Tag: anglers

Anglers fined thousands for ‘over bagging’ on trophy carp river

Three men were ordered to pay fines totaling more than $4,200 for glaring fishing violations that occurred this past weekend on the Connecticut River.

Three men were ordered to pay fines totaling more than $4,200 for glaring fishing violations that occurred this past weekend on the Connecticut River.

According to the Connecticut State Environmental Conservation Police, an officer responding to a tip out of Cromwell found the men to be in possession of gross over limits.

Additionally, the men did not possess valid fishing licenses and exceeded the number of rods and reels allowed by law.

A photo released by the agency shows 32 carp laid out on a lawn. The Connecticut River is a designated “trophy carp body of water.” The daily creel limit is one carp per angler, measuring less than 26 inches.

In a news release issued Monday via social media, the CSECP stated that the officer was acting on a report of three males were “over bagging on carp.”

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“Upon arrival our Officer observed a large carp hanging out of a cooler in the area of the 3 men fishing,” the agency explained. “Upon further inspection another cooler was checked which was filled to capacity.”

The dead carp were donated to a nearby rehabilitation center for injured mammals and birds of prey.

Anglers encounter ‘weird-looking’ octopus that is indeed bizarre

Folks aboard a Florida fishing charter on Friday enjoyed a rare encounter with a blanket octopus that swam alongside their boat for several minutes.

Folks aboard a Florida fishing charter on Friday enjoyed a rare encounter with a blanket octopus that swam alongside their boat for several minutes.

“[She] was very curious of the boat and the squid on our fishing lines,” Capt. Tony Zain, owner of Skyway Sportfishing,” told For The Win Outdoors. “It was an awesome sight.”

The accompanying footage – an audio version can be viewed here – shows the female octopus spreading her webbed arms as she swims cautiously toward the vessel, prompting a dumbfounded crewman to declare, “That is the weirdest-looking thing.”

Blanket octopuses, which reside in tropical and subtropical pelagic waters, are identifiable by sheet-like webbing that, when outstretched, can make them appear larger to potential predators.

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Video footage almost always involves females, which can measure about six feet and weigh 10,000 times more than their one-inch male counterparts, who seem to exist purely for mating.

Male blanket octopuses mate by detaching a modified sperm-filled arm, which females store in their mantle cavity for fertilization. The males almost always die after this process.



Another interesting characteristic: Blanket octopuses are immune to the stings of sea jellies, or jellyfish, and will sometimes tear off and wield the tentacles of Portuguese man-o-war jellies to ward off predators.

Passengers on the Skyway Sportfishing charter, who were fishing for snapper and grouper off Sarasota in the Gulf of Mexico, might not have known any of this while gazing down at the octopus – and who can blame them?

Stated researcher Rebecca R. Helm in a tweet: “That’s the amazing thing about open ocean life, you never know where it’s going to pop up.”

Rare white orca passes beneath anglers almost ghostlike

A group of anglers ventured offshore in search of tuna last Thursday, but instead encountered several large orcas and a rare white orca calf.

A group of anglers ventured offshore in search of tuna last Thursday, but instead encountered several large orcas and a rare white orca calf.

“No tuna for 160 miles but this was better,” Ryan Corum wrote beneath one of two Instagram videos that show the encounter near San Clemente Island in Southern California.

Viewers will note the close proximity of as many as 10 orcas that greeted the anglers and kept pace with their fast-moving boat.

“It lasted about 10 minutes,” Corum told For The Win Outdoors. “And on the way in about four hours later we spotted them again, 20 miles from the original spot. They were just relaxing on the surface.”

At the start of the top video, when the orcas first appeared, one angler begs repeatedly to kill the engine, prompting the response, “They’re not scared of the boat, bro.”

Frosty the white orca passes beneath boat as angler looks down. Photo: Ryan Corum

The white calf is visible briefly in the top video but plays a prominent role in the second (soundless) video, when it passes beneath the boat almost ghostlike.

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The calf, nicknamed Frosty, is part of a family unit of transient orcas cataloged as the CA216s.

Frosty is leucistic and sometimes appears gray, other times white, depending upon the angle of sight and position of the sun.

The calf is about 13 months old and was first documented, as a newborn, last August by Monterey Bay Whale Watch in Central California.

Frosty and the CA216s were encountered at Santa Catalina Island last September by a California Killer Whale Project researcher, so the calf is well traveled.

In fact, according to Alisa Schulman-Janiger, the project’s co-founder, the CA216s have been documented from Vancouver Island off British Columbia to San Diego.

Like other transient orcas, or killer whales, they prey almost exclusively on marine mammals, including dolphins and gray whale calves.

Corum, who was with two fishing companions on a voyage from Newport Beach, said there were at least 10 orcas in the pod. “It was amazing to say the least,” he added.

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