So we were wandering around eBay the other day looking for fishing gear, and ran across auction # 180552464664. This is for a pulse fish shocker.
Now, I am in no way interested in buying this thing, and am actually pretty disgusted by it. It says to check your local regulations for legality. My question is, is this even legal anywhere in the US?
Not only legal, but encouraged in some places where the Flathead is not native and decimating the native fish.
They make the things out of old hand crank phones and if I remember right, you buy a shocker permit for $5 or something like that.
There was a short blurb about it in one of the old Catfish In-Sider mags.
There was a stretch on the Cape Fear River in North Carolina where that was legal for flathead catfish harvest by electrofishing. Point was to try and reduce or eliminate flathead catfish as they are not native in NC. To my knowledge, they had no apparent effect on the population but I don’t know how many anglers took part in that. Flatheads were a pretty popular sport fish in many areas down there, but they have completely altered the native fish populations where they have been introduced. Looks like they still allow hand crank electrofishers at certain times and locations in NC for catfish only.
SC is proposing the same thing. Apparently they feel the Readbrested Sunfish is being wiped out by this man eater.
What’s funny is it was the NC DNR that introduced them to the waterways that Joel is talking about above.
Cape Fear River totally changed after they stocked those fish in the 60’s. Channel catfish, blue catfish, and flathead catfish were all introduced (think they only stocked 10-20 flatheads). They had white catfish, bullheads, redbreast sunfish, and have all but disappeared with installation of dams and introduction of the three catfish species.
I actually moved a few (30) of those flatheads around in a little project on Fort Bragg where I introduced some Cape Fear flatheads to a catfish pond on Fort Bragg. I was hoping they would go after the over abundant crappie, bluegill, and warmouth. Wasn’t there long enough to see the results. Looks like the pond I stocked them in has been drained for dam repairs now.
I took a freshwater ecology class back in high school, and we got to wander around local streams using a shocking probe of sorts. There was a battery pack that strapped to your back, and the probe itself resembled a metal detector. It was pretty fun; we did water quality assessments based on the species of bugs and minnows we found. Anyway, I know its a different scenario, but it’s the same concept, just down-scaled.
-Mike
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I took a freshwater ecology class back in high school, and we got to wander around local streams using a shocking probe of sorts. There was a battery pack that strapped to your back, and the probe itself resembled a metal detector. It was pretty fun; we did water quality assessments based on the species of bugs and minnows we found. Anyway, I know its a different scenario, but it’s the same concept, just down-scaled.
-Mike
I hope the waders grounded you. Ouch.
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I hope the waders grounded you. Ouch.
I think you mean “insulated”. Grounding would mean the current passes directly through your body.
That’s bad. 
“That’s bad”
only when you grab your buddy’s ear. 
Quote:
“That’s bad”
only when you grab your buddy’s ear.
LMAO DUDE! Very nice!
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