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.

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.

: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.