yikes !!!! thanks for shedding some light on the big picture.

State waters only goes 3 miles. There are areas where it could run 5-6 miles out.

The enviromental police(the state) cut a deal a few years back with NOAA to police beyond the 3 mile limit and they also did this with the coast guard, coast guard was always in a rescue mode prior to 9/11. NOAA had no way to patrol the coast or federal waters on their own.

Want to voice your concerns:
NC Division of Marine Fisheries:
Director's Office: Via E-mail: Catherine.Blum@ncdenr.gov
Marine Patrol OBX-Va-line email: Donovan.Twyne@ncdenr.gov

Kinda blows the hell out of that low and slow stuff in the magazines....

Yeah,we got bass to 32 lbs trolling between 5-6 knots on a spreader bar with 13 inch squids.:wall:

Odd... you would THINK that someone in law enforcement would do something about this, if they were a fisherman also...

tournaments in that area now require a gps on board and operating all day which clerly indicates they fished inside the eez.If you don't have one, they let you borrow one.

No joke, this thread is making me sick to my stomach. For the most part, all of the fishermen that I know really respect the fishery and this even includes some charter captains that I know. When I hear about people that are so short-sighted as the charter captains down south it makes me angry and disgusted. A simple law change is all that it would take to change everything down there. Severe penalties like a loss of license or boating privileges, maybe a substantial monetary fine in the 5 figure column would make the risk not worth the reward.

There is no control over this down there... What DO YOU SUGGEST BE DONE???? Maybe the fishing brings to much business to the Virginia Beach Economy Down there in the winter time..... There are debates on this topic on other boards. The best thing to do is equip boats with GPS Systems, at whos cost, and why exclude anyone up and down the coast rec, charter, comm? I know it has been mentioned up on the Cape about 2 years ago. Maybe Severe Zero Tolerance Fines.... People are not stupid, Think its pretty common knowledge that the fish have not been inside 3 miles down there in two weeks... Lots and Lots of Poached Fish, Guess we will see less up north this year! I have not seen a single soulution mentioned anywhere..... Nor is any group taking Action, Why is StripersForever not taking action.... I am most certain they are most aware of what is going on down there. Imagine if they rallied for a real cause, a blatant abuse, Harvesting Striped Bass from an area that is closed and supposed to protect the stock...

That was for the midatlantic Rockfish tourney, that was the first time its ever been done. The big brawls last year between guys fishing legit and guys that werent was the cause... Got real Ugly from Day 1... Wonder why the Participation is only a third of last year this year?

i know, i see no reason he shouldn't get all charles bronson on them guys......break out his service revolver and make things right.
this is actually all his fault, now that i think about it, he must not care enough to even shed any light on the subject at all.

I heard from a reliable source that several of the charter boats that got ticketed for fishing at the sub buoy were fined $2,500. That, to me, is a pretty hefty fine.

So are you saying that people drop the dime on these guys and nothing is done? OR people just B&^%$ that nothing is done?

Both suck, one just due to laziness.

Hefty?
 

For my pocketbook it is also pretty hefty. But consider that they may get caught once a year but can get $1200.00 plus a day for 9-10 months a year, makes one think the fine is pretty low. It should cost them a weeks income anyway. Or $2500 plus no fishing for a week.

From Another Board:

Found this post on a Chesapeake Bay forum. My son is fishing tomorrow on a Va Bch charter. It will be interesting to see what he has to say.
Misbehaving Recs (and some Coms)


I thought about this for a while before posting. The longer I thought about it, the more I felt that it needed to be said.

Two Saturday's ago, I was off the VA and NC coast fishing for striper. We set the radar cursor on a 3nm distance, perpendicular to our southward movement. We ran just inside the 3nm limit all the way from VA Beach down to Corolla NC.

It was a beautiful day...almost a sheet of glass. Water temps were 36 deg when I passed the CBBT and they got warmer as I moved south. When I hit 40 deg water, I started seeing some bait and marks.

All the way down, we saw a lot of boats out about 3.5nm to 5nm from shore (I +put the radar cursor on them to check the distance). I was out 3nm and they were out another 1.5nm to 2nm.

Ran into the fleet just a bit south of Corolla. About 10 boats were inside the 3nm line, while it looked like about 150 were scattered from the line all the way out to about 5nm. I checked the radar cursor again to make sure I didn't make a mistake. Then I used the chart/radar overlay to see if I got the same distance on the chart. Both readings showed me at 2.985nm from shore (0.015 seems to be width of a pixel on my screen).

