Ever been busted poaching or any other illegal fishing related activity?? I mean crap, dudes have been doing shady chit since Eve ate the apple. Don't worry knowone really cares that much, I least I don't. We've all made mistakes some a lot dumber then others. Yes I've been busted 'in' the herring run about 10 yrs ago . Payed a stiff penalty for doing something stupid and swore never to do it again....and I haven't. Anybody else wanna walk in the light of shame with me or would you rather protect your name?

:devil2:the devil made me do it....lol

one day i got caught keeping 4 50 lbers I caught on poppers at 3 in the afternoon

I luv that avart of St.Nebe

Only time i got in trouble was when i got popped for driving down the sand trail to the soft side of C-town with no sticker... Wont do that again....just got a warning, but if the DEM guy wanted to, he could have hammered me- I didnt have any of the required equipment.

Never tried poaching so never got caught,I did get a ticket/fine for fishing illegally in N.H. with a bunch of Buddy's,& I've fractured a few other laws thou:biglaugh:

busted on a shellfish violation /

3 times in court / once in jail . arrested @ home in front of the kids ........... another warrant issued after the above ........ settled to end the harrasment & expense .

too much of other violations that either i wasn,t caught or got caught but they couldn,t catch me ;

How,s that Tony ????????????:devil2:

I got popped twice for fishing without a license..once in South Carolina and once in Maine.

The one in South Carolina I had comin'...the one in Maine was BS. :wall:

Poachers should be taken out into the blue water and pushed overboard while tied to a cinderblock-style PFD.:yak5:

I got popped twice for fishing without a license..once in South Carolina and once in Maine.

The one in South Carolina I had comin'...the one in Maine was BS. :wall:

Maine got me on a BS Fishing without a license too.

So far no arrests.....other family members were not so fortunate.

i was Quahogging the motherload in Fairhaven
i had a hundred easy in a nylon mesh bag
i didn't even see the agent wading towards me

he yells: " i've got ya "
"i seen your car"
i looked at the knee deep razor clam mud
on my left....and said no way JOSE

I made a bee line for the woods
but it was all jungle thorns bigtime
So I went COMMANDO !

Just wearing shorts i got
laced up pretty bad by damn thor ns
was looking like a scenic road map afta

i packed up and left town to avoid
the $1000.00 dollar fine... $10 per each one

but hey i was literally starving....
and was gathering food like an Indian
i definitely learned my lesson that day.

Nope. I am a good doobie!:uhuh:

Once, but I outsmarted them
I was poaching lobster at a beach. A game warden, his first day on the job saw him and said:
"I'm going to have to arrest you. Poaching is illegal."
"I'm not poaching lobsters, These are my pets. I'm exercising them. I throw them into the sea, then whistle, and they come back."
"Show me," the warden said in disbelief.
I threw the lobsters into the water and started to walk away.
"Wait!" the warden shouted. "Don't you have to whistle to call your lobsters back?"
I looked at the warden, paused, And said, "What lobsters?"

I wonder how many knowingly break the law and haven't been caught.I know I have.Freshwater license,gaffs in NY,gillnets...the list is long.Temptation is strong.

Did a couple dumb things, long time ago. Find it easier to have fun doing the stuff I want (legally) and not having to worry or be afraid to look in the mirror. Or worse, see myself through my son's eyes if caught cheating.

Back when I was a kid my dad and I were fishing Pleasant Bay. We were getting some herring when a pickup came flying down the road beeping his horn and flashing his lights "Paul Revere" style. Me being a kid, I had no idea what was going on....kinda. Guess my dad did because we tried to get out of Dodge ASAP....didn't quite make it before the trailing police car pulled in front of us. Who'd have thought that "Run Closed" sign applied to a couple of guys trying to get bait. Well the cop looks in the livewell and proceeds to give my dad the business and tells him to put em all back. Everything was going OK until the officer rechecked and noticed that a couple had "accidentally" jumped under the center console and then things got serious. My dad played the "just trying to take the boy fishing" card to perfection and we escaped with a warning. Found out later from "Paul Revere" that the hot setup was to use a little teamwork..one guy as lookout...another tossing a cherry bomb under the bridge and another downstream with a net....Gone in 60 Seconds.

