FWC at my front door over pic's posted online?

what the fu@k .. they trying to fu@k us any way they can ......... is just a pic dam .... they have noting else to do ...

Did one of them have A bottle of haterade in there hand when they fronted you??????

thats gay. i had fwc come wake me up one day because some one had sunk a boat at the boat ramp and the trailer was by my house. thats gay that you cant even take your poon out of the water to get a pic. check out florida sports man it is full of piccs of tarpon out of the water and jewfish are supposed to be a by catch your not supposed to target them so all these guides should be questioned about jew fishing.

how the hell did they find out where u live????

how the hell did they find out where u live????

Warrant served at some forum most likely FS for his ip address, You guys should not be surprised. This has been discussed ad nasuiem on several sites.

Just last week local state and national news had story's on how they were looking at these pic's and coming to "there" front door soon!

Just for info. IF a fish cant be taken "restricted" Then it CANT be lifted from the water. It has been that way along time now.

how the hell did they find out where u live????

Warrant served at some forum most likely FS for his ip address, You guys should not be surprised. This has been discussed ad nasuiem on several sites.

Just last week local state and national news had story's on how they were looking at these pic's and coming to "there" front door soon!

Just for info. IF a fish cant be taken "restricted" Then it CANT be lifted from the water. It has been that way along time now.

ur right the ip adress. it wont always work cause alot of people send there pics to there friends house to put pics up, or they'll pick up the wireless internet thats unlocked. in fact ive heard of someone going to mcdonalds to use there wireless. they wont find them there, then again not everyone has the ideas that people from miami do. sounds like alot of gas and tax payers money wasting chasing someone they might not find, when they can be out doing other things like going to haulover and catching the guys bringing home 4 inch mangrove snappers all day or the ones that keep 1000 pompano when they run during febuary.... my 2 cents

I didn't think it was that big of a deal to take a photo with my GF's FIRST TARPON or the lil ones caught in the lights. I release all tarpon I catch. I told them I don't buy kill tags because I have no desire to kill one, I just take my pics quickly and send them on their merry way. If I had a kill tag then I wouldn't want to waste it (too expensive for that) and I would have to fill the tag for baits. So they pretty much told me they would rather me buy a tag and kill one than take my picture and release them. I don't tarpon fish much anymore, most of them I catch are by-catch, a tag is a waste of money that I DONT HAVE. They then asked me where the hell did I catch a GG? When I said the beach they gave me a funny look. I told em I paddle the baits out on my canoe, one guy said "so your one of those land based shark guys huh?" I said "huh"? He then asked me if Ive ever heard of this site. I said "yeah Ive heard of it, why?" Then he started telling me about how he can put me in jail right now, and immense fines.
I'm just saying guys, if you think these guys wont bother with you, you are wrong. I thought I would have been a big waste of their time but obviously not their opinion if they came here to wake me up rolling three deep. One of which stayed around the corner from us on the stairwell out of view for most of the time till they realized I knew he was there.
Be careful what you post, even when Fl sportsman tells you not to worry about it. That its not a big deal. They were wrong!

Ok this really p@@@ me off. I am in the army defending our country and back home my goverment is doing this to the common man. Ok I know its not right but I wish I had caught a GG or tarpoon and posted the pic. Because they would have fun to track me down since I'm in germany. Those people are getting as bad as the germans with fishing. Here you have to go to school to fish. There is no catch and release. You catch it and it is legel you have to keep even if you don't want to eat it. I got fined 150 euros(about 250$) once for throwing a carp back and fishing with no barbs on my hook. That is really crazy and now I am hearing that the same stuff is happening at home. This is really sad. Some people have nothing better to do but make others life a living he@@. What was they saying about us shark fishermen? Sorry for ranting bad day. The hurricane may force me to stay in alanta for a few days since I am came in when she is going to hit.

After reading this story I decided to post a link to it on the
pensacola fishing forum to see what other fisherman thought
about this story. I posted it this morning it's already 4 pages long.
Lots of good views from lots of different kinds of anglers.
Check it out:

http://www.pensacolafishingforum.com/f2 ... tos-96034/

Thought you guys would like to take a look............

i just read the 4 pages. i think fwc just needs to chill out and if there going to go after some one over pics maybe check the surroundings of the pics if its at the guys house with a tarpon or jew then go after them. but if u can clearly see water or they are sitting in the water with the tarpon just above the water all is fine. fwc just has to much money to waste.

These laws are directed towards anglers fishing on watercrafts, not shore anglers. You don't need to remove the fish from the water to take the hook out when fishing on a boat. When the fish is tired, you pull his head right beside the boat and use your pliers or Arc DeHooker to remove the hook. From shore its a whole different story. You don't have the advantage of being above the fish and pulling him to a solid structure. The fish can run anywhere on the beach, up and down the trough all day long. You have to beach him to stop him. Whether you are trying to land a 100lb tarpon, shark, and or grouper, there is no way you are going to remove the hook while the fish is in the water! And a fish that size isn't going to stop fighting just because he is close to shore. The only way to remove the hook while the fish is still in the water is to wear out the fish to the point of absolute exhaustion, where it most likely isn't going to survive.

