Fairfield lake has a history of fishing violations. When I lived in Teague in the 1970's there were several arrests for illegal fishing. One of those arrested I met years later in Nixon, Texas. Bob Fincher, the maker of Bob's Blood Bait and Bob's cheese bait. He told me the story of how he, his wife and a partner would go fishing at Fairfield. Bob and his partner would go in the woods at the hot water discharge and his wife would load the boat and go home. Bob and his partner would hike up the discharge to the coffer dam and catch catfish all night. His wife would come back in the morning and pick them up. -One morning the game warden after getting a tip, followed her and arrested all of them. Bob and his partner were charged with trespassing and paid a $200 fine. Just a few weeks later they got caught again and were fined $400 for trespassing.

A follow up on the bust of the illegal netters. They WILL pay plenty, including retribution.

On March 15th, Freestone County Game Warden Shawna Poole, following a successful gill net case on the previous day, again made a great case on several Dallas residents for illegally fishing at Lake Fairfield.

Acting on a tip from the staff at Lake Fairfield State Park, Warden Poole located several suspects who suspected of being in possession of undersize largemouth bass. It was ultimately determined that all of the fish were taken by cast nets. One of the cast nets was of an illegal size to use in public water. Two of the bass were undersize and none of the fisherman possessed a fishing license.

They will walk

Untouchable due to their status in the USA

Did you mean restitution? Don't get me wrong, I'm all for exacting retribution against such flagrant violators, but I doubt that our judges are THAT tough!!

LOL I either had a brain fart or that darn spell check again.

Cast netting goes on all active power plant lakes. Either out of boats or walking in shallow waters. They can have all of the tilapia they can catch. I would venture to say that these people are not concerned about licenses or what is legal to keep, though.

Definitely some depolrables

The fine for illegal net is $565, no fishing license is $165.

Hey Ms. Game Warden, Why in the Hell didn't you take their boat? If anything warrants confiscation of a boat it is gill netting! Were you afraid of being politically incorrect because they were Mexicans?

Why come on her and blast Warden Shawna Poole for doing her job. Why not contact the warden office and ask why their equipment was not taken. Then you can post for all of us.

With the next good hard freeze the Tilapia will mostly freeze with the power plant being shutdown, and cast netters moving on. Both our wardens stopped by my ranch in January and we discussed the cast netting and illegal taking of fish from the lake. Shawna and Sam told me after duck and deer season they were going to concentrate heavy on the cast netters. Seems they are doing a good job.

I'm sure they figured its legal south of the border why wouldn't it be here? With it a cold water lake now next year this time all those Tilapia will be no more, and hopefully these guys will be gone too.

The sad part of all this is those illegal netters still have the economic incentive to do it again if the people buying the fish are still not punished for buying from the black market. Very few crimes (at this scale) are done to feed a poor struggling family but much more likely for the money by selling what has been stolen.

That's probably why they just got a slap on the wrist and a ticket.