I won't mention the Winnie bass boat vs. marine patrol thing...Who'd have thought that speed limit sign applied to a couple of guys late for weigh-in! ;-)

Digging seaworms on the southside of Moon I. in Quincy [1980].I had a city permit but not a state permit.Came in by boat with a buddy.We were digging about an hour and getting some monster worms.I look up and this guy in green is zig-zaging accross the flat towards us.Then I notice the flash of a badge on his chest.I tell my friend it's ok I've got a permit.We continue digging as he gets closer.He's screaming like a madman at us so we stop and wait for him.We go round and round and he's fuming.I'm supposd to have a state contaminated digging permit."The city didn't tell me" when I got the permit.Anyway we have to drop the worms and he's going to impound the boat and gear.We go round and round again.As we're arguing I notice the tide is starting to come in.I don't say anything and start to apologize for yelling back and he eases up and says you be recieving citataions in the mail [boat reg #'s to appear in court].We push the boat off the flat and back off.He turns around to go back to Moon I.The tide came in behind him and he's got lowcut leather boots on.Now he looks back at us and we just wave bye-bye.He had to walk through some spots up to his knees and you could hear him:fury: most of the way back.About a month later I get a bunch of citations in the mail with the wrong spelling of my name and reg# of the boat.I never appeared in court and never heard about it again.I'll never forget his face when he turned around and looked at us as we waved bye-bye!!!!!:rotf2::rotf2:.

In my youth i was too quick or to lucky :devil2: now i am old and slow so i keep my nose clean.:uhuh:

Nope. I am a good doobie!:uhuh:

Then you should be SMOKED :smokin:

for Medicinal purposes ONLY tho..

you know.........for MIND expansion

for the BIGFISH experience! :rotf3:

I'm guessing many people that have replied only fish recreationally. Add money into the mix, and you have the reason why a lot of people don't trust commercial fishermen to be honest.

To quote someone above:
I wonder how many knowingly break the law and haven't been caught.I know I have.Freshwater license,gaffs in NY,gillnets...the list is long.Temptation is strong.

got caught fishing a big reservoir is RI a few years back..... snuk right up and bagged me and 2 others quietly. Then says we can fish for another hour while he goes and gets the guys on the other side of the cove, tells us to meet him at our vehicles cuz he is parked there. Gave us a warning and I havent been back since. But MAN, there are some bigguns in there.

110 in a 65 .. cop wrote 95+ because I was going so fast he didn't have time to switch on his radar. :D

I was slowing down too. :D Damn undercover dodge intrepids.

I know I have trespassed on more than one occasion. Just haven't got caught. I think a lot of us our guilty for that.

got caught fishing a big reservoir is RI a few years back..... snuk right up and bagged me and 2 others quietly. Then says we can fish for another hour while he goes and gets the guys on the other side of the cove, tells us to meet him at our vehicles cuz he is parked there. Gave us a warning and I havent been back since. But MAN, there are some bigguns in there.

If it's where I think it is, there are monsters there. Plus with all the pine blight they have been clearing it out and it's wide open now.

when Im heading out in the boat at 2am, i go about 8mph in the harbor instead of 5mph.

I was like 17 or 18(1987 or 88 just for reference) and was dipping herring up behind the herring run motel. The property owner at the time had "conveniently" left the gate open for fishermen. After observing for a few days I realized it was pretty common for guys to walk right in through the unlocked gate and dip bait, so why would I needlessly deprive myself from having some live bait?

Anyways, the squirrel cop/herring warden showed up while I was dipping, confiscated my stuff and left me with a $50 fine. :huh:

What got my goat was this same guy used to "discreetly" deliver live bait to all his buddies on the canal. There would be a couple guys set up down in the cribbin area, the green truck would pull up(while nobody was looking, of course), and load the guys up with bait. The whole canal herring scene back then was really something to behold.

