As you know from my recent post I have restocked my pond after our massive fish kill last summer. I have spent a lot of time and MONEY installing aeration, purchasing fish, landscaping the whole gambit of being a pondaholic. I have tried very hard to not make the mistakes of the past and my pond shows all of the knowledge that has been shared and learned here. My HBS are about 14 inches and my LMB are around 12 inches and feed trained. I have some big CC from two summers ago that made it through the fish kill that are around 24 inches. I just restocked adult BG that were beautiful. I have been so tempted to fish in my pond but I wanted to wait until fall and fish it one evening with my family. I have been babying my fish especially the HBS.
Today my wife comes home from church and she and there is a truck parked down by the pond. She walks down and there is an acquaintance of ours with his two grandsons burning our HBS and bass up with worms and hooks with bobbers. He quickly states that he has released everything and had caught some huge cat fish. My wife looks on the pond edge and she counts 5 HBS belly up but still alive. She also sees 1 of the kids rip a deep hook out of LMB and toss it back.

I HAVE NEVER allowed this man to fish. He just assumed he could………..his exact words to me on the phone were what’s the big deal just relax all we were doing is catching and releasing your fish we didn’t hurt anything. I am mad as hell! I just do not understand what goes through peoples mind! He did tell me how lucky I am to have a pond and it looks beautiful! I AM LUCKY BUT I HAVE WORKED MY BUTT OFF TO PAY FOR IT AND I HAVE EARNED THE RIGHT TO KEEP IT PRIVATE .

Now, I am mad right along with you. There’s no nice way to say it. The man is a thief who doesn’t care if your fish live or die and who is teaching his grandchildren to be thieves, too. As far as “catch and release” goes, I suppose he would have kept them if you had offered to clean them for him, and he would have eaten them if you would have cooked them for him.

Good for your wife, by the way, for standing up to him.

To me, the most irritating thing about such a situation is that there is no really good way to make it right. I guess meisters have to consider thieves to be part of the price of doing any thing especially well.
Lou

That is the pits! Hopefully, he knows now only to fish with permission. I can't understand the nerve(stupidity) of some people. Hopefully, everything will work out for the best.

Tell him he is never welcome back and if he ever comes back his ass will be raw with buckshot. He should get the message.

Only good side to this is he probably didn't wipe out your pond but what he did was bad enough.

I would however send him a bill for the dead fish and indicate if he doesn't pay up you will see him in small claims court, which you should do if he doesn't pay up. Don't be bashful!

I may be partially to blame as I have allowed this man to hunt on my land a few times but always with permission or in my company. But I would not drive down someone else’s field and fish in their pond without specific permission. The wife went back down to the pond and we do have 5 dead HBS and 1 dead LMB with its gills ripped out. I guess I need to relax and roll with it. I just feel like we should have been the first to get to fish in the pond. My hope was to grow the HBS all summer and fish in the fall.

No you are NOT in the least to blame! Don't roll over and be a pushover! Make an example out of this selfish idiot, and you may have less problems down the road with others. Word gets around!

I had something nowhere near as terrible happen but never-the-less disappointing. When I started to harvest perch by hook and line out of a bigger pond on the property that were to be moved to a smaller holding pond, I had to go pick up some fish that morning and I allowed a few guys to move any big ones they caught to the holding pond. I was not present. They told the wife they moved 8 or 9 big ones. Well now that I am feeding them I have seen two small perch come up for feed no more than 10 inches. I was here the whole time the perch were harvested with other anglers and we didn't move anything that small.

Not a big deal but I could have 8 or 9 less 14 to 15 inch perch in the pond than originally thought for a corporation that is buying them. And I killed several big ones for health testing when the smaller ones could have been used.

This is not the first time people can't seem to follow directions. I'm getting more selective with whom I use for help. At least one group I do know I can depend on.

There's no way to understand how some people think.

Ask the wife to get a pic of the floaters. He will surely deny that any were killed when you do confront him. She needs to do it now. They will be gone tonight.

perhaps the most tragic part of this story is what this guy's kids will grow up thinking is o.k.....

What a bunch of b*(^ s%&*! I would flip out and loose my mind You should put some posted signs up.. I'm pissed off just hearing about it. If I caught someone down to my pond fishing without permission I would of thrown him a a** whippin in front of his kids I think some people just don't realize the time,effort, and passion some people have for there ponds and just simply take it for granted.I have my pond posted and it's right next to my house, if someone stoped and asked to fish there is no doubt in my mind that I would let them as long as they used barbless hooks and I was here but, if they thought they were going to go fishing without my permission they would think differently next time and probly wouldn't do it again.

That just leaves me speechless. No, really, what can you even say about that? All I can think of is that it's sad. Some people take their shoes off before they enter your house. Others go straight for your supply of 20 year old stuff.

Salty....IT SUKS!
I have to prepare for this exact situation. In my eyes, it's a digial point/shoot camera with a nominal telephoto. Just enough to catch a face and the surrounding private property. The fish on shore would be a bonus. Then, it would be Cecil's attitude, including filing an official report with the sherriff.

TPWD can and will charge restitution cost for any game killed or taken illegally in Texas and they don't give discounts for good intentions. I'm with Cecil, teach a lesson and make them pay.

Put it in writing with pics now and send it to him and a copy to the sheriff. State clearly that he was trespassing and did damage to the fishery. Tell him never to come on your property or you will have him arrested.

Time to stop it now.

I also say send him a bill.

I assume he has kissed any future hunting privileges goodbye as well.

I hate reading this stuff. It really burns me up. Absolutely send this guy a bill. Keep the dead fish, with photos like everyone else said.

