So I fish Fayette often, as I am located in Katy, and very much so over the last few years and the amount of craziness going on out there right now is at an all time high. With the world being shut down and people getting out more during the week and unbelievably on the weekends (I mean every lake is a s!@# show right now) I've seen some things that make me think, where the hell is the Warden or Police when you need them.

I was fishing up in a cove the other day with about 3 or 4 other boats and an old beat up ski boat came into the cove as well with 8-9 guys on-board. As soon as they got to where is was shallow enough they all jumped out with cast nets and began walking around in the cove throwing nets around while one guy was holding onto the boat and pulling it around and throwing the netters catches into the boat. Oh, not one person had a life jacket on and there was just a fatality drowning where too many people were on a small vessel and and it capsized and 3 people died. My buddy called me the next morning to tell me he was fishing down a bank and boom, there's a dead body washed up on shore. Crazy!

I had a couple different feelings about this:
1. Good, I'm glad these guys are in here fishing for the tilapia and helping to remove them from the lake. They are over populated and the ones that I've seen and caught are way too big for a bass to eat.
2. These guys do this year around, even when the bass are spawning. Surely they are screwing up this whole process by walking all over the shallows and beds. Eventually this is going to cause some problems for future populations of bass and they are just crushing the shoreline cover and vegetation or what's left of it. I haven't gotten on a good shallow water bite this year and end up spending the day off-shore instead.

Not to mention the amount of trash and safety rules being broken is just mind blowing.

Rick Denton is a local guide on Fayette and he's probably seen way more than I have and I came across this video he posted. Its a good watch if you have a few minutes.

Link to video:
https://www.facebook.com/rick.dentonfishing/posts/2968354649922936

He's asking for help. He's asking for everyone who care about the lake, or any lake, to step up and help out. Call the Wardens when you see something wrong, take pictures (If you see this behavior on Fayette) and post to his page. He's trying to build up enough evidence to go higher up to get some help. He made a good point in the video, let the guys net for fish but close the lake to netting during the months beginning in January and through April to give the bass some time to spawn without tearing up there spawning grounds.

I have not fished the lake in years, was stopped 2x by same game wardens years ago and it turned me off big time. I even told the guy " you dont recongize me" he told me he had another trainee earlier. Whatever.

Everyones been bichin about the tilapia guys forever, not a damn thing has been done about it. Nothing will be done about it as they are invasive to begin with so TPW cares less how many or how they are caught. One has to look a at it from that point of view and it all makes sense.

There’s a ray of sunshine

TPWD doesn't care how the tilapia are harvested and they don't care if you catch any bass. The old saying" the lake wasn't built for fishing" will be the 1st thing that comes to some people's minds. Yeah.