Participating in that fishery with any fervor was like being a member of the underworld...many folks would point the finger at everyone else, all the while they'd be hoarding every last piece of bait for themselves when nobody was looking, or at least they thought. :bath:

I've been busting for fishing without a license. But i dont poach so i cant get in trouble... but you need to catch fish small enough to poach to poach.:chased:

I got a stern talking too bu the EPO's for keeping short red fish in Fla visiting my Aunt on Vacation........ I was 12 years old...

I got a stern talking too bu the EPO's for keeping short red fish in Fla visiting my Aunt on Vacation........ I was 12 years old...


I had no idea your checkered past went so far back... really explains a lot:rotf2:

Every year except for last I usually get busted once or twice. I don't really freshwater fish much but when I do I fish an illegal spot. We dress in full camo and even sport war paint. The last time we got busted we forgot the war paint and they saw our faces. They get a kick out of catching us because we make it very hard for them to find us. The fishing is well worth the ticket or 2 a year. And the guys who bust us have always been pretty cool about it. They always say You know your not supposed to be here right? Yep but the fishing is too good not to.

Me and my brother are pretty straight shooters. We have a bro-in-law thats covered all the bases several times over for our family and most of youse guys too.

Are we talking about past offenses, committed when we were young, or currently committed (recurring) offenses that we commit because we don't practive what we preach?

I'm not innocent by any means, but once I found out what the rules were, I played by them.
Do I keep short fish/poach fish? NEVER!
Do I exceed my limit? NEVER!
Do I fish restricted/posted waters? NO!
Do I fish without a license? NO!
(I may not have it on my person, but I ALWAYS buy a license.)
Do I care what "the other guy does"? Not always, unless what "the other guy" does is illegal, immoral or dangerous!

I wonder just how many replies a post titled "Have you never been busted?" would get?

My brother and me in PA fishing for trout out of season when we were 14. We saw the warden and knew we were busted so we just reeled in and waited for him to make his way down to the river. He ran at us with a pistol pointed at us. He was shaking. He calmed down after a while but it was really unnerving. $150 fine each.
Now i teach my son to get a license each year and respect all the laws. Not because of that warden, but because I understand that much of the fees go to stocking, conservation, water clean up etc.

got caught fishing a big reservoir is RI a few years back..... snuk right up and bagged me and 2 others quietly. Then says we can fish for another hour while he goes and gets the guys on the other side of the cove, tells us to meet him at our vehicles cuz he is parked there. Gave us a warning and I havent been back since. But MAN, there are some bigguns in there.

I heard that the RI state record largemouth actually came from there (different locale given at weigh in)

I wonder how many knowingly break the law and haven't been caught.I know I have.Freshwater license,gaffs in NY,gillnets...the list is long.Temptation is strong.

Busted?Never,however,that is one law I break,regularly,and will continue to do so.I will always gaff a fish I plan to keep,even from the Race,or Valiant.Stupid laws oughtta be changed.

Me and a buddy put my canoe into a little pond that my buddy spotted on his way to a job site. So we are out there fishing, talking and I said to him this place does not look like it gets much fishing pressure, he replied, yeah your right it doesnt. So about an hour into fishing I hear someone yelling from the shore...its a guy in some kind of uniform. So we paddle in and he says. What are you guys doing out here? We said..."fishing" to which he says..."there are no boats or fishing allowed on here" He goes on to say this used to be a water supply and they never got around to changing the designation so no boats or fishing are allowed. He was cool though, he kinda laughed and told us to just go find another pond someplace. Later we laughed because we realized that we did not get a single hit while we were there fishing.

