I don't know if you will meet with them again John, but if you do could you drop a word or 2 for me? Being a minority myself I try to keep friends and others aware of the regs. Often times iget dumped into the catagory: since I'm a minority I litter, take shorts and ignore regs.
Now I admit there are some from my background who do blatantly abuse regs. Matter a fact, one time after I released an undersized striper last year, this guy comes screaming at me: you give ME fish. I was pissed, told him to f* off and that you couldn't keep it since it's too small. He started fishing next to me and I was glad he couldn't catch a cold never mind a fish.
However there are many of us who follow the regs so dumping us all into one catagory is frustrating. I only ran into officers twice last season, both times at the same area of Boston. It so happened at both times there were only minorities fishing and many of them. Ididn't see any regs broken b/c everybody would tell any newcomers about the laws and possible fines associated. I was glad when I saw the officers actively checking (one on the pier and a boat as well) and enforcing regs, but after they checked they ran their boat right along the pier at full throttle scaring fish and running over everybody's lines. Everyone reset, then 20-30 min later. The boat comes slowly along the pier, then a little ways from eveybody the driver throws it into full throttle and it became a mad dash to get your line in before you lost it. Digusted I left with many others.
Point is I follow the regs and hate to see others abuse them, but call the DEM? Not high on my priority list anymore, don't need harrassed along with those breaking the law.
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