Poacher got busted today
 

A buddy of mine said today the Poacher (charter boat out of Oregon inlet & Rudee) got boarded today and they checked the GPS and found he had run outside the 3 mile limit. They took his catch and probably will get fined for that. He hasn't posted today but I'm wondering if he'll mention it (bad business).

I'm sorry. Could you explain to a Great Lakes fisherman why it's illegal to go outside of the 3 mile limit to catch fish? I hear a lot of guys here talking about 40 mile runs. Thanks Billy Mac :beer:

How can they prove that he actually caught those fish outside the limit? That makes no sense to me at all.

Oh man that IS bad!!

The fact is the CAN'T prove where they were caught, but the real problem is that neither can you!!

It is actually illegal to even TARGET striped bass outside of 3 miles of the beach. Therefore when practicing catch and release on the striped bass outside the 3 mile line you must "pretend" to be bluefishing if questioned by the man. AND most importantly if you decide to cross the line, you'd better not have ANY fish in the box.

Mac - when we talk about the 40 mile run, we are referring to going up and down the beach 40 miles (still within 3 miles of the beach) not going offshore 40 miles.

Its a dumb law that alot of people are against. I don't how that law helps a single soul.

Mac,

The ocean out 3 miles are state waters, then federal waters from there. I assume that the federal waters must be closed for stripers.

As for his charges, I bet he can beat them unless he gave them permission to manipulate his GPS. There have been a couple of recent court cases that have found that you can look at a screen of an electronic devise for free but to manipulate it in any way requires consent or probable cause.


Ok, now I have talked law, politics and religion on a boat message board all in one day.

Thia is a similiar issue to what I posted a few nights ago about what were going through in the gulf. 3 miles out in the ATLANTIC is federal waters, so the feds can make there own rules to how they want them(normally to cover the commercial guys not recreational). Were having similiar issues in the gulf, down here it's 9 miles out, but there trying to take out our kneecaps, rape us and not even offer us lube or a reach around.

Blue that was good explaination for Billy MAc on his questions.

I understand they looked at his (poacher) gps and found he had gone outside of the 3 mile limit. I have a Coastie that fishes with me and he said they got a call and was asked to look because some boats were outside the 3 mile limit. They didn't target him personnally because there were others they stopped also. My buddy wasnt on the patrol that flew over them to start with.

No need to worry, some of us need to told twice by different people.


:clap:

Heres what really happened.

The CG saw the charter "fishing" 4 miles off shore from a helicopter and call it in to a CG in a boat. When they got to the charter they were within the three miles but they had 11 stripers on board. Sense they were spotted fishing over the line the CG took the fish (sent them to a homeless shelter soup kitchen) and gave the captain a ticket. The captain claims that none of the fish were caught over the line but has no way of proven this and its still illegal to striper fish over the line anyways.

:head::head::head:

I've read the thread a couple times through and I am still confused.

Is it just the charter and commercial guys that have to worry about
the three miles or is it everyone?

and if it is everyone, how does one find out about these laws?

EVERYONE has to worry about these rules. I know here in FLORIDA the top of our state regulations list's how far out that there waters apply. Beyond that you have to refer to the appropriate GULF or SOUTH ATLANTIC recreational rules and regulations as well as closed areas and parks. Not to mention they are now allowed to revise the rules and regulations monthly now, and it is the fishermans responsibility to check before going fishing. There out to take the fun out of fishing.

Its everyone because after three miles its federal waters and there are federal restrictions on stripers. It is listed with all the other rules about striper fishing and reads like this.

Federal water striped bass regulations: Atlantic Ocean waters beyond the 3 mile limit are closed to the taking and possession of striped bass all year.

The Poacher said he got a ticket inside the 3 mile line but did state that he had gone outside the 3 mile limit while running to hthe area he wanted to fish. The coasties looked at his GPS and verified he had run outside the limit but he argued he did not stop and fish.

Here's his story I copied from his web site:

Fishing was slow with all the slick calm and 70 degree weather and I was headed up towards the Eastern shore when some bait was spotted and a few birds. I stopped to check it out and nothing,trolled around and came up without a bite, again I state NOTHING.....The whole time this was going on a helicopter had been flying all over the ocean,we saw him but what the heck we're setting there eating nabs and drinking cokes,no worries. So I move on and a buddy tells me about some bait and a few gannets hitting so I set out there. We start whacking them,doubles,singles set back out another double-it was getting good. Then about an 45 minutes goes by and here comes a boarding officer-WE HAVE 2 STRIPERS ON WHEN HE PULLS UP! He acknowledges that we are 2.5 miles off the beach and in legal waters but we take our lines in-all 9 of them. He asks me what I was doing in the EEZ earlier and I say looking for something to catch which didn't happen and it's not illegal to be in the EEZ as long as you don't have stripers. While this is going on several boats in the area are still catching stripers,again in legal waters-right inside of me. 3 hours later after who knows how many phone calls he gives me a ticket for Possession of striped bass in the EEZ,but I was boarded in state waters while engaged in fishing-I WASN'T IN THE EEZ! How can you get a ticket for possession of striped bass in the EEZ when you are not in the EEZ and have possession while fishing in state waters! I asked if it was illegal to be in the EEZ and was told no,so what did that have to do with me fishing in state waters-I don't get it!
Any way they gave me a ticket and took the striped bas,at least they feed the homeless-life goes on.

