“Florida Sportsman” Promotes Turtle Catching and Soup Making?
We hope the comments are made in jest but considering the number of out of season deer, deer taken at night, and other wildlife violations** we hear about at the hands of the “sportsmen” of Florida, we don’t doubt that these guys would happily butcher this loggerhead they torment for no real reason other than he “pulls hard”. Yeah, that’s some real sport, folks.
Do you think the guys on this boat have a certificate like commercial fishermen are required to have proving that they attended a forum on the proper handling and release of sea turtles?
Do you think they have the $1000 to $3000 worth of special tools that commercial fishermen are required to carry to facilitate the correct handling and release of that turtle?
Do you think they have a clue about anything other than “he pulled hard, man”?
Then we have the proud “sportsman” with the obviously undersized gag grouper. Hand in gills, fish yanked out of the water, held up in the sun, bowed up and tensed while he struggles for his life so we can have a cool picture.
How NOT to handle an undersize grouper...unless you WANT to kill him.
These photos were posted to the Florida Sportsman Forum by a “sportsman” that calls himself “LiLcTheFishSlayer”. Alrighty then.
The comments on the “Sportsman” forum are equally “funny”. Such as:
hmm…turtle soup? I got a little hawrksbill (35-40lbs)a few yrs back, beautiful animal but the little bugger was trying to tear my fingers off as i was dehooking him. they do pull though…HARD.
Well, as long as they pull HARD and are big fun to torment and catch.
LoL Big loggerheads pull hard
Oh yeah!. Lolly lollly they do pull hard!
I used to slay grouper w/ u on the pier, seems you have graduated to turtles…lol
Oh goody. Another fish “slayer” weighs in. Ain’t killin’ fun?
lol so wats the secret bait for turtles.
Yeah, let’s share our secrets on this Sportsman forum. Lolly lolly!. Lots of the LOL stuff going on here. I thought that was the way teenage girls on MySpace talked?
Then, the only guy with the courage to use his real name in his profile posts a comment and manages to leave off the lolly lolly lol.
Wow ! A longliner does it, he get’s put out of business ! A sportie does it, and he brags about it ! What a double standard. Makes you feel like a real fisherman, pulling in that 250 lb. turtle, huh ? And I see some of your sportie friends admitting to catching turtles, too. I shall bring this thread to the attention of the turtle-huggers ASAP, so that they can focus their attention on the real turtle killers …
So what’s the double standard here? It is okay if you do it for sport but not if it is an accidental part of producing a food product? It is okay for a sport to do it because it “Pulls hard” and, after all, that’s what the whole “sport” of fishing is, right? A big jerk on one end of the line waiting for a big jerk on the other end?
By the way, regarding our previous comment about wildlife violations by Florida “sportsmen”…
**From the FWC Weekly Report for February 12:
Officers Steve Hoomes and David Jernigan responded to a complaint regarding the taking of two illegal deer.
Officer Royce Johnson responded to a complaint of dogs pursuing deer in Blackwater Wildlife Management Area.
Officer Danny Arnette was working night hunting complaints in the Laurel Hill area when he observed a vehicle shining a light.
Lieutenants Drew Nelson and Gary Tolbert and Officer Joe Chambers were working the decoy deer in central Bay County when a truck drove by and shined the decoy with a handheld spotlight. The truck returned and slowed at the decoy again before speeding away. The truck was stopped and a freshly killed three-point buck was discovered in the back of the truck which the driver had shot using the spotlight.
Officer Mike Nobles received information about a vehicle parked in the Econfina Wildlife Management Area that was closed to hunting. Officer Nobles arrived and found tire and foot sign left by the vehicle and a hunter. K-9 Officer Mike Guy responded and ran a 1½ mile track ending at a gut pile. With the vehicle’s tag number supplied by the complaint, Officer Nobles continued the investigation which led to a confession from the hunter. Citations and written warnings were issued for hunting in a closed area, no management area permit and no Cat Creek permit.
Officer Sweat checked three people returning from fishing on the Nassau River. An inspection of their vessel revealed that the subjects were in possession of one oversize red drum and one undersize spotted sea trout.
Officer Leonard Bailey cited a subject for possession of trout during the closed season. When Officer Bailey approached the subject as he was leaving the boat ramp, the subject told Officer Bailey that he wasn’t fishing that he was just running his boat. Seeing what appeared to be fish slime in the vessel, Officer Bailey conducted a thorough search of the vessel but was unable to locate any fish. Officer Bailey then noticed a wet spot on the subjects’ truck tool box. A search of the tool box revealed 20 trout, with 19 being undersize.
Officers Bill Lowry and Bryan Lee encountered three subjects on foot near the shore of Lake Poinsett. The subjects were armed with two rifles and a shotgun and were shining a spotlight. All three were charged with attempting to take deer at night.
Officer Marc Shea issued a federal citation to a charter vessel captain for possession of ten over the bag limit of mangrove snapper. The vessel was returning from federal waters to the Marco River and the officer’s inspection revealed a total of 80 snapper and seven paying customers.
