Porgy Thief on the High Seas 12--> 6 --> 2

[the1jonc]

So my buddy and I were on an offshore seabass trip last week. NS boat. Great Capts and Crew. The day started out with a lot of huge porgies. We must have caught over dozen, which we shuttled to our cooler at the front of the boat as our bleeding bucket got full.

When it came time to fillet the fish I pulled out and counted all of the seabass to get cleaned. I leave the porgies whole. To my surprise there were only 6 porgies in the cooler. I scratched my head and figured I counted wrong and went in to sleep after putting my fillets back in the cooler.

Then when I got home there were only 2 porgies in the cooler.

I know it's not a big deal but I hate thieves.

[Foul Hook]

There is a turd in every punch bowl! Sucks!!

[Joey Dah Fish]

I would certainly bring that to the attention of Capt of the boat

There are way too many incidents of things like this happening these days. It's hard to believe some folks are that desperate and duplicitous. Personally if I ever found someone stealing my fish on a trip, it would be the last time they tried after the consequences. Next time unfortunately somehow mark your fish with a slit somewhere and if necessary I'd go cooler to cooler until I found my marks. Shame it has to get to that but this kind of story is becoming way to prevalent whether it be tackle or fish. Makes you wonder if it's worth Captain's efforts to place some hidden cameras on board and run a sting operation. Have them taken away in cuffs when the boat docks. If the word gets out, maybe some of these a-holes will think twice.

Sorry to hear about your unfortunate experience........really detracts from having an enjoyable day on the water.

[jlrotary]

Friend of mine had a bag of filets taken of the hood of his car. They confronted the suspected men to find the bag of filets in their cooler Fter they denied taking them. SMH. I will never understand some people.

[tautog]

Sorry about that Jon. I forgot to leave an IOU in the cooler.

[bulletbob]

I only get out a few times a year these days, so I was VERY disgusted and dismayed when this same thing happened to me TWICE this year.. Once on a June open trip on a charter boat.. We had 4 ling to go with our seabass catch.. One ling was a pretty nice one, the rest were smallish/average.. We counted them and knew how many we had.. This boat has a center section thats really a cooler, and each fare has his own bucket within this large cooler... Anyone can quickly slip a fish from one bucket to another as its open to all fares to deposit their catch,, There were not many ling on that trip, mostly seabass, and some dirt bag swiped that nice ling which was right on top of our bucket.. Pissed me off...
Second time was in the fall.. My son and I bailed big porgies on opening day of Sea Bass season.. We only got 12 sea bass, but were hammering massive porgies all day.. Guys were freaking out wondering what were were doing as we could not stop getting large porgies.. We sucked at sea bass, but did a number on scup, for what reason I'll never know.. Midway through the trip while the boat was moving I gave a few to an older gentleman on the opposite side of the boat as he was not doing well.. In any case, we started fishing again and same story,, Our sea bass fishing was not as good as some, but our porgy catch was above most of the guys around us.. We probably had 40 or more big Porgies along with our dozen or so sea bass.... As the boat sailed in my son and I went into the cabin and both went dead asleep in preparation for the 250 odd mile drive home...
When we checked the contents of the cooler later , it was only about half full .. a LOT of the porgies were gone, and a few of the Sea Bass, they took 3 CBass I think, and around 20 porgies.. This boat was PACKED too, probably 60 guys.. Every single rod holder on the entire boat was taken, and to move a foot either way, you stepped over a tackle box or cooler.. Somebody saw something I am positive,, Someone knew we were both out like lights for an hour or so on the trip in, and took advantage.. Someone knew we loaded up on big scup and wanted some.. I never complained, as I am sure the captains and mates knew nothing of this.
I don't blame either crew in the least, and like and respect both boats and their crews.. The boats were too crowded and they had plenty to do..
Sad to say, both boats are long time sponsors here.. I won't mention them here, it doesn't matter anyway, it wasn't their fault at all.
I am sad because they are good boats and crews, but they carry some unsavory characters I guess.. I like to think these "fishermen" were not readers of this forum.. From what I have seen here, that sort of "I need meat, so I'll just take it" mindset doesn't exist among this membership... However, these incidents made me realize that we now live in a very sad era.
No respect, no civility, no honor... If the fish crooks would have asked, I would have passed them some of our scup with a smile and a pat on the back telling them to enjoy them.. We had more than we could use, even with 20 we brought home after getting pilfered. These were big scup!... Anyway, I was pretty saddened, not angry really.. I will watch our catch better next year, although I am disappointed that it has to come to that.. I have come to expect more from fishermen over the years, and have only rarely been let down... No biggie, just wanted to share and vent after reading the OP story... bob

[RussH]

That's ridiculous... I hate that we have to watch our stuff so well now. I'd never imagine someone taking a fish from a cooler. Are you that pathetic and desperate? I would hope nobody, at least not a regular, from here would ever do that. Hell if you need the fish that bad just ask.

[Duffman]

WTF? Seriously?

C'mon. That is really sad!

Getting tuna gear stolen offshore I can almost understand ($$$)...but PORGIES and FILLETS??? Jeez

[HighHook94]

Wow, I've never heard of that happening... especially for a couple porgies. When i go on sponsor party boats, I always leave my stuff laying around. Never really though of someone stealing it because everyone seems like good guys - but i guess there's always one bad apple in the bunch.