# Is it illegal to castnet bream for bait?



## Trandall8 (Jun 3, 2013)

I'm curious


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## DOUBLEDROPTINE (Jun 3, 2013)

yes


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## Todd71673 (Jun 3, 2013)

Very!!!! Or any game fish for that matter.


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## Trandall8 (Jun 3, 2013)

Thanks I just wanted the tiny ones but I don't want huge fines


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## Old Dead River (Jun 4, 2013)

absolutely! I had to inform a boy at a pond near athens about it here while back. use an ultra light and crickets or worms


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## aabradley82 (Jun 4, 2013)

Not sure, but I think You're ok in a private pond.Public water is a big no-no. Best person to check with would be the GW.


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## Ronbow (Jun 4, 2013)

*And dont have a cast net in the boat or they assume u used it and write the case says Ronbow*


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## Dustin Pate (Jun 4, 2013)

A #10 hook and a very small piece of worm will catch you plenty of small ones.


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## Nuttin Better (Jun 4, 2013)

Yes


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## LEON MANLEY (Jun 4, 2013)

Ronbow said:


> *And dont have a cast net in the boat or they assume u used it and write the case says Ronbow*



Now that's hard to believe.


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## jerseycat9 (Jun 4, 2013)

Yes it's illegal and the fine is $250 from what I remember. 

On a Memorial Day weekend once upon a time I caught one in the cast net while looking for herring. My niece who at the time was only 5 wanted to keep it in a bucket to take care of lol. About 15 minutes later DnR pulls up on us in their boat and we are on the bank. We were at the mouth of a bay with a real busy marina and bar. Well he asks me how I caught the bream I told him truthfully he said that it was illegal I apologized because i really didnt know and let the little guy go happy to be on his way. Well he nailed me with a ticket and then was tossing around the idea of confiscating my cast net. 

Ok I broke the law I accept that. What bothered me was all the boats I seen going by doing the red solo cup shuffle, one boats driver didn't even notice the DnR and was stealing his boat facing the wrong way with his hands behind his back of course with beer in hand. On the way back we passed a group of immigrants fishing with soda cans and line not 100 yards from where we were. But nope I was at the top of the list of suspects that needed to be investigated lol


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## Lawnmowerman (Jun 4, 2013)

so, what's wrong with a soda can and line?


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## cuda67bnl (Jun 4, 2013)

Lawnmowerman said:


> so, what's wrong with a soda can and line?



I saw some guys wearing em out last year this way..... Almost had me rethinking my $20 pole......


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## The Longhunter (Jun 4, 2013)

LEON MANLEY said:


> Now that's hard to believe.



Can happen on designated trout waters and in saltwater.


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## little rascal (Jun 4, 2013)

*Is it,*

Illegal to: 
Catch bream legally in a private pond with net and bring them for bait to another lake? 

Catch bream with hook and line and bring them to another lake?

Can u catch shad in one lake with a net and take to another body of water for bait?



If you can't use legal bait that wasn't caught in the same body of water you are fishing, then store bought bait would be illegal also???


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## EClass (Jun 4, 2013)

Dustin Pate said:


> A #10 hook and a very small piece of worm will catch you plenty of small ones.



^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ This is what we use to catch them when we us them for bait. Usually do not ever have a problem and end up releasing the ones we don't use.

I usually have the cast net with us, even when we fish from shore because shad will swim by on occasion.I never thought about the fact if we did get "visited", and we have brim  in a bucket with a cast net in sight, how that would look.....


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## big_bird (Jun 4, 2013)

my 2 cents on this.  i asked the game warden on the altamaha river just a couple months back if i could use live brean to fish for flat heads on a limb line. he said yes as long as they were caught  (the bream) in the river. i could not catch them at a pond and bring them to the river. he could not explain to me why that was the case, just that it was illegal. so i asked him if i could use bait bought from the store. Large Shiners. he said yes. agian he could not explain the difference but i did not want to p i s s him off either, you understand.


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## big_bird (Jun 4, 2013)

there is a fish farm on US 1 that sells fish for stocking ponds. i forget the name of the place.  something fish farm. i wonder if i could buy them there and use them on the river?


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## Trandall8 (Jun 4, 2013)

I was just wanting to catch a bunch quick for bait but I won't try it


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## Backlasher82 (Jun 4, 2013)

big_bird said:


> my 2 cents on this.  i asked the game warden on the altamaha river just a couple months back if i could use live brean to fish for flat heads on a limb line. he said yes as long as they were caught  (the bream) in the river. i could not catch them at a pond and bring them to the river. he could not explain to me why that was the case, just that it was illegal. so i asked him if i could use bait bought from the store. Large Shiners. he said yes. agian he could not explain the difference but i did not want to p i s s him off either, you understand.



