So I was fishing at my slip on Hubbard today...wasn't doing that bad either...Caught 3 keeper size crappie in about an hour, along with many throw-backs...anyways I am fishing with minnows in one slip and walking up and down the dock jig fishing...when along comes some folks that have a boat on the same dock...they walk up put their chairs down right behind my poles turn around and look at me as if I needed to move my poles...mind you these are the same people that for weeks now I have seen keeping undersized fish (always on Sunday when the game warden is not available)...now the slip my minnow poles were in is not my slip (it is directly across from mine), but it is not theirs either...I did not move my poles and continued to walk around jig fishing...I walked back to my poles and saw that one of them was now fishing in the same slip as my minnow poles were in LESS THAN 18" from my minnow...I politly said "Dang your a bit close to my pole, think we might tangle up if I catch one"...whereafter he said "no we won't I already caught one", and showed my his undersized fish in his 5 gallon bucket (which had no water in it, so there was no chance of later even attempting to throw it back)...I guess I am just ranting...but while ranting I have just had a thought...I wonder how many people I could get to come down to my boat slip and fish next Sunday, when my unethical neighbors are fishing...I wonder if it would even bother them if when they were fishing we all started fishing within inches of their lines...Should I have picked my stuff up since I was walking around jig fishing, or should I have left my stuff there? Was I in the wrong? Or am I ranting about something that should not even bother me?


I will tell you what I did...I picked up all my stuff locked my dock box and went to the marina office and told them I wanted a slip on another dock...next week I will be moving my boat, dock box, and every tree and brush pile I placed to my new slip (and I put down ALOT of brush piles (I knew tieing them to the sides of the dock would pay off in the long run, it will make it pretty easy to relocate them).

Questions Comments welcomed.

Don't blame you a bit for moving...sounds like the smart move.

Regarding undersized fish:

Operation Game Thief

800-792-GAME (4263)

http://www.ogttx.com/report.htm

i would have moved to another slip lol

You were alot more patient than I would have been. I would have told the arsehole to get the HE!! out of my way. Some people don't know much about fishing ettiquete. I would still call the game warden and report these people. Good job on keeping your cool. Good luck with the new boat slip.

Call the warden with the undersized fish.

Give the warden something to do and call him on it after you move.

I agree with the majority of the people on here, CALL THE GW. Tell them that they need to be plain clothes(if thats possible). I see those small fish as my kids and one day my grand kids future. I personaly know a GW that lives around Granger and will not hesitate calling him. He has even given me the open offer with his Cell#. By the way, that was smart to tie up your brush. Let us know what happens.

i wouldnt have been as nice!

Its a crazy world, I would offer this though, I know the law is the law and I have seen some violations and reported them myself, with mixed results.

Sometimes folks are out there keeping unders for food, I have family in the game warden business in another state, he tells me it is the hardest call for him to write a ticket on somebody who is just trying to eat, he comes across the folks quite often in his line of work. Some folks follow the Country Boy Can Survive Creedo. He writes the tickets anyway and sometimes misses a court date in these instances.

The poor and down and out sometimes turn away from assistance (welfare)and get by just fine sometimes breaking a few game laws.

Not right of course just saying.

He tells me in your situation that you mentioned he would have wrote the ticket for sure on the under dead in the bucket, gave the others a stern talking to, explored some of the possible issues regarding trespassing, violating game laws and just plain old common courtesy had he known the specifics of their odd and impolite encroachment.

Were these folks possibly hurting and just trying to get a meal?

They were wrong 5 times over from what you told us. Make the call to OGT, at the very least there will be a record and it will get distributed to the proper GW eventually. Or option # 2:

Try this if it happens again, if they take an under and you see it, shoot the breeze with them a bit, bring up the under in a polite way, tell them GW has been out lately and they should put it back and you'll give them the next keeper you catch. If you have it in you.

Just a suggestion. I lose so much sleep over so much bs lately I always try to help a brother fisherman anyway I can, even when they are wrong. Man, I must be getting soft with age.

Good luck.

You handled it better then I would have, I have little tolerance for people that suffer from a lack of knowledge, I would have check to see if they could swim. I would have slipped and bumped into him and oops over the edge he went.

I have never fished Hubbard slips, so if you need some support i would give you a hand anytime...! Try not to be so nice next time.. lol

as a jigger i think people that do what you were doing isnt cool .lets say there are 5 spaces to fish , you have already took up 2 . i know there is plenty of room to fish where you were at but apparently fish had been caught in the same stall previously . i think the best thing would have been to sit there with your minnow poles and jig around your own poles .by yourself its one thing but once someone else comes to fish its a different story then. if they came and got that close to you i would have gotten some scissors and cut there line . as far as them keeping undersized fish let them they will get caught one of these days . if the state cared that much about this they would have better enforcement on these issues . apparently they know what i know , it will never hurt the crappie population , fact is there are too many in the lakes to do that .w/r/j

The only topic I will comment on is the question of calling a game warden. Dern skippy, call teh GW. Rules are set out there for a reason. That person is effecting my future fishing success by keeping undersized fish. Tell the guy that he's breaking the law and the next time you see him out there keeping undersized fish, you will call the law. Give a false sense of secuirty with the "next time" comment and go up to the parking lot and call the GW.

I agree w/ DBman,except I would have went to my boat and got a couple of reels W/65# spiderwire amd looked forward to getting tangaled with their lines.Have a nice day