carey, you mentioned something about making mone off of turning people in, what is the payoff?

I'm thinking that anyone caught catching fish with either a gill or casting net needs to meet with a severe punishment. How about $500.00 per fish and 5 years state prison without the possibility of paroling out early. AND BANNED from fishing in Texas for life. I wonder if they are selling the fish. Anyone caught buying or selling fish caught illegally need to be set adrift on a really crappy raft somewhere off the coast of Somalia.

they deserve it for gill netting, and if an arrest is made, and i turn them in , do i get a percentage of that money?

Dont remember the reward payoff. But, a buddy of mine a few years back made about 500 bucks he said of of a couple calls he turned in. you have to call the 800 #, not the direct game wardens.

Amen Brother!

Operation Game Thief = 800-792-4263

Wardens on Lake Palesting / Neches River:
Henderson County = 903-683-2511
Smith County = 903-534-0388

Will try & get their cell numbers & post them if I do.

I always tell them to hire more wardens with the money.

I used my reward money to buy a bigger gill net

Selling the fish? To where? Seriously?
I'm a big fan of conservation and such, but some of you guys opinions are absurd. When's the last time you saw someone out netting for fun? There's no sport in it, and there isn't any profit. They're trying to put food on the table, plain and simple. Have any of you conservation Rambos ever talked to or approached one of these evil netters? How about giving them the fish you're catching for fun?
People have got to eat, and will do what they must. Getting on TFF and talking about being big men with your cell phones and even discussing how reporting it might be lucrative for YOU is disgusting...But do what you must. Don't break your arms patting yourselves on the back, makes it hard to cast.

Thank god for ff

I know it's clear to most people what you mean when you say "cast netting", but cast netting is not illegal. It's illegal to keep any game fish, but I use my cast net to catch bait almost every time I go fishing, unless it's in community lakes, which I believe is illegal.

I small distinction, but I thought worth mentioning.

Question though. Is it illegal for me to removed someone else's gill net?

All, this has already been discussed before; we don't really need to rehash it all again do we?

Carey never said cast netting of itself was criminal or morally reprehensible; only that netting game fish is. Yes, in the video he might have left out one word at one time when discussing illegal netting. Relax! Take it easy! Have a homebrew!

Like I said, "A small distinction, but I thought worth mentioning.".

I am very relaxed.

take care

u can rob a bank too if u want to put food on the table. dont think thats legal tho

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXCbAtkgNMw

Wow there steveh, not quite sure what to make of your post. I'll try to answer a few of your questions and hope I'm not biting the lure.
Selling the fish? To where? Seriously?
Uhmmm... to illegal buyers of illegal game fish at fish markets and restaurants?
Click here to see for yourself Where to sell your illegally gill netted game fish
That wasn't the first undercover sting they've ran in North Texas either. The biggest one I can recall was probably around 15 years ago mostly from Stripers taken illegally up at Texoma and involved over 3 months of undercover and night vision video surveillance. I think they popped over 60 folks in that one between the buyers and the sellers. I fished behind that dam lots of nights back then and witnessed first hand what was going on. I just didn't know it was all being captured on video. They were selling these fish - not eating them.

They're trying to put food on the table, plain and simple.
Did you watch the video Carey posted at the start of this thread? Guys running gill nets are in no way strictly doing it to put food on their tables. A gill net with 600 fish in it is being run to sell those fish and that's all there is to it.

Getting on TFF and talking about being big men with your cell phones and even discussing how reporting it might be lucrative for YOU is disgusting...
I guess that's a matter of opinion. What I find disgusting is a bunch of lazy SOBs who won't even buy a fishing license, and who've found it lucrative to illegally net a bunch of game fish and go sell them to some knucklehead who knows he's buying illegal fish at way below market pricing.

There's no sport in it, and there isn't any profit. Actually, some of these yahoos DO consider it sport and there IS a profit in it.I personally knew a ol boy who was in with some guys running hoop nets on Palestine for catfish. And they were selling them. He said they "didn't make a lot of money doing it, but it paid for gas, beer, and cigarettes" They finally quit when enough people called in on them that the risk of getting caught outweighed the fun and beer money they were getting out of the deal.

What this all amounts to is basically theft and RAPE OF A NATURAL RESOURCE that is funded by the honest hardworking law abiding people like me and you who pay for our license every year and obey the laws that have been put in place so that all of us can enjoy that resource - legally! That's what it's about. It sure isn't about some poor out of work guy trying to feed his family. That's what Lone Star Cards are for. Problem is they can't buy beer and cigarettes with a Lone Star card.

I'd like to be able to take my kids or grandkids down to the creek, have some fun catching fish and teach them to respect and enjoy this resource as well. Sorta hard to do that when some low-life sorry pieces of dog excrement have stretched a dam gill net bank to bank and killed or taken out every single fish that was swimming up that creek! That's what I find really disgusting.

So that's just my take on it, and you're sure welcome to have your own opinion. But please, at least go back and watch Carey's video and then see if you still feel the same way...Jon

I talked to one of these guys once and he said he sold every fish he caught. Just today I saw 3 people in a v bottom boat on the Trinity below 78 setting up a gill net as they were getting ready to leave they pulled up another net they had set up in a different location.( really? they need to put food on the table.. give me a break) I called the game warden but they left before the he showed up.