Capt Sal,

I remember when I was much younger fishing the rip at night with bottle plugs for bass. On two occasions, they had helicopters working with some type of marine enforcement, big flood lights on both, catching guys dragging illegally at night. It looked like a military exercise. It was so prevalent and well known, people talked about it all the time. The rare times they were caught, you'd read an article a few weeks or month later about a slap on the wrist fine.

Until law enforcement has teeth, the upside potential in multi million dollar fisheries will always outweigh the risks of getting caught and, if one of the few caught, the pathetic fines dished out. In my opinion, it should be mandatory jail time depending on the severity of the incident and confiscation of all equipment to be auctioned off to help fund more enforcement efforts.

Just to give an idea of how brazen and out of control this was and probably still is, read the article in the following link:

https://www.nytimes.com/1995/01/08/n...-who-fish.html

And as the article mentions which is the case more times than not, the fines favor the violators in the form of lenient penalties and as long as that continues there will be all too many who believe breaking the law is more than well worth the risk. Just ask the citizens of Waukesha Wisconsin how that works out, absolutely tragic and horrific story!