Scup

Yesterday, a Connecticut fisherman and a Rhode Island dealer were charged with illegal striped bass sale. Go to the following web site for details:
TheDay.com - FISHERMAN, DEALER CHARGED WITH ILLEGAL BASS SALE

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"Success seems to be largely a matter of hanging on after others have let go" by William Feather

Possum

A Pawcatuck fisherman and a South Kingstown, R.I., seafood dealer were arrested Monday in connection with the illegal landing and sale of striped bass, the state Department of Environmental Protection said Wednesday.

Sean W. Bradshaw, 44, of Pawcatuck Ave. was charged with the landing and sale of striped bass without a commercial license, commercial fishing without a vessel permit, possession of untagged striped bass and the commercial sale of scup without a license and during the closed season. The seafood dealer, John J. Guerrieri, 50, of Sand Plains Road, South Kingstown, was charged with buying seafood without a Connecticut seafood dealers license and operating a motor vehicle without a license.

The arrests took place Monday at Bradshaw's home following an investigation by the DEP's Environmental Conservation Police unit and the Rhode Island Environmental Police.

The Connecticut and Rhode Island environmental police acted on information that Bradshaw was catching bass and bringing striped bass back to his dock in the Pawcatuck River near his home, the DEP said in a news release. He would ice and store the fish at his home and Guerrieri, the Rhode Island seafood dealer, would then come to his house and buy them, the release said.

At the time of the arrest, Connecticut and Rhode Island officers seized 42 striped bass weighting a total of 971 pounds, and 89 scup weighting a total of 87 pounds. The estimated commercial value of the bass was $2,913, the DEP said. All the fish was donated to the Amos House, a nonprofit agency that provides meals to the poor in Providence.

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Andy

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http://cthuntingnshooting.com/

fishcounterbob

Unfortunately when these guys get to court a plea deal is usually made and a simple slap on the wrist occurs. Last year a ct man had 28 undersized stripers ended up with NO fine and even kept a ct commercial license. Also in mass a fellow had 178 scup over the 10 fish limit and paid a $100 fine. I know this first hand.
Also I have called the TIP line many times but they are so understaffed it is usually an exercise in futility.

Scup

In a way, I am envious of this guy. While he might be a recreational poacher, he must still be quite a fisherman. The best I ever did catching striped bass was, if I recall right, was 22 bass in the 16 to 24 inch range. For large bass, the most I ever caught, with my buddy helping me, was four bass. Perhaps I could have caught a few more if I stayed but it would have been nothing like what Bradshaw did, assuming they were all caught during the same period of time. Now I am making the assumption that he used hook and line and not nets; but that still seems to me to be quite a haul. Since this is Sportfishing form, I am curious if any of the charter boat captains could shed some light on this subject. Striped bass do put up a decent fight, so it is no trival matter to get them in, and add to this that some will escape plus time has to be put in to land your fish. What is shown seems to me to be a lot of pounds for even a commerical guy to land alone. My question is: could a single person catch that many bass in a single outing or did he have some help?

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"Success seems to be largely a matter of hanging on after others have let go" by William Feather

Bob & Mag

I don't believe that was a single outing.
I do agree he'll get a slap on the wrist and be back at it tomorrow.
And if they get their way, they'll also be trying to enforce licenses soon too!

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Smoke free 9+ Months!

Andy

With the right bait you can catch that many in a day i have caught and released as many as 54 in one day so its no big feat...

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Scup

Now I am envious of Andy. I do not think I would have the endurance just to lug over a 1000 pounds of anything from my boat to my truck, much less having to catch them first. I know hundreds of bass were caught and released in a single day by a perky lady, while supporting a tagging program, but most of these were rat bass. Well, thanks to this form you can learn something new anytime. I would have never dreamed it would be possible for one person to wreck so much havoc in a single outing.

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"Success seems to be largely a matter of hanging on after others have let go" by William Feather

fishcounterbob

It is truly easy to make such a catch on a given tide. I had a finfish license in the late 70's before the moritorium on bass and kept a jeep at BI. I took paying customers to surf fish and put my fish at the dock in totes for the 8am ferry with a tag on the tail. The co-op would meet the boat at PJ daily and I would get a check in the mail every thursday.
This year from mid may to the moon in june I caught over 200 bass from 30 - 50 lbs in the river in New Haven......FROM SHORE.... with my best days back to back 25 fish each. I only fished one tide only each day.

My best fish from shore at bi was 67 lb from shore on a half of fresh mackeral and my buddy who I gave the other half caught a 72 lber at the north rip later that night. We had to wait to fish until the plug guys would leave because it was frowned upon to use bait back then. You knew the commercial guys out there because they drove around at night without lights so no one would see where we were fishing.

We had some hard core fishermen back then for bass out of lighthouse marina in east haven. I learned from an old timer who handlined spoons and wooden jointed pikies. Dixie was the most knowlegeable fisherman I ever met.

JackC

Interesting post, Scup, my guess was that he fished a few times a day and kept his limit and iced them down. If he had a few friends fishing with him the numbers of legal bass you can land add up quickly. Its very easy to catch many big bass in an outing if you have live bait (its harder to get the bunker than the bass). If properly iced, bass retain a decent quality. As for the "penalty issue", it all depends how big an example the state wants to make of you. In addition, there could be federal charges resulting in crossing state lines. Everyone is correct about in general its a slap on the wrist.

Jack