Did you know that . . .

george

Administrator
Staff member

welcome.webp

Did you know that . . .​

You can't just bring home a week's worth of striped bass fillets from your Montauk trip, even if you caught them legally?

Here's a scenario many anglers don't know about: You spend a week fishing in Montauk, catching your legal limit of one striped bass per day (28"-31" slot in marine waters). You figure you can fillet all seven bass and bring them home - after all, you caught them legally, right?

Wrong!

New York has a "2-day transportation rule" that limits you to transporting only 2 days' worth of legal take for non-salable fish species. Since striped bass have minimum size requirements, they're classified as "non-salable fish."

The Law: "No more than two days' legal take of non-salable fish may be transported unless a permit is obtained from a DEC Regional Office, or the fish are frozen, processed, and packaged for storage."

What this means: Even though you legally caught 7 bass over 7 days, you can only transport 2 bass home.

The Penalty: Under Environmental Conservation Law Section 71-0925:

  • $200 base fine
  • Plus $100 for each fish over the 2-day limit
  • 5 extra bass = $200 + ($100 × 5) = $700 total
Exceptions: You can transport more if you:

  1. Get a DEC Regional Office permit beforehand
  2. Have fish properly frozen, processed, and packaged
  3. Are transporting "salable fish" (no size/season restrictions)
Non-salable fish = any species with minimum size limits OR closed seasons Salable fish = species like yellow perch, sunfish (no size/season restrictions)

Always check transportation rules, not just daily limits!
 
And what if you fished on a PB or CB for a long weekend and have dated fare tickets? Technically you should be able to possess 3 trip limits legally.
 
Lock these poachers up, dad gum it!

Imagine the damage a hundred thousand if these miscreants could do if they went on fishing weekends every day?

The planet would never survive. We're all doomed. 🤯

The horror. The horror.
 
Unfortunately that makes sense George because how would the LEO know when they were caught and there are multiple scenarios where this becomes an issue.

What about the scenario where a couple of guys go on a charter together, limit out, drive home separately but only 1 guy brought a cooler to take everything back home?

How about another scenario where I take my wife and son out for the day on my own boat and we limit out and when we we dock they leave me and drive home and Im at the fillet table with 3 peeps worth of legal fish?
If a LEO shows up Im at their mercy
 
The problem is that the law is poorly written, and I don't trust law enforcement to exercise discretion.

For example the law about no loaded rifles in or on a vehicle was never intended to create a crime when someone comes out of the woods and leans the rifle against the truck while they're fishing for their keys. Yet DEC zealously enforces it. Why? Power? Revenue? Most likely both. But there you are doing something ridiculously innocent and here comes Deputy Dawg with a gleam in his eye and a ticket book in his hand. Gotcha!
 
Now that I'm dwelling on this, does anyone remember when Charlie Golf would bust a group of friends on a private vessel for running an unlicensed commercial charter if anyone chipped in for gas or bait?

It took a directive from on high to convince them that "voluntary sharing of expenses" does not constitute a commercial operation.

It takes a special kind of pr!¢# to interpret the rules that way and drop the regulatory hammer on someone, yet there they were....
 
Now that I'm dwelling on this, does anyone remember when Charlie Golf would bust a group of friends on a private vessel for running an unlicensed commercial charter if anyone chipped in for gas or bait?

It took a directive from on high to convince them that "voluntary sharing of expenses" does not constitute a commercial operation.

It takes a special kind of pr!¢# to interpret the rules that way and drop the regulatory hammer on someone, yet there they were....
Sounds made up to me.
 
The problem is that the law is poorly written, and I don't trust law enforcement to exercise discretion.

For example the law about no loaded rifles in or on a vehicle was never intended to create a crime when someone comes out of the woods and leans the rifle against the truck while they're fishing for their keys. Yet DEC zealously enforces it. Why? Power? Revenue? Most likely both. But there you are doing something ridiculously innocent and here comes Deputy Dawg with a gleam in his eye and a ticket book in his hand. Gotcha!
Much safer uncasing then loading or unloading a shotty on a tailgate than leaning it on some little sapling.
Similar to the ultra dangerous pistol grip on a certain semi auto rifle, the elimination of which makes it unwieldy and inherently unsafe. These laws are invaribly written by testosterone challenged dweebs who never hunt or fish.
 
📱 Fish Smarter with the NYAngler App!
Launch Now

Members online

Fishing Reports

Latest posts

Latest articles

Back
Top