The PREJUDICE comments have to stop !

[shrimpman steve]

Andy

Thank you for your service!!!

[buzzbaiter]

Most opinions come from experience and fact, not intuition, bias, theory or hypothesis. Bucket brigades - in MY experiences - tend to be mostly non-english speaking groups who ignore the laws and take whatever they want. Its not my job to report them, its the states job. I'm not going to confront 10 strangers and ask to see their licenses. The police, WCO's and park rangers need to handle this. They need to get out of their cars and walk their butts around once in awhile. Its not hard to cheat if you know your chances of being caught are slim. I can count on one hand the amount of times I've had my licensed checked in the last 30 YEARS. Maybe its because I'm pale white and look like i speak english.

[Walleyed]

I'm an avid stream, lake and salt fisherman. I, on average, have had my license checked twice a year for the past 20 years I've lived in NJ.

Having seen poachers of all color, creed and national origin, I have to be honest and say that the vast majority of these have been english speaking, caucasian, native-born United State citizens.

This ranges from the guy who keeps a couple extra trout to the folks keeping out of season or undersize fish.

How many times have we heard on this board, someone complaining about the regs, following with the statement, "I'll make my own rules!".

I fully agree with Andy, the bigotry and racism needs to stop. Profiling should have no place on this board.

Jim Vanator (Not anonymous)

[Eskimo]

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I don't think anybody is intending to be prejudice. They are just stereotyping certain groups of people based on things they have witnessed on the water.

I think the issue here is one of culture. Culture is a collective programming of the mind that distinguishes the members of one group or category of people from another. Culture is the product of experience and inherited values.

Most Americans approach fishing from the cultural perspective of being the inheritors of an ecological abundance created by the hard work and sacrifice of the outdoorsmen and wildlife mangers that came before us. Americans fishing today also experienced the tail-end of an unprecedented period of economic prosperity.

This adds up to a fishing culture that values conservation over consumption.
We can fish for sport and return those fish to the water to grow bigger and reproduce. We want to pass on this abundance of game fish to out children and grandchildren. We know we can always release everything we catch today and still eat well tonight.

On the other hand, people immigrating from areas of poverty and failed ideologies approach fishing from a perspective of scarcity. They have experienced empty, over-fished waters that will likely always remain that way. They have no heritage of gamefish conservation. They've only experienced "no holds barred" fishing and keeping.

This adds up to a migrant culture that values consumption and places little value on gamefish laws and voluntary catch-and-release.

What is interesting is this issue is occurring in every Western nation that values gamefish conservation that is experiencing a lot of immigration. I found this article about an English pond boss that got into trouble because he wanted to ban Eastern Europeans from his pay lake:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...olen-fish.html








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[ReelErIn]

Andy well said like ya said I put in 20 years as a Vol. with NJF&W now 1 1/2 yrs. with Florida F&W. only to help pay back and get the good word out there.
No need for NONSENSE on any post!!!!!! The one thing I liked NJFISH not much of that here like so many other sites.
You should see some of the CRAP I read down here.

[Ken Lyons]

1 855-ogt tips. Call it in.

[baetis]

I view poaching/illegal activity differently when it comes to fresh and saltwater.

I've seen many a freshwater pond/small lake fished out and ruined. Because of that I tend to view freshwater violations much more harshly than salt. It takes a lot less effort to create permanent harm.

IMHO, saltwater regulations are often based on politics and monkeys that fly out of the rumps of politicians and not actual fisheries science. It doesn't bother me to see someone keeping a "short" fluke when I know there is a commercial fisherman in the same water that is allowed to keep an even shorter fish and sell it or discard hundreds of fish as by product. One guy is a thief and the other isn't. It doesn't make much sense to me.