Garden State Trout

Fished my home water to me on the ramapo today. Did pretty good. Was able to put 8 in the net today. All between 12-16 inches. All C&R safely. There was a guy fishing almost next to me. He caught a few. But he was a stringer guy. Now I have nothing against a person keeping fish for consumption. But he was culling dead fish @ times. If he caught a bigger fish. He would exchange it with sometimes dead fish on his stringer. Tossing the dead 1 back into the water. Now morally I know this is wrong. But is it legal what he did ?

pfa only

Intentionally killing fish and not consuming them is wanton waste and illegal. If I'd saw that I'd have ripped the guy a new a-hole (cause he is one), wtf kind of sportsman did he think he is culling stringered fish.

It sounds illegal but also definitely immoral and unethical in my view. Perhaps another way to accomplish this would be to gift the unwanted trout to someone that looked like they needed them on the river instead of completing wasting them. Very few things will provoke an aggressive reaction with a stranger from me but killing/wasting food and hitting a women are a few things that will.

I would have reported it with a smile on my face.

https://dep.nj.gov/njfw/wp-content/uplo ... e22-25.pdf

7:25-6.18 Wanton waste of fish prohibited; tagging and marking of fish

(a) Fish, of any species, taken, by any means, which are purposely killed, become part of the
fisherman's daily creel or possession limit and must be removed from the waters from which they
were taken, and adjacent lands, pursuant to N.J.S.A. 23:5-28. This section shall not apply to those
fish which are released while still alive, by the angler, and subsequently die as a result of stress or
hooking mortality.
(b) No person may tag or mark and release fish without first obtaining a special permit issued by
the Division after a determination that the action will provide information that will be beneficial to
the management of the fisheries resource and will not detract from any studies being planned or
conducted by the Division or other scientific or educational organization. "Educational or scientific
organization" means a governmental unit or a private institution that provides environmental or natural resource education to its students or a governmental unit or private institution whose primary
service is the evaluation of environmental or natural resource conditions.
1. Required permit information shall be as follows:
i. The permittee's name;
ii. The permittee's address;
iii. The species of fish to be tagged or marked;
iv. The type of tag or mark to be used;
v. The location in which the marked fish will be released; and
vi. The purpose of the tagging or marking of fish.
2. Applications shall be directed to:
New Jersey Division of Fish and Wildlife
Bureau of Freshwater Fisheries
PO Box 394
Lebanon, NJ 08833-0394
3. The permittee shall agree to:
i. Submit a report of the results of the tagging study to the Division;
ii. Display permittee's name and address or phone number on fish tags;
iii. Notification of, and permission from, the owner of the waterbody named in the application or the administering agency if that waterbody is publicly owned; and
iv. Comply with any local ordinances or other State laws or regulations.

No, not legal and the first thing you do is call the game thief hotline. That number is 855-648-8477.

I would have said something. A couple of seasons back I saw someone putting a trout on a stringer on a no kill stretch, he played dumb but eventually took it off the stringer and put it back, he left shortly after. Last season, the same stream saw another guy walking the path with a large trout in his net. The fish was dead or dying, however after I said something to him about the legality he put it in the stream, of course he played stupid. I'd rather see it fertilize the stream then be illegally removed.

Before calling or engaging, take pictures or video. Try to get a clear shot of a license or car with plates. Then call. You may text those to a responding officer and it is in their court, so to speak, but is the evidence needed to take steps. Cops and COs are armed and trained. It ain't worth any potential retribution over a flipping fish but worth reporting because it's the right thing to do.