Anyone get harrassed by the DEC this weekend?

N

NY Weasel

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Went out fishing on Saturday, noticed the Enviromental Conservation guys going boat to boat and boarding them. Got back to my slip, and my neighbor was steaming mad. He's in his early 70's, and they got him for a few things, then followed him back to his slip and fined him for illegal fish caught in his bait traps???

Monday they boarded one of the Freeport charter boats (Capt Lou I believe), and shut the boat down at noon.

I guess they are just doing their job, but the multiple fines are a little excessive.
 
I was out yesterday and heard the DEC contact the party boat Fish Finder. He said to the captain to have all the anglers pick up their lines and not to disturb or alter anything until they board. I can imagine how that captain felt. I guess that's part of doing business these days.

Adam
 
What "things" did they get him for?
 
There's been a lot of talk that the party boat captains are essentially ignoring their customers taking short fluke and consider an occasional fine just another business expense. Maybe the DEC is cracking down more on them if they actually made the Capt Lou stop the trip...

Unfortunately there are too many people who ignore the regulations so I think they need to have some level of enforcement out there. I know a lot of people feel like they are being harrassed but if you aren't breaking the rules it's a few minutes at most and they are out of there. I haven't been checked by the DEC yet this season.
 
John, I agree. I don't know about the party boats but I see too many people bringing up fluke and not throwing them back and I can see they're not keepers. I'd have no problem with anyone checking my catch........except we throw EVERYTHING back, no matter what size.
 
To be fair, he claims that he got bagged for an 18" fluke his grandson caught, and wanted grandma to cook for dinner (he agrees, he is ticked that he said yes to his grandson), got a ticket coming up short by one life preserver, but showed them a throw ring with 60' of line and a throw cushion, but got a ticket for no line on the cushion, then they said maybe you left the other life preservers in your garage, let's go back to your slip and you can check, that's when they pulled his bait traps up for the third summons. I have no reason not to believe him.

As for Capt Lou, he got bagged coming back from the 5a-12n trip with a loaded Labor Day boat, most likely for short fluke. According to folks on the mile, the DEC and police followed him back, and the boat stayed put for the rest of the day, no afternoon or evening trip.
 
"got a ticket coming up short by one life preserver" Is not a small thing in my book, the others might be petty ...
 
Just my opinion but he's not really setting a good example for his grandson.
 
My buddy was stopped twice on Sunday. Once just inside the inlet by the DEC "green" boat that also has 3 "Coasties" on board. and again when he pulled his boat at the Captree Boat Ramp.

The DEC at the inlet went through all his coolers, baitwells and console. The 'coasties' that were on board were there primarily there to assist the E-Con officers, but decide to check him for safety/equipment infractions. Neither agency found him in the wrong or insufficient in anything.

I have been stopped 3 times this year, all by Suffolk Marine PD for safety inspections. 2 of the 3 times were on the eve or morning of major fishing tournaments. Om one of those occasions (Bay Shore Shark Tourney -night of the Captain's meeting) the officers admitted that they were on BWI duty.

The Regional DEC added 9 officers to their ranks in July since they got funding long overdue. The inspections that are frequently occurring are in response to the Party?Charter Boats blatantly ignoring fishing regulations. A good friend of mine who chartered for years out of Freeport says he's never seen such constant activity and crackdowns.
 
Something of an aside, but the laws that keep lengthening the size of fish caught in NY has some professionals saying that we are basically capturing all the Shags and Hulk Hogan fish allowing only the PeeWee Hermans to reproduce, as such we are creating generations of smaller and smaller fish overall.

Something to think about....maybe we should just put # limit per person on fishing.
 
I don't think we're reducing the size of fluke as a species. I think we're reducing mature breeding stock. Just by the fact that the larger fluke have been around long enough to grow to that size, they have also been around long enough to breed, probably several times, thereby passing on their DNA. And catching smaller fluke just means you got them younger in the life cycle, before they had a chance to grow.
 
Agreed, that is why some of these professionals are proponents of just restricting the number and not the size of the fish. This may allow that 22 incher to go on reproducing for years and years I suppose.
 
Yeah, I think slot size restrictions are much better than just minimum size. I'd be more than happy to be able to take 3 or 4 fluke between say 14 and 17 inches and have to toss everything smaller or larger back.
 
Actually it does reduce the size of the species. Stonybrook just got finished doing a twenty generation study on the subject and concluded that within just a few generations the species will become overall smaller. Not only that, but they proved that the species will not recover when it is no longer fished. the genetic pressure that created the original larger fish is not present with the decreased stocks of species both above and below it on the food chain.
 
Sorry, I'm not buying it. There has to be an external environmental change for the DNA to mutate causing the size of the species to increase/decrease. Just removing a portion of the larger fish from the population is not cause enough for this to happen. Just by the fact that these fish have lived long enough to grow to a certain size, they have also lived long enough to reproduce and pass on their DNA. So, barring a drastic decrease in prey or habitat and or a drastic increase in predators, as long as their offspring are also able to survive long enough, they too will reach this size. I'm not saying you're wrong. It's just lately there's been so much theory crammed down our throats and not enough science to back it up, and I'd love to read the study so I can see the science for myself.
 
I have read in the past that keeping the bigger fish is actually a bad policy, and I believe on some inland lakes there are slot sizes and you have to release the big ones. However anyone who has fished for fluke over the past 15+ years knows that every time they increase the size limit the size of the fish seems to go up with it also. Back when the limit was 14" we used to throw back 13" fish all day and would end up keeping a few 14-15" fluke on a good day. I remember an 18" fish being my biggest for the year, and one time I caught one over 5 lbs and it was a big deal. Now practically every weekend someone has a 7-8 lb fish locally and if you put the time in it's not unusual to catch 20"+ fluke. There was some controversy over the circumstances of the catch, but a woman in NJ recently had a 24+ lb, 38.5" fluke. I think that the 19.5" limit is too high and too much of a jump from what it was, but I also think the fish have continued to get bigger as the size limits have been raised, so from that perspective it's been a good thing. I also don't think too many people will be happy at this point being told they have to release the big ones.
 
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