Only once for not wearing a PFD before may 15th

we saw the game warden waving and yelling to us and we pretended we didn't see him after an hour the battery died so we paddled back the warden was gone or so we thought found out he was waiting in the bushes
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

poachers shooting decoy deer - Free Hunting Videos - huntvids.com (http://www.huntvids.com/video/1199/poachers-shooting-decoy-deer)
check out these poachers......................................lol
:)

Once, but I outsmarted them
I was poaching lobster at a beach. A game warden, his first day on the job saw him and said:
"I'm going to have to arrest you. Poaching is illegal."
"I'm not poaching lobsters, These are my pets. I'm exercising them. I throw them into the sea, then whistle, and they come back."
"Show me," the warden said in disbelief.
I threw the lobsters into the water and started to walk away.
"Wait!" the warden shouted. "Don't you have to whistle to call your lobsters back?"
I looked at the warden, paused, And said, "What lobsters?"
:rotf2::rotf2::rotf2::rotf2:

25 or 26 years ago we were down at Bell Rd. (yes alcohol was involved) We weren't catching so decided to try a crab trap off the top of the bridge abuttment (slack). We were shining a flashlight down and see a good lobstah crawling on towards our bait.

Then we hear "hey, whatcha doing?" We all about went swimming after jumping as we never saw him coming. He then told us he was getting a laugh out of watching us and said "glad you didn't catch one as that is illegal". We chit chatted for a little while and decided it was cheaper to just go buy the bugs.

No citation, just a verbal warning.

Never tried poaching so never got caught,I did get a ticket/fine for fishing illegally in N.H. with a bunch of Buddy's,& I've fractured a few other laws thou:biglaugh:

Shootin fish in NH was interestin

Busted in 1978-79 fishing at night @ plum island for weed, 3 guys, just fishing , Fed agents / choppers in the air the whole 10 yards
They checked everything even inside the subs we had to eat......

wrong place at the wrong time the judge said
ps. the funny part was I joined the police K9 the next year for 4 years..:smokin: free smokes ..... lol

With my Buddy Matt from Mattapoisett

we are out at Dusk duck hunting IN ROCHESTER
AT SNIPTUIT (SP) and i called in a pair
of what i thought were Mallards so i shot and low and behold
i got both with one shot but i could only see the "ONE" as they
were flying real close together ok...

Turned out they were WOOD Ducks...
a highly Prized trophy and here i get two
with one shot... :btu:

This kind of infuriated MATT a wee bit
and as the sun began to sink and it was about time to leave
he fires his shotgun into the water just for the hell of it.

Well that was PLAIN Stupid because that meant
it could have been my ducks that were shot at that
precise moment rendering mine shot illegally when
i had shot them BEFORE sunset.

So .....
Matt was always kidding Around and as we emerged from the bushes
he says quite urgently with a muffled VOICE
"Game Warden" :devil2: and i fell for it and imediately dropped them.

Well sure enough...just my luck -> we part the BUSHES
and "THERE IS " a Game Warden standing there waiting
for us to emerge....

He checks our I'D's and Hunting Licenses and all that
and then lets us be on our way AFTER A STERN LECTURE ABOUT SHOOTING AFTER SUNSET.

We stalled on packing up and after he left
i ran back and grabbed my
legal WOOD Ducks.

I was gonna give Matt one of them but since
he pulled that dumb shot after suset and almost got me Busted
i said No WAY. :doh:

Raven with guns, no good

Raven with guns, no good

:rotfl:

Fishing in the ct river above a certain bridge that your not suppose to be above. My buddies first cast hooks up lands the fish, my 3rd cast I hook into a descent fish my buddy comes over helps me land it. Just as he boga's I hear federal wildlife officers please come up here with that fish! They where cool about it we each got citations and kept our gear. Got to release the fish too so we didnt get nailed with a possession charge. Been back a few times but never stayed

Maine - I got popped for fishing without a license in front of my camp. I was trying out a new fly line with a piece of yarn tied to it for practice. He was in a canoe and spotted me stretching the line from the water. It took a lot of arguing before he Left me off with a warning. Maine is unbelievable!

Once got stopped scooping smelt at lake Winnesquam NH. I had the hat and license from another guy on and the law recognized the other guys name as he just busted him a few hours before for being over da limit. We were fairly well lit and he made us dump our catch and followed us back to camp. Never wrote me up!

