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Netters Use Old Ploy To Escape Boat Seizure

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By FRANK SARGEANT | The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 17, 2008

The two netters reported caught in the Manatee River on Thursday before daylight with 700 yards of gill net, 500 pounds of fish and 100 pounds of egg on their faces made use of a classic evasion tactic to save their boat, motor and trailer. When arrested, the netters were fishing from a "borrowed" boat, and since the owner of the vessel was not involved in the infraction, the boat could not be seized, as it would have been if the owners were the perpetrators.

But in fact, the tactic of swapping boats among netters is a traditional ploy among illegal net fishermen; there have been numerous cases recorded where netters borrow boats from cousin, uncle or brother, or from companion netters. Then, if they are caught fishing illegally, their boat is protected from confiscation.

It's a loophole big enough to drive tons of illegal fish through, and netters do it every year.

Further, the current regulation allowing use of gill nets in federal waters is a joke on the West Coast, where federal waters are nine nautical miles offshore. Virtually no gill net boat ever proceeds that far from land; the flat-bottomed craft with bow-mount outboards are totally unsuitable for operation in rough water.

But the provision in the rule allowing possession of gill nets while crossing state waters is used extensively by netters as a way to get around the 1995 ban on gill nets; any time a boat is stopped with a gill net on board, the skipper immediately claims to be en route to offshore waters. Unless the officer has had him under surveillance for some time and can testify he was lingering in the shallows looking for fish, there is no case.

What's needed to keep the few outlaw netters on the straight and narrow is a re-evaluation of the rules by the legislature this spring. First, any boat used in illegal activities of any sort - including illegal fishing, drug smuggling or hauling illegal immigrants - ought to be subject to seizure no matter who the owner might be, unless the boat has been reported stolen.

And second, possession of a gill net on a boat ought to become illegal anywhere on the West Coast of Florida. If it can't be used in state waters, and the netters never fish offshore, what's the purpose of maintaining the rule as it is?

It seems like the weight of the establishment coming down on poor guys just trying to make a buck, maybe. But those with nets of the size found in the Manatee River case can make money like cocaine smugglers when they hit a lucky strike. A few years back a couple of netters were caught off Southwest Florida with 10,000 pounds of pompano, valued at 3 to 4 bucks a pound. It's not a subsistence business, and the legislature needs to move to make the existing laws effective and enforceable.

ST. JOHNS RIVER OUTING: The Tampa Bay Fly Fishing Club hosts its annual St. Johns River Shad Outing on Feb. 22-24 off S.R. 46 east of Sanford.

The run of Atlantic shad into the river presents a unique fishery, sort of the "salmon of the south", with ocean-run fish traveling more than a hundred miles up the river to spawn in the curves, bends and sandbars of the river flat.

The fish are found most often between Lake Monroe and Lake Harney, as well as south of S.R. 46 in the Puzzle Lake section, where the river breaks into a twisted series of deep, narrow creeks.

Anglers with the TBFFC will camp overnight on the shores of the river, but it's also possible to fish the run by launching daily at the S.R. 46 ramp.

The fish look like overgrown threadfin shad; they're bright silver, and they reach weights of 4 to 5 pounds. Like most ocean-run fish, they are far faster and stronger than the more sedentary species of fresh water, and they put on amazing aerial displays like mini tarpon when hooked.

Some anglers eat the eggs of the shad, but more often they are caught and released to go about their spawning activities. Hair jigs of one-eighth ounce or smaller, small spoons and Beetle Spin lures are all effective, and the fly fishers will use small bead-eye or copper-wrapped streamers to do the job, perhaps with sink-tip lines. Concentrations of the fish are usually found in the deeper bends of the river. Many anglers troll slowly until they catch a fish, then stop and fish from shore; the fish travel in schools.

The Tampa Bay Fly Fishing Club can be contacted by calling (813) 971-8697.

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