Kayak Fishing Forums

BCCarnehl · Joined: 07 Mar 2007 Posts: 282 Location: Redondo Beach, Ca

Saw DFG twice this weekend... Wild Justice to the Rescue!!!

Saturday night they were out in force doing a great job. Made it back to the dock and and was greeted within 15 minutes of landing by the DFG. I was giving a quick hooping seminar to some curious passer-byes and was showing them how to measure bugs when the Officer showed up. Really nice polite guy. He measured a few of my bugs, looked over my report card and license and congratulated my on my quick limit. As he was waiting for other guys to paddle he told me a quick story about a few guys they caught last week with 134 short lobster. They confiscated all of their equipment and vehicles! Awesome! This was a no BS kind of night. There were no warnings given out, only tickets. They got guys for short bugs, inaccurate measuring devices, inappropriate hooping nets, improperly filling out report cards, too many nets on a vessel... They also pulled three guys of a small jetty for fishing without a license. One guy had no record of being a citizen (drivers license or other ID) so they called the cops to come pick him up. I took my time packing up just so I could watch the show.

Sunday night we were approached on the water by DFG in an unmarked boat. Asked to see our licenses and and bugs we had on us at the time. They said they had already written 25 tickets before getting to us. Harbor patrol also checked in with us on the way back to the docks. They also wanted make sure we had our licenses and measured our bugs but didn't need to see them. Wanted to see our life jacked though.

The moral of the story...

1. Know and follow all of the hooping regulations.
2. Know how many bugs you have. (DFG Wardens got pretty pissed off when guys said they had 5 or 6 bugs. Know what you have in your bag.)
3. If you plan on taking crabs, make sure you have a fixed measurement tool with a crab marker on it. (There were a few guys who got a tongue lashing for not having crab measure with crabs in possession.)

It was good to see DFG in full force and I hope they scared a few guys into following the rules. Anybody else have a DFG encounter?
_________________
There's no air for me at the bottom of the sea.

dave k · Joined: 07 Apr 2010 Posts: 282 Location: Encino

I didn't see any on Saturday night. Glad to hear that they are out there making sure everyone plays by the rules.

I'm curious on the ticket for having too many nets... I was always under the impression that you could carry extra nets as long as you didn't have more than 5 per person in the water. Not that it would affect me, but just curious.
_________________

Vegetarian is an old Indian word for 'bad hunter'

slayersmith · Joined: 13 Sep 2005 Posts: 536 Location: Torrance, Ca

Yep, DFG was putting on a show. Saw a guy get a ticket for a short.....Said it was only a $100.00, from what I hear it's alot more.

You are allowed 5 nets per person or 10 per boat.

dave k · Joined: 07 Apr 2010 Posts: 282 Location: Encino

BCCarnehl · Joined: 07 Mar 2007 Posts: 282 Location: Redondo Beach, Ca

From what I heard on the radio chatter this guys was hooping 6 nets.
_________________
There's no air for me at the bottom of the sea.

Saba Slayer · Joined: 20 Sep 2004 Posts: 886 Location: Palos Verdes

If you heard that at a seminar, it may have been last year. The lobster regs were changed on April 1, 2011. They used to read, that you could have 10 BAITED nets on board...meaning that you could have additional nets on board if they did not have bait in them. The new regs say that you can only have 10 nets max on a vessel.
Jim / Saba Slayer

TUNA · Joined: 29 Jan 2007 Posts: 6

Came in after 9pm, met with traffic jam at the launch with 3 DFG officers checking everyone except me? One of the officer came to my kayak and was checking it out, when I came back with my car. I must looked real innocent and nice(?), they did not check me at all. They were busy with guys on the skiff with 2 short lobsters. How do you not know how to measure lobster????? Sucks for them.. Expensive lesson, if it was not intentional. Met up with my buddy in the parking lot and went out for late night supper. We were hungry after pulling on those hoop nets. Measure and measure again correctly and follow the regulations, please. We kayakers have to show DFG officers that we do not break any fishing regulations........intentionally and also non-intentionally.
Tight Line, Tuna