I'd donate the fish. Personally I could care less about Ben Milliken or whatever his name is. I don't know him but why would he be fishing without a license? Especially if he makes his living fishing.

Exactly, why would he? Hard for me to believe it was his INTENT to fraud TPWD over a $40.00 fishing license.

Nope.

Fry distribution is too focused on mother Fork and East Texas.

Fresh water stamp. Was supposed to pay for the new hatchery in Athens years ago. Austin spent the money elsewhere and had to pass a bond to pay for the hatchery. Where does that money go today?

Lake X is nothing more than a fishing vacation for state employees stocked with the public's fish. It is BS that a lake is stocked and fished by employees of the state and guests and paid for by taxpayers. Open it up to Texas Residents.

La Perla was the same thing. La Perla was stocked with share a lunkers. Anyone can now fish there for Share A Lunker's for $4,000 per day. http://www.laperlaranchresort.com/fishing1.html
La Perla signed a 15 year deal with TP&W for stockings. https://www.bdoutdoors.com/fishing/freshwater-fishing/growing-world-record-bass/

My understanding is that La Perla's contract with PAW had been terminated..

As long as my fishing license is valid I would 100% donate fish to the SAL program. I would not however try to knowingly deceive TPWD and submit an illegal catch.

Will see what’s actually the truth when it goes to court, till then nobody really knows what’s real and what’s gas lighting for clicks. I’ve heard it both ways, one that makes TPWD look awful and one that puts it all on Ben, from different people that claim to be in the “know”. So who really knows. Lol.

James,

Even if it was, it was still a BS deal. They (La Perla) are still charging $4,000 to catch share a lunker fish that are states property (yours and mine). You probably know more about the issue than I do. I thought you were involved in them taking a bunch of fish from there and releasing them in Falcon but I may be mistaken.

Good God. I'm not a fan of the guy but he fishes for a living. I have forgotten to renew my license (especially at the beginning of dove season) occasionally and I have lived in the state for my whole life. I can honestly say that I wasn't trying to deceive the state. The guy didn't murder someone for Christ sake, he didn't renew a fishing license. I think TP&W are way out on a limb here and unless there is something worth millions of dollars involved that we are not aware of, this will be dismissed. From what I read, he was not fishing a tournament either. To issue a warrant because he submitted a bass to, in the states view, help future fish populations with an expired license is a little extreme.

So….if you drove yourself to the lake, caught the fish with a valid fishing license, but your DL had expired, then entered the fish into the contest….is that a felony too?

Only if you left your headlights on while going down the ramp and while launching the boat. Penalty should be loss of fishing license.

… there should be a super combo license to cover that

Pretty sure the rules of the program don’t specifically say you must drive to the lake with a valid DL, lol, they do cover what’s a legal catch and that a valid license is needed to enter a fish. We all know he’s not getting a felony out of this. When it’s all said and done dude will get an extra 10 million clicks and cash in on all of it. Bottom line, if u don’t catch it by the rules don’t enter it or you risk all this bs.

If it’s 13 lbs. I’ll donate. Other than that No. In my book, anything under 13 is not a sharelunker.
I could give a rats a$$ about getting a decal for a 8 lber.