Well…we've come to expect a few 30 lbers and a stray 40 to be taken from the Titt chain every winter or so. But the lowered water levels and early freeze have been especially tough on our waters this season though – 48, 49 and 51" minimally from Sanford this year. And 18 sublegals from up the chain by a small group of spearers alone. The DNR has been notified (again)…but enforcement during the winter has unfortunately proven to be near impossible. Bummer, eh?
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What gets me is "where's the respect" for our resources. Put the whole "Muskie" aside. Doesn't matter what species or animal how can people go through life thinking it's okay to break laws put in place to protect what we have. We all agree the regs on Muskie is too light but some idiots can't even respect or adhere to our current size limits. These guys out spearing sublegal fish are not productive residents of our state and don't deserve the privledge of any type of fishing. This just makes me sick when were talking sublegal fish. No respect for our resources shows that these people are trash and should be treated as such.
I understand and feel all of your frustration but we don't get anything done complaining about poachers on here. Do something about it!! Here's the contact for the local LE. 20 e-mails over the next couple days should get their attention.
Lt. Ronald Utt
Bay City Operations Service Center
3580 State Park Drive
Bay City MI 48706
Phone: (989) 684-9141
E-mail: ** you do not have permission to see this link **
PLEASE copy your complaint(s) to the LE chief:
Gary Hagler, Chief DNR-LE
phone: 517-335-3427
e-mail: ** you do not have permission to see this link **
Remind the LE that this is not a resource that can handle widespread harvest particularly poaching. The muskellunge resource is limited to only 111 of our waters and is a fragile resource compared to other fisheries.
Unfortunately I agree with Hemi. Laws, no matter how strict, just won't stop some people. Some just don't have any respect or just never "get it". The only way to stop this particular poaching problem is banning all spearing like everyone else but it won't ever happen. That or hire more DNR officers, but that isn't happening anytime soon I wouldn't think.
Well, we have some covert op's going on as usual to get more details first, so I don't want to say too much until we know which shanties belong to the bad guys. Always working hard to gain the trust of the perpetrators up here…a never ending game! But, there have been many folks bragging up their harvest numbers through the years at the local bait shops (many many more folks doing this 8-10 years ago thankfully)…so that has been a reliable source in the past.
FYI, how this has gone down before is this:
– guy brags about spearing X number of muskies
– 99% of his audience thinks it's no big deal, they talk
– 99% of their audience thinks it's no big deal, they talk
– finally, a musky nut hears word, and/or sees pictures
– musky nut contacts the DNR
– DNR makes a big scene checking everyone on the lakes and saying that they heard about illegal musky harvest
– word spreads very quickly…bad guys change their ways for the short term and stop bringing sublegals home (may keep spearing/releasing them)
– DNR says they never caught anyone with sublegals, but they warned everyone so all should be good now
– process is repeated later in the year, or the following year, or 2 years later. It has gotten MUCH less frequent on the chain over the past 8-10 years…not so elsewhere.
This time, it would really, really neat to keep getting info, find their location and convince the DNR to set up a sting. It's just almost impossible to enforce though…maybe just sticking with the old routine is fine. Recall last years story about the CO that checked a fellow who admitted to spearing an undersized fish that day, showed the CO a pic, CO saw blood on the ice, fish was 'released' because it was too small. No citations issued…
Very sad to hear Pete! Although we, the MMA, put together a group and worked on some new proposals for changing some of the current musky regulations there will continue to be people that do not follow them and simply don't care. There are not enough DNR staff to enforce the rules so it seems to be up to the sportsman to educate, change regs. and continue to contact the right people when ever wrong doings are discovered and hopefully the DNR will do a follow up. We have to help police and educate the knuckleheads. Oh, and btw, wouldn't it be nice to get rid of musky spearing all together.
Ask yourself how many times that you have been stopped and checked by a DNR person while fishing, open water or ice fishing. Personally, I have spent 40+ years and a lot of hours on the ice and fished lakes all over Michigan and have only been checked once. It can be a "free for all circus" out there at times.
I cant believe they can even consider spearing a fish and throwing it down the hole "catch and release"…and the fact that the DNR accepts that as legal is a whole nother problem…but your idea of a sting is great. If only the DNR would accept volunteers for things like that. Id be more than willing to be a part of a sting operation. Hell, Id happily volunteer to act as a DNR officer for free and go to every lake in my area checking each shanty for illegal spearers and throw every fine in the book at them.
What are the legal ramifications for poaching undersized fish?
"TimD" said:
Ask yourself how many times that you have been stopped and checked by a DNR person while fishing, open water or ice fishing. Personally, I have spent 40+ years and a lot of hours on the ice and fished lakes all over Michigan and have only been checked once. It can be a "free for all circus" out there at times.
Really? I people getting checked every other time when I'm on Murray or Campau during the summer. I've only seen 2 different guys I think, and they've come to recognize my boat, and that I'm always legal. I've watched them check every boat on the lake, and then wave to Matt and me and keep truckin'.
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