Undercover fish and game in La Jolla?
 

Today I believe I was questioned by a fish and game guy. We were loading up our kayaks and had the cooler open with our fish in it and and a gentleman and his wife were walking by and came up and were looking at our catch and asked if he could buy one of our bass I told him no and our convo continued, then he asked again if he could buy one because he wanted to have some fesh fish for dinner and I told him no and informed him it was illegal and it could be a hefty fine and he laughed and said ok glad to hear it and said he was with fish and game and congratulated us on our catch and continied on. He didnt fit the profile of a game warden it just seemed kind of off to me. Anyone ever had any encounters like this before?

Weird.

Very, like I said didnt fit the profile at all really nice guy though. ..

Very weird. They should do that at the c-bad power plant jetty at 6am to get the poachers..

Wait... Its illegal to sell fish you catch to someone? WTF

Ive called cal tip on guys poaching lobster on the oside pier, Not sure if anyhting happened to them just hate seeing guys wrap a lobster t,hat's like 5 inches in total length, in newspaper and stuff it in a sack.:lobster:

yea on a sport fishing license

http://www.dfg.ca.gov/regulations/Fr...ulactions.html

read number 7 on the list its fish and game code (FGC 7121)

When I came in at sunset DFW was on the beach doing inspections and checking licenses. GOOD CALL BY YOU.

Interesting maybe he was a scout or something because this was around 330 ish

Sounds fishy. Was he in uniform? Did you request a badge number? I have friends who ran into plain clothed "dfg" while out fishing. When asked to produce a badge they stuttered and high tailed it outta there. Suspect it to be nothing more than a bunch of crazies trying to discourage from fishing in "their" ocean.

Next time ask for ID. Posing as an officer is a big no no. Have the phone ready if they refuse to produce.

Actually it's common for F&G to go as a couple undercover. What's not common is to attempt entrapment, i.e., asking if they can buy the fish. If they had changed their question to something like: do you ever sell any fish, or, would you be willing to sell the fish, it would be a different story. But the way you put it, it was a direct offer, clearly making it entrapment. My guess, is that it was not F&G (F&W), but rather it was some zealots as previously mentioned.

Yea I wasnt to worried about asking for badge number or anything like that. And yes I do sgree that the way they way he was asking was total entrapment. If anything like that happens again ill just start my own lil gane of tactical questioning.

Yup. You can't sell, trade, barter, exchange, etc.

I've heard of the DFG catching fish sellers in the parking lots of the point loma landings when the tuna are around. Never heard that any where else. I've never seen a DFG presence at th LJ launch. Mike

Can you give away your fish???

Yes you can gift your fish but not sell them, If you go fishing and catch a WSB and right now the limit being one you could not go out tomorrow and catch another and legally keep it. However if you lets say live with someone else wife, kids, parents, etc. You can give them the fish and catch another not problem.

WSB limit of 1 is only between March 15 - June 15. Feel free to kill 3 biscuits until then.

Anti's pretending to be F&G?

Or a case of "sour grapes" to justify to himself why he couldn't cajole you out of a fish?

And if he was DFG I'm sure he would have been a very nice guy until you broke the law. Then I'm sure Hyde would have showed up.

This place is for people who don't fish:

http://www.yelp.com/biz/el-pescador-...:fish%20market

It's La jolla...
Try landing with with a WSB or YT on deck durring the high tourist season or a long weekend with sunshine . You will be hit with every question you could possibly imagine and some you couldn't; "where did you get that?" "is that real?" and if its a YT you will most certainly be asked if its for "sale".

I would hope that our tax dollars aren't going to undercover agents trying to buy calicos, but this is California so you never know...

There are plenty of poachers that target undersize fish, out of season, for the purpose of selling it. :the_finger:

It's sad but true.... and catching these poachers is not easy! :mad: