Six anglers lose fishing rights in Pa. for 5 years; unusual species of fish being stocked

The Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission has revoked fishing privileges for six anglers for five years and the agency is also receiving new information about private stockings across the state, including some unusual species.

During Monday’s quarterly meeting, the agency approved the revocations for six people involved in two separate incidents that happened on steelhead nursery waters in Erie County.

On Sept. 24 at 2:45 a.m., the agency reports four individuals used cast nets in Trout Run at the mouth of Lake Erie on Avonia Beach. The shallow waterway is closed to fishing as it’s used as a nursery water for the large spawning fish. A waterways conservation officer approached the foursome and discovered they had 25 steelhead. Each of the four people paid $1,616 in penalties.

In the second incident, on Oct. 15 at 1:55 a.m., two men were found using two landing nets to take steelhead trout out of Trout Run. A waterways conservation officer approached the men and discovered three steelhead on the ground and 12 additional ones in a cooler. They each paid $1,989 in fines.

“They are pretty significant penalties,” said Clyde Warner, director of the bureau of law enforcement. “These are one of those things, the intent is, there’s no question it’s not a mistake, the intent is there. They are doing this at very early hours in the cover of darkness, there’s no question what their intent is there, especially when you get in there with these big nets.”

The six individuals were not residents of Pennsylvania. Warner said he doesn’t release the names of the people involved in these types of incidents, but would only say they were nonresidents of Pennsylvania.

The waterway is also monitored by a public webcam that’s used by the angling public to monitor the conditions of the creek and Lake Erie. Warner said the incidents were caught on the video, but in these cases an officer was onsite observing the area from a concealed location.

“That camera has certainly helped our enforcement efforts in the past," he said. "In these two incidents the officer just happened to be there based on some complaints."

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The agency has charges pending against more steelhead anglers, too.

“We are just waiting for some of these other cases to work through the court process," Warner said. "I’m sure we will have more revocations from other incidents up there."

Board president Bill Gibney thanked law enforcement for protecting the waterways.

“I would like to take the opportunity to point out the important work the officers in Erie County are doing in protecting the resource out there under what was pretty deliberate poaching and extreme poaching," he said. "The sportsmen can know that our staff is out there doing its best to protect the resources for them."

The waterways conservation officer involved in the two incidents, Matt Visosky, of Central Erie County, received the Northeast Conservation Law Enforcement Chiefs Award during Monday’s meeting. He was selected as the PA Fish and Boat Commission's NECLECA Officer of the Year for 2023.

The agency reports during 2023, Visosky’s summary enforcement efforts were “outstanding” with 166 citations issued. He also investigated 16 incidents, conducted 36 days onboard patrol boats, performed 480 boardings and attended 24 education and information events.

During the presentation, Warner, said,

“Warnings 359, three-to-one ratio of warnings versus tickets. He’s more than fair when he’s out there doing his job,” Warner said about Visosky. “He’s out there all hours of the night, we’re really making a difference in protecting the resource.”

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Notice of stockings

The agency also started in January requiring members of the public to report when they do their own fish stockings in the state.

As of April 22, the agency had received 1,081 Notice of Stockings (NOS), either electronically or in paper format.

“This time last year, we had no idea what was going on; who was stocking fish where,” executive director Tim Schaeffer said.

The notices reveal nearly 3,000 stocking events that are underway by private individuals and clubs.

“It’s working. We’re really proud of that work,” Schaeffer said about the agency’s staff and stakeholders working together to create the NOS program.

The notices require people to report the number of fish, species, general location and date.

“The range is pretty large, although the numbers are not large for all the different species,” said Mike Parker, communications director for the PFBC.

About 900 of the 1,100 NOS are for trout, including some unusual species like albino trout and tiger trout. Other notices included American eel, Blueback herring, channel catfish, bass, walleye, common carp, yellow perch and a variety of panfish and minnows.

Information to file a NOS is available on the agency’s website and HuntfishPa.gov.

Boat rentals

The agency’s board is also looking to improve customer safety for those renting boats at rental businesses also known as liveries.

The board approved the publication of a notice of proposed rulemaking pertaining to boat rental businesses. Under this proposal, changes would include new responsibilities for livery operators to provide accurate business information to the PFBC, deliver safety orientation to all renters, possess a Boating Safety Education Certificate if conducting the required safety orientation for motorboat rentals, and properly display boat registration or use permits on rental boats for the access areas on which the rental boats will be used.

In addition, livery operators would be required to document the names of renters who have been provided with boating safety orientation. If adopted on final rulemaking at a future meeting, this amendment will go into effect on Jan. 1.

The boat rental providers are scheduled to be listed on the agency’s website to allow the public to find businesses that rent watercraft at different sites across the state.

Paul Littman, director of the Bureau of Boating, said, “Our hope is to be able to allow the individual to search, probably by county, to see what availabilities are in what area they are looking for.”

Brian Whipkey is the outdoors columnist for USA TODAY Network sites in Pennsylvania. Contact him at bwhipkey@gannett.com and sign up for our weekly Go Outdoors PA newsletter email on this website's homepage under your login name. Follow him on Facebook @whipkeyoutdoors, and Instagram at whipkeyoutdoors.

This article originally appeared on The Daily American: How do you file a notice of stocking in Pennsylvania?