The FWC "Catch and Release" ( http://myfwc.com/research/saltwater/fis ... e-fishing/) saltwater conservation program states and I quote:

"The most important actions an angler can take to ensure a successful release are to hook and land the fish as quickly as possible, leave the fish in the water while removing the hook, and release the fish quickly."

but the "Saltwater Fish Handling Guidelines" ( http://myfwc.com/conservation/saltwater/fish-handling/ ) states and I quote:

"Anglers should also use common sense when releasing fish. Sometimes it's better to safely handle a fish to carefully remove the hook so it can be released, and other times it's best to cut the line as close to the hook as possible while the fish is in the water - especially if it's large or agitated."

I find it very unlikely in a situation with a 100lb fish, that any shorebound angler can follow both of these guidelines at the same time. How can you bring in a "green" fish that is still trying to get away and remove the hook while the fish is still in the water? This is not common sense! This is stupidity! In order to keep the fish in the water, anglers from shore will have to cut the line 100% of the time and therefore not practice what is considered "good conservation efforts".

Also, this is very hypocritical! On one hand, they want to promote conservation and circle hooks, but on the other hand, they don't want you to remove the fish from the water? So what are we supposed to do? Cut the line and leave the fish with a big hook and a long leader hanging behind it? How is this conservation? Leaving a hook in a fish's mouth that will take years to rust out if not ever!

And what's the point of fishing if you cant take a photo of your catch! Isn't this what sport fishing is all about? Every fisherman wants to talk about his catch! In the past, the fish was killed and brought to the dock as a trophy. Today, the photo is the trophy. If you can't take a photo of the fish, who is going to believe you caught it? And if the photo has to been taken in the water, do cash-strapped anglers have to risk breaking their camera to take a photo of their catch? Or do they have to purchase a waterproof camera they can't afford to abide by the law?

Come on FWC! I know that there are many FWC officers who at one point in their life, have fished from land based structures and know the difficulties of landing a large fish from shore. Most fishermen begin their fishing adventures from shore at a young age. Fishing is not only from a boat! A 14 year old kid isn't thinking about about going to jail when he is landing his first tarpon from a pier, he thinking about how awesome the photo is going to look.

Why is it that law enforcement (at least in my experience) has tendencies to go out of their way and attempt to create trouble or give someone a hard time, rather than deal with the real crime that is going on? While they're going to a man's house over his fishing pictures, there are googans out there slaughtering illegal fish. There's nothing wrong with trying to show a nice fish, doesn't mean it was killed and no one should have to go out and buy a kill tag $51.50 or however much just to take a picture. By the way FWC..tarpon have the ability to breathe air.

they need to take a trip to the local pier during king fish season and watch all the asians keeping 90 kingfish and under size fish

I have read all the comments on this story on different forums and understand that in today's world law enforcement uses the internet as part of there investigations but should'nt they be tracking significant criminal fishing or hunting activity where illegal fish or game have been HARVESTED(killed).What a waste of time and resources to send three officers to someones house because they handled a fish contrary to the law,,,,well the fish were released MR FWC were they not?These officers are the ones that need better bosses directing them to go after the real violators and going for big cases, crifminal investigations of ongoing poaching or illegal commercial overharvesting of valuble resources.Why send three officers to a fishermans house who released his catch unless they are overstaffed and don't have anything else to do,,again bad management and lack of direction from the higher ups.Maybe they want to set an example and let people know THEY ARE WATCHING AND CHECKING THE FORUMS but it sure seems like a waste of tax payer money .They would of been just as effective had they sent an email or a letter warning the fisherman of improperly handling a fish top be released.....
In this day and age of budget cuts it seems wasteful to direct three officers to someones house to slap him on the wrist-they must be bored or have no imagination on how to catch real wilflife violators.

I guess the officers involved don't have the well informed higher ups guiding them in the right direction towards the big cases that would make more sense,more impact rather then going after the 'low fruit' of a shorebound angler posing with a fish he released.To me targetting internet fisherman is an example of LEOs taking the easy road because what they should be doing is being out in the field in the middle of the night watching the so called law abiding fisherman walking off a jetty with an illegal snook or redfish.Catching real lawbreakers red handed takes real law enforcement work but they'd rather harrass a guy who has posted fish he RELEASED on a fishing forum.

This type of sht just worries me ,it further indicates that this country is in deep trouble and not just ECONOMICALY but that our core values are in trouble and there is LACK OF LEADERSHIP in the Government from the very top on down. In reference to going for the easy target by lazy LEOs this article from the pensacolafishingforum by traqem says it best

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"I'm former LE and VERY pro law enforcement. However, this really, really makes me mad. During my 18 years in investigations, I never worked with anyone who had time to take care of many of the fairly serious crimes they came across and WANTED to work. In my world, the lazy POSs who chased minor, easy, and low hanging fruit were laughed at and constantly chided. They were not part of the "club" and go-getters would not associate with them. This doesn't rise to the level of low hanging fruit...... maybe it's possible, kind of, partial low hanging fruit if they get really lucky.

It's beyond my belief that fish and game officers have so little meaningful work to do that they have time to chase pics posted on the Internet in hopes they MIGHT find something to issue a citation over..... or maybe gee whiz, if they're lucky, a misdemeanor arrest. What a joke these guys are.

They and their bosses are doing a disservice to their agency. The bosses need to rethink their approach and the cost/benefit analysis of what they are doing. This is very poor public relations, no way to gain support for your agency nor your mission, and simply not a good use of resources.

I did work with both state and federal wildlife officers at times and I know what it takes for them to make good cases. This isn't it."