SHAD LAKE SHORT FISH

By Sr. Agent James Parish

 

Sr. Agent Bill Futrell and I were on patrol in the Larto/Saline complex and were looking for a hoop net that was supposed to be “chock” full of white perch, according to our complainant.  We never found the hoop net, but we did find about fifteen wire nets that were full of short catfish.  The nets didn’t have any bait left in them, so we knew that they would be “run” soon.  The next morning I dropped Bill off at a location where he could observe the nets and I went down the lake in my boat and hid.  After the sun came up, Bill called me and said that he couldn’t see any of the jugs that were tied to the nets.  As I went to pick Bill up to move him to a better location, I came face to face with a boat that had about seven wire nets in it.  I recognized the operator and saw two white buckets with catfish in them.

Sure enough, after these fish were measured, eighty-six were short.  The violator was issued a citation and his fish were seized.  Earlier this year, this violator had dumped fish out of his boat as Sr. Agent Robbie Roberts and I approached him.  In years past, he had done the same thing to Sgt. Brian McDowell.  Everyone seemed glad that this violator’s number had finally come up.