Surprised the game warden couldn't explain why, here it is from the DNR website:

Stocking Fish
It is unlawful to release any wildlife, including fish or exotic fish, within this state except under permit from the Georgia Department of Natural Resources. This does not apply to the stocking of legally possessed fish into private ponds.

It is unlawful to move fish from one body of water to another.

Do not release bait fish alive!  Dispose of bait fish, such as blueback herring, shad, and golden shiners, so they cannot enter a stream, pond, or lake.


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## fishingga (Jun 4, 2013)

If you read the regulation it states that gizzard shad, threadfin shad and blueback herring can be caught in a cast net and used as bait.  It does not list any other species, even nongame fish, that can be caught in a cast net and used as bait.  



> Dip nets and cast nets may be used to take threadfin shad, gizzard shad, and blueback herring for bait, except in state park lakes.



I hate to say how another state is ahead of ours on fishing regulations but..  Recently, Alabama went as far as listing all species that could be caught in a cast net and used as bait.  You would be surprised at the nongame species that striper LOVE.


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## LTZ25 (Jun 4, 2013)

Jerseycat, I got to bull crap on your story of getting a ticket for having a net caught bream in a bucket and it still being alive. There's more to this story, go ahead and tell the rest of the story .


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## little rascal (Jun 4, 2013)

*This..........*



> It is unlawful to move fish from one body of water to another.



..........is what I'm asking. If this is true, then all store bought bait fish or legally caught private pond fish would/should be illegal right?


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## Throwback (Jun 4, 2013)

Yes


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## Hooked On Quack (Jun 4, 2013)

LTZ25 said:


> Jerseycat, I got to bull crap on your story of getting a ticket for having a net caught bream in a bucket and it still being alive. There's more to this story, go ahead and tell the rest of the story .


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## Dr. Strangelove (Jun 4, 2013)

Wonder if a Sabinki would work?


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## joehughes1965 (Jun 4, 2013)

Dustin Pate said:


> A #10 hook and a very small piece of worm will catch you plenty of small ones.



X2---caught about 60 yesterday afternoon in less that two hours.  Only used 2 red worms.


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## porkbelly (Jun 4, 2013)

joehughes1965 said:


> X2---caught about 60 yesterday afternoon in less that two hours.  Only used 2 red worms.



Wowser


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## jerseycat9 (Jun 5, 2013)

LTZ25 said:


> Jerseycat, I got to bull crap on your story of getting a ticket for having a net caught bream in a bucket and it still being alive. There's more to this story, go ahead and tell the rest of the story .


 I will put my hand on the holy bible to that story. 100% true all day. It was such an odd chain of events, I still to this day think about it. I told my room mate that if I knew he was gonna ticket me even after I let him go I would have ate the little sucker right in front of him lol If it was any other day than a Sunday of Memorial Day weekend I'd have no problem with being ticketed. We had no alcohol with us, license in wallet, and 100% kosher other than a lapse in judgement. To me it seemed like a major waste of time and resources to have a boat patrol DnR beached on the shore dealing with me over a lake full of BUI's and dangerous boating infractions in that weekend. Isn't that why they have guys in trucks/foot to deal with people like me?


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## jerseycat9 (Jun 5, 2013)

Lawnmowerman said:


> so, what's wrong with a soda can and line?


 Just a little gumshoe detective hunch that if you wouldn't spring for a $20 rod combo you probably didn't spring for the license either, but I could be wrong.


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## Wayfarer (Jun 5, 2013)

joehughes1965 said:


> X2---caught about 60 yesterday afternoon in less that two hours.  Only used 2 red worms.



Not sure I would post I caught more than the daily legal limit!!


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## Dustin Pate (Jun 5, 2013)

Arkansas Traveler said:


> Not sure I would post I caught more than the daily legal limit!!



Considering his wife fishes with him 99.9% of the time I'm pretty sure he is ok.


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## StriperrHunterr (Jun 5, 2013)

little rascal said:


> ..........is what I'm asking. If this is true, then all store bought bait fish or legally caught private pond fish would/should be illegal right?



What they're trying to do is reduce the introduction of non-native species, and potentially diseases, into an area. Store bought baitfish have to comply with the determined ecology of the body of water you're in. From what I've been told, you couldn't always use BB herring in Lanier. You might have been able to buy them close to the lake, but you still would get cited if caught using them. They're not native and they weren't sure what would happen if they were released. That's my take on all this.


