Fishermen who put fish in plastic bags

I have witnessed on a least two instances in one of the ponds that I fish, a fisherman catching a fish and putting the fish into a plastic bag to "keep it". Now I am not necessarily opposed to anyone keeping a legal fish that they catch. Its just that putting the fish into a plastic bag to suffocate is just disturbing. In my opinion if you want to keep the fish that you catch, get a stringer, or a bucket or a cooler. I mean if you intend to eat the fish you should at least try to keep it as fresh as possible. In many ways fish are like cartons of milk , if you don't keep them cool they spoil, especially in the heat of summer. Its just common sense to me but I guess the baggers just don't seem to get it. Then to add insult to injury, when they find out that the fish has spoiled, what do they do: they put the dead fish back into the water that it came from. Its just sad so see a dead fish floating on the surface after one of these guys discarded it.

I just have to get that off my chest.

I feel your pain on this one..

I couldn't agree more!

While they are in the process of this i would love to run over and slap a trash bag over there heads! Bagging Larry WTF!

the one that drives me crazy is when they keep everything they catch.sunfish,4in bass,turtle(yes a turtle) what eva they catch goes in a bucket,plastic bag,paper bag,their left and right pants pockets. on top of that either they use a can with fishing line or deep sea fishing rod. dam it imma go find out how long it takes to become a ranger.

unfortunately, we see the same thing at the local pond down the street from us. they take whatever the catch and we have definitely noticed the difference. over the past few years the pond has gotten really slow. to the point, we hardly fish there any more.

yesterday i fished Buckmaster Pond in Westwood and this puerto rician couple asked me to give them anything i caught. Pretty sure they were fishing for dinner. Saw them pull up a maybe 7 inch bass and throw him in a bag.

yup same here. when i see those bucketeers with there buckets i ll paddle and fish around where they fish. when i catch one they ask what im using and not to throw it back and to give it to them. i show them my fly and just tell them"sorry catch and release" then i tell them the fish has too much mercury and its not good to eat too many of them. but they just look at me like wtf u talkin about i just want free food. there used to be really nice size bass in Lake . at least 6 plus pounders swear you not. theres a small pond across from the lake and one guy was catching shads from the pond and using it as bait. he pulled up 3 nice size florida size bass . well next you know he must went and told his boyz cause there were at least 15 of them running back and fourth from the little pond to the lake catching bass.well this happend for about 2 years then they stop cause no more big ones. i still catch nice size ones but nothin like that guy pulling up those big ones.

Last edited by na337 on Sat Aug 07, 2010 10:00 pm; edited 1 time in total

yup same here. when i see those bucketeers with there buckets i ll paddle and fish around where they fish. when i catch one they ask what im using and not to throw it back and to give it to them. i show them my fly and just tell them"sorry catch and release" then i tell them the fish has too much mercury and its not good to eat too many of them. but they just look at me like wtf u talkin about i just want free food. there used to be really nice size bass in Lake Cochichewick. at least 6 plus pounders swear you not. theres a small pond across from the lake and one guy was catching shads from the pond and using it as bait. he pulled up 3 nice size florida size bass . well next you know he must went and told his boyz cause there were at least 15 of them running back and fourth from the little pond to the lake catching bass.well this happend for about 2 years then they stop cause no more big ones. i still catch nice size ones but nothin like that guy pulling up those big ones.

Considering how long it takes a bass or any fish to grow bigger then 15 inches up here that is just sad news.

A couple of weeks ago I was talking to another angler at the Brookline res. We got to talking about the various fish dwelling in both Brookline and the Chestnut hill reservoirs and he was telling me that he regularly sees guys keeping everything they catch over at Chestnut hill. He said he even got upset enough to call the DFW about it and they said that due to budget cuts they don't have enough rangers to enforce the fishing regs. WTF!

I think I will start taking photos of these guys and send them into DFW. I bet half of the baggers out there don't even bother to buy a license and poach the fish just because they know they can get away with it.

It's that kind of attitude that undermines the health of the waterways and the values of community that uses them in lawful manner.

I just can't remain silent on this issue...something needs to be done about these poachers.

I called up someone at the DFW to ask some questions about fish kills. The pond I was fishing at the time had more 6-8" bass than you could ever imagine. Since no one ever kept anything caught out of there, there was not enough food for anything to really grow. I think the biggest I ever saw taken out of there might have gone 2lb. So in this case, taking some out would have really helped. Now mother nature did her part and two winters ago, the fish kill was pretty massive. At that time, I saw a few 3+ lbers dead. Kind of disheartening but overall not detrimental to the pond.

Now, on the other hand, you see these guys out there catching and keeping EVERYTHING like you guys noted. Recently at Hardy's Pond in Waltham I saw this and it pissed me off. When I had called the DFW about the fish kill, he said the number of Environ. Police was down to 81 for 2009 or 10. So if you think about it, that number is minuscule to cover all the ponds that Mass. has. I dont think that number includes specific Lake rangers (deputy types). DFW budgets are one of the first to get cut.

If you guys get a chance, check out Bob Lusk (the pond boss). He does seminars around the U.S. (and you can find them on a few bass websites) talking about pond management, catch and release, etc. Stuff like using ribbed weigh in bags leading to increased fish kill when they are released after weigh in or using livewell additives.

anyone notice all the dead sunnies/crappie and perch about a month ago at the brookline res??? I later ran into an international dude who was fishing with his girlfriend who said something along the lines of...he hates sunfish and they need to be killed because they ruin the bass population. I really wanted to push him in! I sent an email to the department of fish and game about this dude and got absolutely no reply.

While i was there, i had at least 3 ppl approach me and ask me why are the fish dying. I swear that kid is catching them and killing them

In May I saw a perch and a pickerel floating dead on surface of Brookline res. that was a sad sight to see.

If you see them killing fish and dumping them back in the water take photos its illegal to kill animals and put them into public reservoirs. Only fisheries management is authorized to cull fish in public waters. Also since this guy is dumping the remains back into a public water source he/she could be facing more significant consequences for what can be construed as committing an act of environmental terrorism.

I am surprised that the walkers and joggers haven't started complaining about this kind of thing...because they usually visit the
reservoirs daily to walk and jog.

anyone notice all the dead sunnies/crappie and perch about a month ago at the brookline res??? I later ran into an international dude who was fishing with his girlfriend who said something along the lines of...he hates sunfish and they need to be killed because they ruin the bass population. I really wanted to push him in! I sent an email to the department of fish and game about this dude and got absolutely no reply.

While i was there, i had at least 3 ppl approach me and ask me why are the fish dying. I swear that kid is catching them and killing them

i wouldn't be so quick to jump to that conclusion. i fished brookline a month ago and saw the same thing. i also saw some sunnies look very disoriented. the area had a lot of debris in the water(mostly leaves), a lot of sunlight, and there was a foul odor. maybe a lack of oxygen in this area due to decomposition of the debris?

I yelled at a bucketeer at Spy Pond a few weeks back -- he had three decent nearly-dead bass in a plastic bucket. I said, "What's the point of keeping them in a bucket til they're half dead? Throw them back!" He said, "I throw them back later." Yeah, right.