Most Texas anglers will never see an illegal gill net.
That doesn’t mean they aren’t out there.
A recent Texas game warden operation at the Texas City Dike resulted in approximately 160 documented violations and the seizure of more than 700 feet of illegal gill net according to a report my Outdoor Hub writer Keith Lusher.
Read Keith Lusher’s complete OutdoorHub report on the Texas City Dike investigation here.
Gill nets are prohibited in Texas public waters, but the Texas City incident is far from the first time Texas game wardens have encountered them.
In fact, some past seizures make 700 feet of illegal net look small.
Miles of Illegal Net
In 2006, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department game wardens launched Operation Pescador on Falcon Lake along the Texas-Mexico border.
The numbers from that operation are staggering.
According to TPWD records, wardens arrested 28 violators, seized 20 boats and 20 motors and removed 98,150 feet of illegal gill net while working more than 6,300 hours.
That’s more than 18 miles of net.
During a presentation to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission, officials put the potential impact into perspective. They estimated 18.6 miles of gill net could catch approximately 1,800 pounds of fish in a single day.
Operation Pescador wasn’t dealing with a new problem, either.
A TPWD report issued shortly before the operation noted that patrols during the previous six months had resulted in 12 arrests, the seizure of seven vessels and motors and more than 38,000 feet of gill net. A similar enforcement effort between September 2004 and August 2005 resulted in 34 arrests, 23 vessels seized and more than 84,000 feet of illegal nets removed.
The problem wasn’t confined to Falcon Lake.
Sharks in the Nets
In November 2012, TPWD reported that game wardens were approaching a record number of seizures of illegal gill nets and longlines in Texas and U.S. waters along the Lower Coast.
One of those incidents began when the U.S. Coast Guard apprehended a commercial fishing vessel from Mexico in Texas waters after a three-mile pursuit.
When a Texas game warden removed an illegal gill net from the vessel, approximately 180 sharks were entangled in it.
Another discovery that month was even more revealing.
The TPWD patrol vessel Captain Williams located a three-mile-long gill net about six miles north of Brazos Santiago Pass and seven miles offshore.
The net contained 17 greater hammerhead sharks, 13 other sharks that could not be identified because of decomposition, eight black drum, six tripletail, one large red drum and several hundred triggerfish.
Wardens confiscated the net and released the fish that were still alive.
TPWD reported that by that point in 2012, wardens working aboard the Captain Williams along the Lower Texas Coast had seized 138,080 feet of longline and 53,840 feet of gill net.
They also documented more than 6,000 sharks, 300 red snapper, 211 red or black drum, 21 gag grouper and two sailfish associated with the illegal fishing devices they seized.
Those numbers illustrate what makes illegal netting such a serious fisheries issue.
A gill net doesn’t care what swims into it.
Legal Nets and Illegal Nets
Not every net you see someone using in Texas is illegal.
Cast nets, for example, are a common and legal fishing tool when used within state regulations.
Current TPWD regulations allow cast nets for taking nongame fish and certain other aquatic life, but they cannot exceed 14 feet in diameter. In salt water, nongame fish taken with a cast net may be kept only for bait.
Gill nets are another matter. Texas regulations specify the devices that may legally be used to take fish in public waters, and gill nets are not among them.
The distinction is important because there is nothing inherently suspicious about seeing someone throw a legal cast net for bait along the Texas coast. Hundreds of feet of gill net stretched through public water is something entirely different.
And that brings us back to what happened at the Texas City Dike.
One Citizen Made the Call
This wasn’t an illegal net intercepted along the international border or discovered miles offshore. It happened at the Texas City Dike, one of the best-known public fishing destinations on the upper Texas coast.
According to Lusher’s report, the investigation began with a citizen’s tip about suspicious fishing activity. That person didn’t have to confront anyone. Texas Game Wardens did the rest.
Texas’ Operation Game Thief program allows citizens to anonymously report suspected fishing, hunting and boating violations. Information leading to a conviction can also qualify for a reward of up to $1,000.
For decades, Texas game wardens have pulled illegal nets from Falcon Lake, the Lower Coast and other waters. Some have measured hundreds of feet, while others have measured miles.
Most Texas anglers will probably never encounter one, but the Texas City Dike case is a reminder that illegal netting hasn’t disappeared. Sometimes it is happening much closer than we think.
Chester Moore