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## Old Dead River (Jun 5, 2013)

Arkansas Traveler said:


> Not sure I would post I caught more than the daily legal limit!!



who said he kept all of them? I've caught 50 or 60 bass in a day but only a fraction if any went in the box.


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## Old Dead River (Jun 5, 2013)

StripeRR HunteRR said:


> What they're trying to do is reduce the introduction of non-native species, and potentially diseases, into an area. Store bought baitfish have to comply with the determined ecology of the body of water you're in. From what I've been told, you couldn't always use BB herring in Lanier. You might have been able to buy them close to the lake, but you still would get cited if caught using them. They're not native and they weren't sure what would happen if they were released. That's my take on all this.



if not for the stripers lake lanier would probably be in a real pickle with an invasive blueback population. they are very detrimental to fish spawning, mow down fry and such. your line sides and probably some aggressive spots which are both piscivorous species, not only fish eating but chase schools of fish in open water, help keep it in check.

if I had a small lake, on one hand bluebacks would make a great fatty forage for the largemouth, but in terms of recruitment they could really sabotage things, also for panfish populations such as crappie as well. Unless it was a female only lake, I wouldn't want bluebacks in my bass small lake/pond.

and also, how many of us have encountered roach infested ponds? where the shiner population has gone haywire and you can't bream fish with crickets or worms because there are so many golden shiners/roaches. surely some fat cat bass benefiting from that but overall the lake is horribly unbalanced. 

Another scenario, think if you caught a largemouth bass from Eufaula when they had that lmbv outbreak and took it elsewhere. you would've spread that pathogen which might undermind the local population.


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## j_seph (Jun 5, 2013)

You should have fought the ticket jersey, you turned said bream lose. He was your pet, and he couldn't swim that good so you used castnet to help him back to the bank. After all it was released so there was no evidence


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## Wayfarer (Jun 5, 2013)

Old Dead River said:


> who said he kept all of them? I've caught 50 or 60 bass in a day but only a fraction if any went in the box.



Point well taken. My apologies. We don't keep everything we catch!!!


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## jerseycat9 (Jun 5, 2013)

j_seph said:


> You should have fought the ticket jersey, you turned said bream lose. He was your pet, and he couldn't swim that good so you used castnet to help him back to the bank. After all it was released so there was no evidence


 I learned early on in life with traffic tickets that its usually just easier to pay them and move on. I fought the law an the law won was usually the case for me lol


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## LEON MANLEY (Jun 6, 2013)

jerseycat9 said:


> I learned early on in life with traffic tickets that its usually just easier to pay them and move on. I fought the law an the law won was usually the case for me lol



You're innocent until proven guilty, of course it'll cost you a bunch of time and money to prove your innocence.


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## StriperrHunterr (Jun 6, 2013)

Old Dead River said:


> if not for the stripers lake lanier would probably be in a real pickle with an invasive blueback population. they are very detrimental to fish spawning, mow down fry and such. your line sides and probably some aggressive spots which are both piscivorous species, not only fish eating but chase schools of fish in open water, help keep it in check.
> 
> if I had a small lake, on one hand bluebacks would make a great fatty forage for the largemouth, but in terms of recruitment they could really sabotage things, also for panfish populations such as crappie as well. Unless it was a female only lake, I wouldn't want bluebacks in my bass small lake/pond.
> 
> ...



I agree with you, and that's what my point was; to prevent invasive species and fish from entering ecosystems that they could decimate so the rule is that fish can't be transferred from one lake to another. It still happens due to, and I don't mean to be insulting but it's the right word, ignorance. People either assume that they can't cause enough damage with their livewell full of invasives released, or they just don't know the laws. 

Back home in NC we had a huge problem with Zebra Mussels and coon tail hydrilla. It got so bad that they put signs at each ramp telling you to check your boat for cling-ons, and would post WRC officers, DNR for GA, at the ramp to make sure people were checking for them when they retrieved their boats. They were writing warnings for failures to check, and citations for violations. 

People just don't realize the problems that can arise from non-natives. Just look at kudzu for an everyday example. Brought over from Japan as an erosion control plant and it just dominates anything it touches and is nigh impossible to eradicate without sterilizing everything.


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## joehughes1965 (Jun 6, 2013)

joehughes1965 said:


> X2---caught about 60 yesterday afternoon in less that two hours.  Only used 2 red worms.





Arkansas Traveler said:


> Not sure I would post I caught more than the daily legal limit!!





Dustin Pate said:


> Considering his wife fishes with him 99.9% of the time I'm pretty sure he is ok.



Dustin is correct on this.  My wife was with me as she always is.  She loves any and all kinds of fishing.  I never said "I" caught 60.


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