Monday Flounder Report and Rant
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Monday Flounder Report and Rant Expand / Collapse
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Posted 11/20/2007 11:05:36 AM


Trigger

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Report:  Went out to Ft. Pickens and got 3 nice size flounder about 7:00 on Monday night.  Clear water, no wind, fisherman's dream.  Here is one of the doormats (and yes I know I am holding him upside down):

Now the Rant:  Call me dumb or blind but we were cited by the FFWC last night.  Evidently you can not transport filleted fish in a boat.  The background of the story:  we put in at Bayou Texar - ran to Gulf Breeze and picked up 2 more anglers - went flounderin'- returned to Gulf Breeze - filleted the fish and let the anglers off - the anglers didn't want' the fish so we threw them in the cooler - went to Bayou Texar - got a ticket.  We were told that we "possesed fish not in whole condition".  My thoughts (however naive they are) were that the fish were already landed (in Gulf Breeze).  As witnessed by the picture above - all the fillets (3) were longer than the required 12" total fish length.  No good, ticket anyway.

Anyway this causes a little grief for me.  Is this really what the FWCC does all day?  Find technicalities and punish people for obvious oversights?  Are 3 fillets (that are obviously legal) what they fight for?  Sorry to rant but there should be better descretion by the FWCC.

A little more background:  I have fought to protect these fish my whole adult life.  I have been the president of CCA Pensacola, received 2 conservation awards, and received a FWCC pin from the Commission.  Heck - I even helped provide pictures for the FWCC "fish identification book".

Post #23460
Posted 11/20/2007 11:12:12 AM
Grouper

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You obviously don't know what your talking about. How are they supposed to know what kind of fish and how big it was if all you have is filets? What if they are Red Snapper? undersized Grouper? They are just doing their job-making sure we take care of the wildlife.

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Post #23463
Posted 11/20/2007 11:14:23 AM


Trigger

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That would be pretty impressive to catch a red snapper with a gig.
Post #23465
Posted 11/20/2007 11:15:33 AM
Grouper

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How are they supposed to know how you caught it?

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Post #23466
Posted 11/20/2007 11:17:16 AM


Trigger

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I don't know, maybe look in the boat and see if there was anything in there except 4 gigs?
Post #23467
Posted 11/20/2007 11:18:55 AM


Trigger

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wishiniwasfishin07 (11/20/2007)
You obviously don't know what your talking about. How are they supposed to know what kind of fish and how big it was if all you have is filets? What if they are Red Snapper? undersized Grouper? They are just doing their job-making sure we take care of the wildlife.

I'm assuming the fillets had the skin on.  Either way, common sense should still apply. I often will clean fish at a friends dock, divy up the fish and head to the house by boat. I think discretion has to be applied by both parties. In this case it doesnt sound like the guy deserved a ticket. JMO.

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Post #23468
Posted 11/20/2007 11:21:07 AM


White Marlin

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wishiniwasfishin07 (11/20/2007)
You obviously don't know what your talking about. How are they supposed to know what kind of fish and how big it was if all you have is filets? What if they are Red Snapper? undersized Grouper? They are just doing their job-making sure we take care of the wildlife.

+1

Ignorance of the law is not an excuse.  Suck it up as a lesson learned.  A fish filet could be any meat based on a simple visual inspection.  You knew it was flounder, but they didn't.  That is why the rule of "whole condition" exists.  The rule is possesion based, so you were in posession of fish not in whole condition.  They were perfectly right to give you a ticket.  Could he have let you off, sure.  But just because he didn't does not make him wrong for giving you a ticket.

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Post #23469