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NFC: collecting



My night of collecting was interrupted by a very courteous policeman who
proceeded to tell me that collecting fish with a net in a city park (and where
I live due to construction that pretty much means all suitable water) is
illegal, city ordinance. I got a long speech about amateurs like me not being
able to tell the difference between game fish and non game fish and the damage
I could do by catching a game fish (evidently an angler catching a game fish
is somehow different) the fine was over $100 he let me go but I had to pour
six swamp darters and several nice bluespotted sunnies back into the lake.
That pretty much brings my collecting to a stop until I get a boat or drive
into the surrounding counties to find more collecting spots, due to the nature
of the swamp that surrounds my county that will not be as easy as it sounds.
twenty years no one has said a word, now it's illegal. I have permits posses
al the fish I had with me but I didn't want a fine so I did the brave thing
and let them go. The body of water I was dip netting in is about twice as big
as my living room and about three feet deep at it deepest. It cuts me off from
about four or five species I can catch nowhere else. Hurray for the city, to
bad they don't care about all the habitat that is being destroyed by
construction. 



                                                                      Moon