In this weeks fishermen in the first couple pages there is an Al Ristori write up about the black market for bass in MD and VA. The magnitude of which is huge. One guy made 600K, another guy 2.1 mil. I guess the officials caught a few but you get the feeling this is only the tip of the iceberg. What is sad is a lot of these fish were in the Chesapeake bay on their way to spawn in some cases and were caught with underwater nets.

IMO I would like them to get life in prison without parole. I am serious. Anemic fines don't do squat. They make so much in unreported income they just pay any fines with pocket change.

But you know what burns me the most. Not only did the Marine fisheries experts NOT count the tonnage of these dead fish against the comm quota, they sought an increase in it while this news was breaking... I think this little write up sums up just some of the key problems with comm bass fishing...but there are many more.

All bass fishermen should be made aware of this.