I know this is an old thread, but I figured Jason’s response deserved a reply. I am a fisherman who, like Jason, has been cut by both sides of the setline sword. Since I have been a little kid, my grandfather, my father and I have fished the Pecatonica River several miles below Freeport. Up until I was about 12, our family and a few other locals were the only ones fishing this stretch of the river by boat. We fish mostly with rod and reel but set out about 80 hooks (40 for each of us) worth of bank poles. We consistently caught sizable catfish (channels, blues, and flatheads) and an occasional walleye. Fishing was always enjoyable as we would run lines about 6 times per year, usually picking up about 25 fish per trip. This was enough to ensure meals of fish for the family, create a lifetime’s worth of tales, and make those rod and reel trips much more relaxing. Fishing was always good, and the environment was serene. Trophy flatheads were released, as were spawning female walleyes. We have caught several flats over 30 lbs, and C & R’d all of them. All hooks were stripped of bait and hooks the following morning, so no fish were hooked during the week. All bank poles were tagged (as per state regulations) and spread out over miles of the river as not to fish any particular stretch out. Anglers that had lines downstream near some cabins knew us, and we knew them, and respected their lines. We sought not to exploit the beloved river, but to serve as it’s guardians. Over the course of my life, I’ve seen the river clean up considerably, and the number of game fish and variety of species drastically increase. Round about the time I entered junior high school, all of this began to change. Wave upon wave of Crackers (a.k.a. rednecks, hillbillies, etc) descended on this stretch of the river. Suddenly instead of being the only boat, or seeing one other boat all weekend, we saw three and four boats every weekend we went fishing. These guys had no respect, and found their sole purpose to exploit the river and it’s caretakers. Soon, we went from having the only set of bank poles on this whole stretch to being one of 6 sets of lines. These Crackers (sorry if I sound haughty, but these guys are worthy of this billing) set out lines, flagged with orange tape, every 100 yards or so on both banks for 3-4 river miles. They fished certain productive holes out, kept the big flatheads, and cleaned their fish on the banks when they were done. We came across a pile of fish heads one Sunday afternoon that had been left from that morning only 50 feet from the river bank. Also, they left bait and hooks on their lines. When we would fish the river during the week with rod and reel, we would come upon several dead fish that had spun themselves out of the water and died on these bank poles. This disgusted me to no end, usually, if we find these fish on these lines during the week, we’ll let them go now, rather than leave them to die. Upon seeing them again, we expressed our displeasure at their antics, which was greeted with a drunken barrage of swearing, and an invitation to fight. Interesting, that they choose to challenge a 16 foot boat with a 20 HP motor while they fish in a narrow 12 footer powered by a beat up motor with no cowling. At first we responded by just running down river far enough to elude these ruthless pirates, giving up our spots up the river to avoid any confrontations. However, each year it gets worse. Now, more of these types are fishing this stretch, and are every bit as bad, practicing the same ruthless habits. Some have even moved into the cabins in the downstream sections and are working their way up. My dad and I set out 40 bank poles and one two trotlines (80 hooks) this year, and ran lines once. On our way back up the river from baiting them, my dad and I caught one of these groups of crackers taking a fish off of one of our lines. They played dumb about it, pretending to be setting one of the 12 PVC poles they had in their boat, and my dad scolded them about it, so we figured we’d scared them. Instead, they had tasted the sweetness of thievery and chose to continue. My dad and I went home that night to catch my sister’s high school play. When we returned to run lines in the morning, we saw these guys coming up the river and they went past us with a boat full of fish. Both of us felt sick because we knew where they’d come from. These guys had 12 lines and must have had about 25 fish. As we worked our way down 4 miles of river, we found empty hooks on almost every bank pole. Only the ones that were well hidden under vines or overhanging trees, or tucked behind snags had fish on them. The trotline also had 6 fish on it. We came home that morning with 15 fish when we should have had 30. We were robbed! The stretch of river I fished as a boy, and had success for so many years is eroding away before my very eyes. Pole fishing is tough business now, as we don’t catch nearly as many as we used to. Certain stretches of river that were productive when I was a boy are fished out. This year we experienced a rebound as I think one or two of the boats blew up their motors during the low water. My family never has to worry about that due to three generations of knowledge about riffles, logs, and dead heads. In short, I know exactly how Jason feels, as now my trips up and down the river see 5-6 sets of bank poles. I can at least take the solace of setting a few free that spin up out of the water. Running set lines has long been a favorite family tradition, but it’s lost much of its fun. It is a lot of work for someone else to steal from you, or to ruin your time on the water by having to constantly deal with their drunken rudeness. We now fish almost exclusively by rod and reel. We hope to someday return to setlining if there are better regulations imposed. I think the best way to rid our waters of the trash that exploits them is to do a few things:
1) Require commercial fishing licenses for set lining. This would add expense and paperwork that most of these ignoramouses would be unable to handle. For those of us that truly can appreciate the value of set lining, the extra fee and hassle would be well worth the cost of taking out the (trailer) trash.