Same trip - It was a father sons weekend smelt fishing and one guy was famous for falling asleep after a hard night. He returned to the dock and just left the boat adrift. No one missed him til we got a call from home. The boat was found and the guy who owned the launch area saw his car and trailer in the lot. He called the law and they had a full out search going on at the lake. They thought he fell overboard. He was sacked out under the porch in a sleeping bag. A trooper came calling and the guy crawled out asking what was happening. Man that trooper was pissed. It actually was reported on the radio. We had to stop the father sons trip when the sons were caught swiping our booze and smoking weed. They were having a better blast than the dads. The sons are now in their 50's and tell some stories that are unreal...

Raven with guns, no good

I have ULTIMATE respect for weaponry actually....

the guy that taught me about guns had Shot his own LEG OFF
with his shot gun accidentilly while Hunting.

He was stepping over a barbed wire fence got tripped
and he fell down and the safety was off unfortunately.

He'd go Squirrel hunting ( he'd eat them) and often times
he'd get stuck in a tree trying to fetch one down and then he'd
be up there Stuck until someone came along to help get him down. LOL.

Looks like Maine has a Reputation

I'm 54 years old and never been arrested. Not saying I haven't broken any laws, just haven't been caught. There is still time I suppose.

Maine takes their fish and game laws more seriously than MA or RI for sure. And they don't take kindly to people who litter either. Even ordinary citizens will let you know that, when they see you drinking your coffee from a styrofoam DD cup.:smash:
And the licsense actually shows the exact hour and minute they expire too!

what the Legality is of fishing with just a bobber
and say NO HOOK at all?

because you have a fishing rod in your hand
is that where they draw the LINE?:confused:

When is it not fishing.... is my question?:confused:

can ya walk down the beach with a rod over your shoulder
without even a reel on your pole? :confused:

When is it not fishing.... is my question?:confused:


You can cast...you just can't retrieve...at least that was the BS line they gave me.

I moved back to ct. from RI a few months ago and have not changed my address yet. Not wanting to pay $80 bucks for a fresh water lic to fish in the upper hussy for hold overs.I headed out to a discret spot only to get pinched. got off easy with a $77 fine should of fight it because I really was not fishing when he saw me I was walking back to my truck.But I paid it I was in the wrong no dubt .wish I was still in rhody.

Poachers should be taken out into the blue water and pushed overboard while tied to a cinderblock-style PFD.:yak5:

I agree. :uhuh:
Didn't realize that I was surrounded by sooooo many criminals.
Baaad, baaad. baaad! :smash:
Like someone said: would never want to be embarassed by having children see dad in cuffs or worst. :(

Like someone said: would never want to be embarassed by having children see dad in cuffs or worst. :(

No doubt. One's propensity to take a risk hopefully lessens when there is much to be lost.

Nowadays, I wouldn't think of doing half the stuff I did in my teens and twenties.

However, I thought doing whatever/whenever in the name of catching more striped bass was a noble endeavor at the time. I'm lucky to have lived through some of my boating mishaps...:angel:

I'm 54 years old and never been arrested. Not saying I haven't broken any laws, just haven't been caught. There is still time I suppose.

Maine takes their fish and game laws more seriously than MA or RI for sure. And they don't take kindly to people who litter either. Even ordinary citizens will let you know that, when they see you drinking your coffee from a styrofoam DD cup.:smash:
And the licsense actually shows the exact hour and minute they expire too!

I got caught in ME for being 10 minutes over. I was fishing just South of Ripogenus Dam and this warden appears out of nowhere. We we going home that morning and I figured one more shot at some landlocked salmon. It was 1970 and the fine was $35.00. That was half a weeks pay in 1970.

I was fined 50$ for fishing without a license in Maine. I was watching a friend icefish in the spring with 4 inches of water on the ice. My feet were freezing. When he started to pack it in, I helped. That's when the Warden showed and asked for licenses. I said that I wasn't fishing, just helping pack up, been standing with my hands in my pockets all day. He said if there had been a big trout on one of those tilts he thought I would keep it and handed me a ticket. His partner was sympathetic but said pay it if you don't there'll be a warrant for you next time you visit. I wrote it up to tuition in the School of Hard Knocks. My friend was fined for fishing a closed pond. .:wall:

to many Horror stories for me to waste my time :smash: f-em all to hell

come on Rav, how about Some Watering Hole IV stories.

