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Do you know your limits?

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This spring while fishing the Raritan, I had 12 different occasions logged in which I had to tell people that their two 30” fish are illegal. Most of them ignored me or argued that the limit is two fish. 12 people on 9 different trips, and I do my best to stay away from the crowds, who knows how many people really keep two. I’m just curious what is getting lost in translation with the slot limit, only one fish between 28-43” is legal, the second must be over 43”. Am I wrong or is the state not doing a good enough of a job of informing people of the limits? How can they do a better job? 

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It's not up to the state to hand out memos to everyone on the registry. Although an email with the new years limits would be nice. It's up to the angler to research and know each year if there has been any changes. I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that most people that don't know the limits probably don't register either. If I see people keeping illegal fish I say something too. Most of the time people play ignorant.

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8 hours ago, chitala383 said:

It's not up to the state to hand out memos to everyone on the registry. Although an email with the new years limits would be nice. It's up to the angler to research and know each year if there has been any changes. I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that most people that don't know the limits probably don't register either. If I see people keeping illegal fish I say something too. Most of the time people play ignorant.

I was witness to 2 fellas playing ignorant to the game warden on Sat. on a inland lake.  He asked them politely for their licenses.  The first 2 fellas produced em immediately.  The other 2 sat there pretending not to understand English, looking around blankly uncertain what was being asked of them.  Then the warden spoke to them in Spanish and asked again before he told them to get off the water.  Walking back with them to their vehicles he told them...."this is a simple process, I ask the questions and you answer them honestly.  If you were just honest with me this would not be necessary but now I'm handing out tickets and while we're at it I'll be taking a look in your vehicles.  Now the next time I see you just be honest."

"I was a waste of time dumbasses"  Sevenxseventy1

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Regs have very little meaning when they are lightly enforced.  Hand out a bunch of summonses and people will get educated quickly.  There will always be a good amount of people who don't follow saltwater regs.  That's just been the nature of the fishery- until there is better enforcement nothing will change.  

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It's an enforcement issue.  After Julians blew the bite out of the water with that monster bass and MUCH bigger crowds showed up, EVERYONE was keeping multiple fish.  Some of them were even making multiple trips back and forth from the weeds to drop more fish in the coolers.  

 

How hard is it for fish and game wardens to find a hot bite?  All they have to do is drive parking lot to parking lot and watch for a short time.  The precedence has been set that your chances of getting a ticket are slim to none.  Even in broad daylight on a jetty do they stand little chance of getting nabbed.  

 

Maybe it's a funding issue, but there are wardens on the payroll so I question that.  Even if it's a funding issue, there is no chance that the residents of NJ would approve of any fee's associated with a saltwater license.  

 

Delete from SOL_Users where username like 'wasy','Seal'....

 

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I saw a couple of wardens once this spring, and it wasn't an area where they would likely find anything, even if they did there was only a handful of people. Hit the popular spring bay spots a few nights a week, dish out a bunch of tickets, hell just people knowing that they are being watched will curtail a lot of them keeping over the limit or short fish.

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I was approached a couple of years ago by the Warden who overs Northern Ocean County.  He was checking for my registration.  He told me at that time they had 3 full time employees who cover everything from the RB down to CM.  They broke it down into 3 areas.  RB to Central Ocean, Central Ocean down to AC, AC down to CM.  He said this was due to budget cuts made by the Christie Administration.  Who knows if this is still the same now.     

"I was a waste of time dumbasses"  Sevenxseventy1

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10 hours ago, HighEndHooker said:

...........is the state not doing a good enough of a job of informing people of the limits? How can they do a better job? 

 

Very simple to do a better job.

 

Have every CO (there's what, 15 of 'em?) accompanied by an officer, and let the word get out that if you are caught poaching, you are going to be fined, possibly arrested, and if you are here illegally, deported.  If the illegal fish are found on your boat or in your car, that vehicle gets confiscated till your court date.

 

It would take one week of such activity (fines, tows, confiscations, arrests, deportations) for the word to get out REAL GOOD, and you'd see an end to the BS almost instantly.

 

The same exact rules for speeding and texting while driving could put an end to that almost immediately as well.

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7 mins ago, Fly By Nite said:

Coastal waters are very different. Much more difficult to enforce regs.

I wouldn't give any sympathy to the enforcers.  They've got a job to do and they don't do it.  It's really that simple.  Watching these reality TV shows of game wardens in Alaska and Maine has really opened my eye's to what a joke our officers in NJ really are.  Every access point has a paved road leading to it.  

 

Delete from SOL_Users where username like 'wasy','Seal'....

 

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I met the warden covering Southern Ocean and we were talking when her partner made a bust at one of the popular sod banks up north.  I heard the entire conversation over her radio, her colleague busted the whole lot of em and handed out a lot of citations.  Now do those get paid?  She told me the same story I heard before, lack of appropriations and 3 ppl to cover an entire coast. 

"I was a waste of time dumbasses"  Sevenxseventy1

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I just got a call from Fish and Game.  LOL  It refreshed my memory.  

 

About a month ago I was approached by a young guy on the beach doing a survey.  I told him all the data he asked about and I also complained about Spring lake banning fishing except for 2 designated areas.  He told me all he's allowed to do is survey and thats it.  As we talk one of the guys fishing sandbugs up the beach grabs a bass (which looked pretty short) and started walking away.  The kid told me he couldn't do anything about writing him a ticket but ran down the beach to catch up to him.  I did see him measure the fish and it looked like he gave the guy a hard time but eventually the guy walked to his vehicle with the fish.  

 

****** story and maybe the fish was legal but it didn't look close.  But why couldn't they send someone out who could actually enforce regs?  

 

Delete from SOL_Users where username like 'wasy','Seal'....

 

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