It simply blew me away to see such a large number of clearly illegal fishing going on. Yea, yea, I know...they were "targeting blue fish." If you believe that I have a bridge in AZ to sell. There were a few charters in the mix outside the line, but the majority were recs.

We talk conservation, but I guess far too many of us believe that conservation is for the "other guy," not us.

Guys...we have absolutely nothing to say about the commercial fishery, if we are going to be so flagrant about violating the fishing laws ourselves. We complain about the declining numbers of big stripers. We complain about Omega scooping up all the forage fish. We complain about the netters. But we had better start looking after our own misbehavior before we blame the "other guy" for the problem. I believe we [recs] are a big part of the problem. Based on what I saw two weeks ago, no one will convince me different.

I can kick myself for not having a pen and paper on board to write down boat names and hull registration numbers and calling them into the Coast Guard. Yesterday I bought a small whiteboard and dry-eraser pens to keep on board. From here on out, I won't leave home without it and the phone numbers of the MD, VA, and NC authorities. You can bet your sweet bippy that I plan to report them.

My $0.02

Im in no way Bi#$%ing, just shedding some light as to where there is a huge problem.... At least many can open their eyes and see whats going on.

Yeah, Id like to see what you would do, 5 boats fishing legally and 150 boats fishing illegally.... There was a guy running around out of Brooklyn, NY. Theres a hell of a black market in NY, NJ... Makes some of the Northern Brothern look like amatures... Anyway, he was running around reporting these guys, wasnt long before he found his nice regulator sunk in the slip... Some guys got hit with a few hundred dollar fines, and he was out well over 100K, no boat for the season....

If that was steep those guys wouldnt be doing it... For what? No fish inside 3 miles???

Reports can be made without making your name apparent. I'm willing to bet he was also quite vocal about what he was doing.

The federales can't do a helicopter flyover video. Too easy to bag a bunch if motivated. One in a million target bluefish. Use logic if that even exist anymore.
A few years ago at scorton ledge, must have been 50 battle wagons and disco boats jigging up piles of nice fish, we were at the edge drifting live eels, of course the EPO board us first. Find nothing wrong, after small talk fishing and patriots,they get an emergency call and scram. Meanwhile the rest of the boats had dumped their coolers because it wasn't a com day or they were over the limit. Water was littered with belly up bass.
One would be a fool not to think that this is normal fishing practice for the majority of jerks that fish. If we can't police ourselves, someone else will do it for us. And I don't think we will like that dance.

We have met the enemy and he is us.

I have an idea how about if a charter is caught fishing in this area and it is obvious the law was broken they loose there captains license for 1-year automatic. That might slow them down a bit. Many of these captains get paid a hefty salary to run and maintain these boats, very few of the larger boats are owner operated, most are tax write offs for the mega rich. Who else could afford to run boats that cost millions.

Yeah,oh well less prize money.A lot less. At least this way participants were allowed to compete on a level playing field. Although a very cold one(except a drunken RJ). I consider this to be a model which others may want to follow.
I 'm not convinced this discouraged participation, maybe for some locals. Let's face it, when you see the amount of entries in ASA sites compared with a few years back it is evident that the economy is a big factor and will continue to be. Great fishery down there at VA beach but the rednecks are going to kill it for rockfish. White marlin seem safe though, banner year.Amberjacks,tuna,tilefish....Last year we had a hammerhead turn on a bait not too far out,12'+ would have been fun!

During this time of year, a dumpster is filled with bass racks every day at the Rudee Inlet,PIGS I tell you.Laziest,easiest fishing imaginable.

What would you expect when your Uncle is your Dad.:tooth:

......terrible the large breeding fish can't take a winter break along the mid Atlantic(resting/feeding before the return to spawning locus)....menhaden, mackerel, scup, butterfish, squid, being hammered.-no break for them either...coastal waters/spawning/nursery areas being defiled by poop from people/agricultural meat production....add to the mix non-point runoff of fertilizers/herbicides.............nasty.........what I need now is break from this depressive reporting(true though)........I like the fishing girls on 179 logo.......nice

While I agree, I'm sure many of them could say the same about us - just replace "winter" with summer.

..what I have heard is the mid-atlantic winter concentration(s) of fish is a suicidal mass(es) of fish...90% outside the 3-miles...

Nice, I guess we a a society should always turn a blind eye for fear of retribution. Interesting, most law enforcement I know of encourage community involvement...

$2,500 is a substantial fine for most of these charter boats. I'd venture to say that none of them are sailing everyday, and even if they are charging $1200 a day (which is really waaay up at the high end of the range) they certainly aren't making anywhere near that much.

Nobody ever said that... You obviously have absolutley no idea what some people in law enforcement go through regarding retribution...