So the morale of the story is: when you leave Rudee heading for Cape Charles,a 1 mile out straight line will take you several miles into the EEZ while crossing the bay. If you are seen stopping, later that afternoon while fishing off Cape Henry you could get a ticket for possession in the EEZ even though you are in state waters, just based on a hypothetical situation that you may have landed some earlier with no proof.

3 miles is nothing.

What about the commercial guys,
why don't they get boarded and searched for illeagle by catch?
I don't mean commercial charters, I mean the huge boats with drag nets.

I agree parishht, they should be .

They should be held liable, but bull$hit and politics rule the world. And the commercial fishing guys have the money and bull to keep it going there way for the most part.

You need to read what he said in the first three sentences of his statement. He clearly states that he stopped and fished over three miles but without a bite. He knows that is illegal and just because they did not catch any fish does not change the law. It says its illegal to target stripers out side of the three mile and from what I have read he does not deny this he just states that he did not catch any stripers.

Well the nets that they are using in our area have holes large enough in the nets for the stripers to swim through and they are mainly catching sharks at this time. Now the menhaden boats are allowed a certain amount of bycatch but they cannot target stripers and I'm not sure if they can go over the tree mile line.

How ironic that the name of the boat is:

Poacher

HEY STILL

He also never said he was fishing for strippers, it legal to fish for bluefish outside the 3 mi limit and bluefish are plentiful during this time of the year here.

A lot of the charters bring in both species. So by him saying he was fishing doesn't mean he was fishing illegally for strippers.

Well do you really think they went out looking for blue fish? If so why didn't state that in his post when explaining what happened. I do not know the guy so I'm not going to judge what he did but he should have known he was pushing the limit by doing what he did.

How on earth did I miss this thread?

For the guys living away from the striper coast, you have no idea how silly some of these rules get. It's all been pretty well explained here in this thread. I do a fair amount of seabass and tog fishing in the winter. Sometimes bluefish are the targert as well. We've caught those pesky rockfish as much as 28 miles offshore this time of year. We just throw them back and keep after out intnended target.:zip:

I have a buddy who got stopped last Saturday. 4 miles off the beach. He's a charter. The fines go up after ten fish. He was legal for size & number, but busted on location. Those twelve fish will cost him between 6,000 and 12,000. The officer doesn't write the ticket, it comes from the FEDS. He's just watching the mail box now to see how bad its gonna be...

:oh: :sad: :devil: 12 to 6 grand....ouch

I have a friend fighting some federal tickets right now as well. The fines started out at $1700 & $2400. He was going to just pay them so he didn't have to take time off, and run all over the state going to federal courts. He paid the $1700 one and now they're trying to hit him over $7000 on the other one and give him a criminal record. So we have to fight this BS down here as well. And it all started because he was anchored outside of the boundry markers, but turns out the markers were in the wrong place and he was 50 yards inside of the preserve. He had 1 fish over his 1 day's limit, but had been out for 3. And in FLORIDA you are allowed up to a 2 days limit of reef fish if you have benn out for 2 or more days.

Here in Ma. all Strippers have to be caught within the 3 mile limit, They are a Game Fish in Fed water now up here.

Well, I guess it's back to the surf fishing for me.:sand:

Anyway, I was looking on the net for information and found this website:

http://ecfr.gpoaccess.gov/cgi/t/text....0.1.1.6.1.1.1



It seams that anyone could be written up for being in the EEZ waters with a
fishing rod on board, unless you have a permit to fish in the EEZ.
Any boat can get a permit.
So does that mean that the charters that go on tuna trips have the permits?

You need a permit for tuna in NC whether you catch tuna inside or outside the 3 mi area (EEZ) but there is no permit in the EEZ for striper.

Fishing itself is not illegal in the EEZ its the targeting of fish that have been giving the title of gamefish by the federal goverment for protection in most cases. We tog, flounder, spade fish all the time in the EZZ without any problems. The problem this time of year is that the stripers are running and 99.99% of the people are fishing for stripers. If you have stripers in your boat do not get caught with any line in the water in the EZZ as the CG will automatically assume they were caught in the EZZ. I have a hard time believing these charter captins getting caught and pleeding inocent because I have seen them knownly catch fish over the line. If they don't know they are over the line then maybe they should not be chartering boats. In this last case the CG said in the article I read that they watched the charter fish 4 miles from shore.

You know reading this thread brings one question to mind, Do we still live in a free country? I mean come on now, you have to have a permit to even catch a fish. Not just a fishing license to support your fishery, but a full on permit. This is getting carried away now.

In Virginia I do not think that you need any other permit over a fishing lic. We can purchase a boat lic. which is $38.00 for an entire year and cover anyone fishing from the boat and is good for me fishing anywhere in Va. There may be other permits but I'm not aware of any.

Free country?????
Nothing is free and you have to be a lawyer to read through all the gibberish.

I have free checking!
I took a free fishing pole out of someones garbage can.

Hey Still

You also need a permit for tuna in VA just like we do in Carolina.

HMS permit is a federal permit, so anywhere in the US if you target tuna and some other species, you need to have it. Its only like $22, but you know that's another $22...I now have NC, SC, and VA saltwater fishing licenses and an HMS permit. That's alot of dang permits.

What is this, freakin' red china?

sounds fishy to me...