And they don't take kindly to people who litter either. Even ordinary citizens will let you know that, when they see you drinking your coffee from a styrofoam DD cup.:smash:

Confront the wrong person drinking from a DD cup and you'll eventually get some stained flannel and a fd up face.

I was fined 50$ for fishing without a license in Maine. I was watching a friend icefish in the spring with 4 inches of water on the ice. My feet were freezing. When he started to pack it in, I helped. That's when the Warden showed and asked for licenses. I said that I wasn't fishing, just helping pack up, been standing with my hands in my pockets all day. He said if there had been a big trout on one of those tilts he thought I would keep it and handed me a ticket. His partner was sympathetic but said pay it if you don't there'll be a warrant for you next time you visit. I wrote it up to tuition in the School of Hard Knocks. My friend was fined for fishing a closed pond. .:wall:

I was visiting some friend's up in Maine and we went over to their Parents's house on a lake up there. The kids were down fishing on the dock with there little ebco setups. I walked down and was talking to them about how I used to have a setup like that when I was a kid.

Asked one of them If I could take a cast. Kid said "Sure"...I cast it out reeled it back in and handed it back to the kid.....rangers came putting around the corner, said I was fishing. I was like I made one cast....he said If I had just cast it out and handed it to the kid it would have been fine.....but the fact that I made a retrieve meant I was fishing.

Had to take a day off from work to appear in court and pay $125....they wouldn't even let me mail in the fine. :wall:

It was either a coincidence, or the squirrel cops were staking out the docks for illegal fishing. Imagine how many people don't come back to Maine.

Confront the wrong person drinking from a DD cup and you'll eventually get some stained flannel and a fd up face.

And that would get you arrested for assault and battery.

They usally aren't confrontational, just asking politely that trash be disposed of properly. My point was that you don't see much litter up there, and that they enforce littering laws as strictly as poaching laws.

Not like MA & RI with trash everywhere.


Doesn't seem fair to be fined after you have paid for a license, but fish for ten minutes after it expires.

I've fished in Maine for stripers for 24 years now, usually just 2 weeks in August and a weekend each in June and September. Stopped once on the beach and once in a boat. On the beach I had a keeper on the sand. He said "You realize you can't keep any more right?" I said I was just fishing for fun and knew the regulations. He was very nice. Another time on the Piscataquaw our boat got stopped. They checked our legal fish, were very nice and sent us on our way. I only keep about 1 or 2 meals a year, so it was a coincidence I had fish, but the wardens were cool each time.

i was Quahogging the motherload in Fairhaven
i had a hundred easy in a nylon mesh bag
i didn't even see the agent wading towards me

he yells: " i've got ya "
"i seen your car"
i looked at the knee deep razor clam mud
on my left....and said no way JOSE

I made a bee line for the woods
but it was all jungle thorns bigtime
So I went COMMANDO !

Just wearing shorts i got
laced up pretty bad by damn thor ns
was looking like a scenic road map afta

i packed up and left town to avoid
the $1000.00 dollar fine... $10 per each one

but hey i was literally starving....
and was gathering food like an Indian
i definitely learned my lesson that day.

:tm:BT DT

no

In the early 60s when my buddy and I were 12 we used to fish to close to the Earle Navy pier which is over two miles long sticking out in Sandy Hook bay, NJ. There was a big bed of clams and mussles right next to the pier which was both great for fishing and clamming. The Marines would come out on the pier yelling at us to move but we would just come right back after they left. One day after they had chased us three or four times we saw a Coast Guard boat coming. We ran in along the pier and when the Coasty boat got close we cut under the pier to make our get away. Since it was getting dark and the Coasty boat had to run out two mile to get around the pier they didn't bother to chase us. We thought we made good on our escape. But that night the cops showed up at the house. Didn't get charged with anything but spent the next two weekends picking up litter and weeding flower beds at the Sandy Hook Coast Guard station.