So I'm assuming that you're out at sea? Also, I'm assuming that you talked to this guy on the phone after your wife caught him?

I'm also doubly p.o.'d right now. I just returned from my pond, and someone has shot & killed two Canadian Geese in my pond and left them floating, either earlier this morning, or late last night.

My brother, my daughter and my neice were walking to the back end of our pond, and a single goose and a duck flew away. Then my daugther said "that goose is lying down." I saw it and replied "yes sweetie he's sleeping."

Taking the waterborne dirt nap I mean.

When I scanned the area, I saw the second floater. Turtles had not gotten them yet which makes me think it's very recent. No bloating either, nor smell.

I'm no fan of geese, and could not care less if a single goose ever came to our pond again, but I'll be damned if someone is just going to shot them on my land, not to mention leave 'em floating.

I'll be report this to the Game Commission tomorrow morning.

Didn't mean to sidetrack your thread Salt.

I'm ticked for all of us.

I wouldn't be able to help myself from collecting all of the dead fish and going over to his home to show him what damage was done and how thoughtless and selfish he was. This sucks...

Well the gentlemen in question came down to the house an spoke to the wife. (I’m offshore) he apologized to us an offered to pay for the fish. He is distant neighbor and we do sometimes have a beer or borrow each others equipment and he was under the assumption that we wouldn’t mind if he and the grand kids wet a line……….he was mistaken! As I said before I bear some of the responsibility as I have let him deer hunt a few times and water fowled with him twice (on our land) and have always been very forthcoming with him. He did not realize that I am NOW A FREAK about my pond and possessive about my fish! I will not shoot him this time and I shall put up more no trespassing signs soon. After we finish building the new house there is a fence and gates going up as well……………tall fences make for great neighbor’s ! The best thing to come out of all of it is his wife has a big mouth and she will tell everyone I am nuts about my pond and a dangerous man when it comes to my pets be it my HBS, LMB or my bullfrogs!

PS I spoke to my mother this evening and she reminded me that when I was a kid that I drained a mans farm pond and haul seined his fish and moved them to my grandfathers pond….as the man that owned the pond wouldn’t let me fish in it. I bailed hay for 3 summers for that stunt and wish to God the old doctor that owned the pond were still alive so I could tell him how truly sorry I am!

Sunil that is sad! I have a shallow waterfowl pond and have 2 pairs of geese nesting along with a few wood ducks in the boxes. Why would anyone want to shoot your geese? Are there alot of teenagers where you live?

There are teenagers and adults, many of which are less than less than questionable character (yes, I wrote that twice). My guess is that someone was turkey hunting and came up with nothing, so they shot these geese.

I couldn't investigate the whole area as I had my young daughter with me.

At least your fish perp had the decency to come back & fess up.

I'm still trying to recover from poachers cleaning the lmb out of my pond..it used to be full of 1-4 lb bass..I have not caught a bass in almost two years...I restocked lmb last year but they where 4-6" so it will be awhile...I know who did it but cant prove it.

The new threat is well meaning friends that fish in state ponds and want to bring me some fish! I had a buddy stop by with a bucket of BG………most were green sunfish and a few sickly looking BG. Right now I have a happy pond with healthy fish and want to keep it that way. I also know to the number what kind and how many of each I have put in with the exception of CC. I thought they had croaked with the other fish but my poacher said he caught CC up to 5lbs so I may have more than I think!

To lighten things up here a little I will tell you a funny story -- well sort of -- related to this topic. I had permission to fish a pond indirectly out in the middle of no where while I was living in the basement of my contractor. This was while he was building my log home. The problem was I was doing fish taxidermy and needed a place to put those fish carcasses left over from the skinning. I put them in his dumbster only once and was told to never ever do that again! Phew!

So I had a dilema. Where to put the left over carcasses of the 6 yo 7 pound bass, 40 inch northerns, 15 inch crappies etc. I decided to put them under a tree near the pond out in the boonies. After all what the racoons would not eat would decompose right? And since no one lived there the smell would not be a problem right? Funny thing is soon after dropped off a load of giant fish carcasses the place got locked up gate and all. No more access. Then figured it out! The owner found the fish carcasses and probably thought all those huge fish came out of the pond and on top of that someone was just throwing them away! I can just see the look on his face when he came across a pile of monster fish!

Funny thing is the pond was poorly managed and didn't have anything of size.

salth20cowboy, you bring up a subject that touches a raw nerve for many of us. In your case, it appears that the person thought they had permission when in fact, they really didn't. You're lucky, this appears to have been an honest mistake that was easily corrected. One thing we might all do is put up a sign saying "NO FISHING" right on our lakes. I just tell people that fishing is never allowed on our lake unless I am physicially present and their invitation was for one time only.

Other comments here appear to be just plain theft and should be handled as such.

People wanting to stock our lakes is a whole different problem. It appears that people everywhere just want to put fish everywhere. And everyone thinks they know more about managing our lake than we do. In our area, the problem fish are northerns. Some people think that every lake should have northerns.

The problem is really one of "frame of reference". Their experience is that of fishing large public lakes. They think that everything that applies to these large lakes should apply to our little lake. They think we should have everything these large lakes have. They think it is ridiculous to have to throw back good eating sized fish. And they certainly want to use their fishing tackle that is made to land fish, not to release them. I want these people on my side so I do a lot of explaining about why I do what I do. The thieves don't care of course, but I've been able to "convert" most of the others.

All of that just makes me glad I live at the pond now, all the frustration from people screwing around with my stuff, while not gone is much more manageable. That was a good story Salt.