Bigger Fines for Poaching Needed!

[Eyezcrazy]

I abide by the 2 lines per person law. However I do not agree with it.... If you are going to limit the number of fish I can catch, why do you limit the number of poles I use to catch them? If I go out alone I have 2 poles and 2 lures to try and find the depth and the type of bait that the fish like that day. The people on the charter with 4 paying customers a deck hand and a captain can put 12 poles in the water spread tem out over 200' wide at various depths.

Just my rant..

and GO lol

I totally agree! I was just busting JBD's balls a little when I made the post about running too many lines. I meant that as a joke. Sorry JBD...I thought I would get a rise out of you!

[branhamautomotive]

I abide by the 2 lines per person law. However I do not agree with it.... If you are going to limit the number of fish I can catch, why do you limit the number of poles I use to catch them? If I go out alone I have 2 poles and 2 lures to try and find the depth and the type of bait that the fish like that day. The people on the charter with 4 paying customers a deck hand and a captain can put 12 poles in the water spread tem out over 200' wide at various depths.

Just my rant..

and GO lol

X2, I totally agree with you. If I'm casting or something I understand a little more. But when trolling you could spend half the day ting to figure out a program. 6 fish is 6 fish, shouldn't matter if I get them with 2 lines or 6. If I can go out, knock out a program get my 6 fish and be home in 2 hrs rather than 8. If I have the stuff, am not in the way of others out there it shouldn't matter as long as I stop at 6 fish. Ppl say just take more friends, but then your out to get 12 or 18. I often wondered where this 2 pole rule came from or why

[bmiller]

Looks like they were fellow law enforcement officials maybe that's why the fines weren't much. Just like the deer poaching in Brown Co several years ago. I witnessed a guy get hammered with 4 times his limit of perch and they seized his truck cause of a cooler with fish, his camper because of fillets in freezer and boat because he still had fish in livewell. Seems it's another case of who you are

[troy1976]

HERE is strictly an opinion no intentions of throwing darts at anyone

the law states two poles per person with a current fishing license. All of those charter captains are doing nothing illegal as far as the number of lines set in the water. When it comes to keeping their fish for the paying clients it becomes an illegal act. As I have been told each person has to "reel" in their own 6 fish. I know that the dnr watches this act when possible and also has put officers undercover on charter boats at random to monitor. Its obviously almost impossible to monitor this situation. "Party" fishing by the letter of the law is illegal in ohio but is generally not enforced.
I personally know of captains that do not let clients keep the boat limit. I also know captains who let their clients take the boat limit home That is the captains choice to make

For me when a boat with one or two guys trolls past and has 6 to 10 rods out i just laugh. How many of those poles have fish on that they just drag around while dealing with the other poles. My opinion on the two poles per person is that it was created to try to save fish from harm caused by being dragged around.

just my 2 cents

good luck out there everyone!!

[livinlife]

I as well don't get the pole limit.when u limit my poles.what does it matter how many poles I use to catch my 6 fish.thanks mike

[Baydog]

I don't agree with the two pole limit as well, like stated above what makes the difference how many poles it takes to get your six fish, and here is another thought, all or at least most of the charter boats have, let's say, six paying customers , so they put out there twelve poles, then on top of that they can put out two more for the first mate and two more for the captin, now we all know the six paying customers are reeling in all the fish and taking home all the fish while the captin and the first mate are not actively fishing, so even if the first mate is netting the fish I don't consider that as him fishing, just my opinion!

[branhamautomotive]

Baydog,

As a first mate on eye hunter charters, I assure you I do ALOT more than just net fish. I can't speak for all the charters out there, but for us that's not the case. And the captain does more than just sit drive the boat. Especially with all these shorts we have very little to no extra time to even get a drink of water in the summer heat.

[troy1976]

but eye crazy one crank bait could have 9 hooks on it...lol so i say its a wahs and lets just fish

[Pauken23]

Growing up in Minnesota with (yes) a 1 pole limit it took me by surprise to see 2 poles in Ohio/Michigan and more some other places. In all honesty, if I were to tell you where the populations hurt the most it's Minnesota... People go nuts for fishing there so yes there are tons of over fished lakes. I guess the difference is talking about landlocked smaller lakes compared to Great Lakes. IMO the United States and Canada have come to pretty good agreements as to how many fish each country can take. Commercial fishing takes all the fish in the agreement in Canada but (correct me if I'm wrong) in the US where it's only sport fishing we don't take our agreed upon limit. So... keep the limits on fish in place but why limit the poles? Also, why not up the limit on fish 1 per person? If Canada is taking their whole limit why shouldn't we? I don't know the exact numbers and am basing this on what I've read from multiple sources. Set the rules and regulations to fit the numbers of fish in the lake and keep everything healthy. Along those lines, why do regulations always seem to stay the same? IMO they should be changing every year if managed correctly. Guess the government doesn't really care... There are those who DO care in the government but just look at all the fisheries in this country and the lack of oversight. I feel like I could do a better job of setting rules and limits than the government. I guess the bottom line is the US spends our money elsewhere and it's up to us as fisherpeople to manage the populations ourselves. Along those lines, I feel that we all need to take stock of where we're fishing and what kind of fish we are catching and be responsible. It's up to us as the government doesn't have "remaining" funds...

[dansdad]

I for one agree with the 2 pole limit. I go fishing to "relax" and have fun. If I went strictly for the fish I would save the $150-$200 a weekend I spend on gas, worms, etc, and stop off at Port Clinton fish company and buy some fillets and still have beer money left. If I could go out every day and catch my limit in an hour it would become pretty boring! As for the limits it wouldn,t bother me a bit to see the walleye limit kept at 4 for a few years if that would help to get the population back to where it was in the 80's.