2) Add more game wardens. I haven’t seen a game warden on this stretch of river since I was a kid. Game wardens got rid of illegal boats and rid of illegal lines. Most of these guys have no boat registrations, no PFD’s, and probably no fishing license. Legal anglers like us have no problem seeing our friendly conservation officer. The biggest problem with my stretch of the river is no boat ramps are available for the warden to launch until he gets to Pecatonica. Most of these crackers launch their boats by hand because they are small.
3) Cut the number of hooks from 50 to 35. 70 hooks for a pair of anglers is more than sufficient to catch a good creel of fish.
4) Set a slot limit on walleye in this river. The walleye fishing is blossoming on the Pec. I think this is part of the reason we see all of the riff-raff. Before, people could take or leave cats, but walleyes are sought after like jewels. I’m so encouraged by seeing the walleye population spike, but I know it will go extinct if exposed to this pressure for too long.
5) Discontinue all use of hoop nets in the Pecatonica River. A few years back, my dad and I got commercial licenses to use hoop nets to catch buffalo from the river. Buffalo are vegetarians, so they are difficult to catch by conventional means. We needed buffalo to stock a relative’s pond to eat the vegetation. Grass carp had just been outlawed at this time. We set a few of these in the river and were shocked at the results. We pulled up nets full of fish, all kinds of fish. Cats, pike, walleye, carp and buffalo. All but the buffalo were released. One net had 5 true trophy flatheads in it, all over 30 lbs. One was so big, I’ll never forget it. The head was at least 18 inches wide. Both of my dad’s fists were in his mouth; he must have weighed 60 or 70 lbs. When dad went to release him he violently flipped his huge tail and took dad out with him. We both laughed about that, but it was testament to just how deadly these things can be in the wrong hands. There is no doubt some of these other guys have them and are using them. One or two of these well placed does more damage to a fishery than 100 bank poles or 10 trot lines. A river the size of the Pecatonica cannot handle these types of devices; there’s simply not as much water as the Mississippi or Rock.
6) Some other states have “River Caretakers” or “Guardians of the River” that are responsible for protecting a given number of river miles. These are usually old hats who have respected the river and know the river. They are responsible to keep it clean, both from landfill pollutants and human pollutants. They take samples for the DNR, read the river gauges for NOAA and provide recreational reports to local press agencies. They also work with conservation and law enforcement officers to protect against illegal activities. I for one, am in favor of this system being implemented in Illinois.
I know I’ve written a book here, and some may even find this offensive (excuse my harsh language about the aforementioned pirates). But you must understand that I’m very passionate about this topic. This river is a part of my fabric, and I still visit it at least 4 times a year when I can get away from work. I now live in central Illinois and have had a chance to fish almost every river in our state. I can tell you that the Pec ranks right near the top of every river I’ve ever fished. It’s narrow channel, abundance of structure, and cool deep water, make it a home to many trophy fish. Let’s not let those that don’t care about it destroy it.