From: BILL
Email: BHORNSEY@BRGOV.COM
Date: 08/02/03
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This was in the Livingston Parish news. This does need to be brought to the attention of everyone that enjoys fishing, not just marsh fishing folks. Fresh water fishermen and women are experiencing the same problems! Lets keep it in the news as much as possible!
By Pee Wee Day Aug. 10, 2003
Relatives of columnist Pee Wee Day recently caught this redfish while fishing in the Big Lake area near Lake Charles. The big bull red measured 46 inches in length. (Photo submitted)
You know me, I get on a subject and it just grows and grows.
Not long ago, I expounded on the California law outlawing fishing in certain areas, especially along the coast line, coves, inlets and points. Although we have no laws as yet here along the Gulf Coast, we do have individuals that practice the habit of claiming the given waters to themselves.
I hate to say “I told you so,” but for you avid readers and participants in speckled trout and redfishing in the marshes dotting our beloved coast, you know what I’m talking about. For years I have pounded and pounded the fact that our coast line is being posted and patrolled by individuals and companies that close the fishing areas little by little. Not according to the same law that California passed, but the effect is the same.
Since I’m only a local writer and what I say goes about nowhere, it did my heart good to see that now, after the Bassmaster Classic recently held in New Orleans, maybe this news will go national. You see, there was a shooting and several harassing incidents between professional bass fishermen and locals that brought all this to the forefront.
While fishing with a cameraman, bass pro Gary Klein was harassed by an airboat and shot at by a man on a pier for fishing in what they claimed was “their” canal. This all took place at Venice.
Klein stated that there were no signs posted and the canal was a big one (about 70-80 yards wide) and they were on the far side from their assailant. The man just showed up on a pier and aimed a shotgun at them, tracking them as they fished. Finally, he fired in front of them hollowing at them to leave “his” waters.
Later in the day, an airboat entered a stretch of a canal where Klein had caught four bass and showered him, muddying the water and ending fishing in that area.
Klein won $50,000 for second while the first place winner picked up $200,000. He believes he may have lost the tourney due to these incidents.
Third place finisher Harold Allen reported being chased from two productive canals by “a man in an airboat, who told me to leave and never come back!” Nothing new to me folks, I have been kicked out of better places from Golden Meadow and all points south for many years. No one seemed to believe me.
The Plaquemines Parish Sheriff’s Office is handling the investigation. It should be a snap since most of the events were caught on tape. Hopefully, these harasser will be arrested. One should be charged with attempted murder and prosecuted to the letter of the law. Will be interesting to see what happens.
I wouldn’t be surprised if the Bassmaster Classic never returns to the Superdome and New Orleans. This always draws a large amount of tourists and many, many dollars will be lost to the Big Easy. I wouldn’t blame them one bit!
If our local legislators don’t take control of this, there will be a war in the marsh one day — a real shootout. Navigable waterways just don’t seem to mean much when it comes to the law and the locals. Squatters’ rights in areas which have been open to the public since God made this land are now becoming the norm, not the exception. Something has to be done!
While fishing in the Big Lake area near Lake Charles, this big redfish was caught by my nephew, Kyle, and my brother-in-law, Aubrey Kline. If you could see the ruler laying by its side, you would see that it measures nearly 46 inches. That, my friends, is a bull red and it was the first one Kyle ever landed. Talk about a thrill!
But catches like this could become fewer and fewer if our waters are gradually closed. Each year I head south, I find more and more cables, drums, gates and fences across canals and cuts that I have fished for 40 years. You don’t really ever know if this is legal the way our laws read and you don’t usually want to argue while trying to enjoy a full day fishing, so you look elsewhere.
If it continues, only Catfish Lake in Golden Meadow will be open and you may find side-by-side boats converging each morning. Most of the canals around Leeville are now posted and who knows what's next.
We do have our problems... but God Bless America!
Pee Wee Day is a longtime Denham Springs sports enthusiast, businessman and sportswriter.
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