to do it, let law deal with illegal activities.

Relax golly Bollie!! It's about common sense on the water. Some need help and will gladly appreciate it. But you I guess know everything so your good to go!!