Yep. Call the PFBC.

Alerting the interwebs has not been shown to be effective.

Well here is another poaching incident. I have only fished the White Clay a very few times, so I don’t know much about it. On Sunday afternoon my GF was visiting family in Newark so I had her drop me off at parking lot 2. Where I entered the water it was posted as ATW, no one around at all, cool I thought until I was low holed and then high holed within 20 minutes. I realize that comes with the territory around SEPA; but what happened next at first seemed odd; until I left the water and saw I had moved upstream to a Delayed Harvest section.

The high holer had apparently had been working downstream into a pool less than 50 yards away and I was working my way up to that pool. He came tromping into position and on the first cast his spinner hooked a trout. As I watched him a bit, he kept looking at me like he was nervous that I was watching him land the fish. Then as I encroached on the pool somewhat indicating I was working upstream, I saw his stringer that appeared to have a limit. He then decided to quickly leave the pool while he kept looking back at me; it was like he thought I was gonna say something to him. At the time I did not know I had moved into a Delayed Harvest section or I would have said something.

As I walked back to the car I had this pissed off attitude about what I had just witnessed, kinda ruined a pleasant afternoon; even tho I only caught suckers out of that pool after the poacher left.





High Holer arrives





High Holer Poacher picking up his stringer

Several of the new smart phones shoot in incredible detail. (not this one)

I don't know if the PA Fish Commission would consider it evidence, but it sure would ID the offender. I'm thinking a stringer of fish with an easily ID'd background would be a great starting point. Let the courts figure it out.

Dotman: The high-holer appears to be standing at the junction of the west branch and the mainstem of the WCCr. The west br., on the left in the pic, is the delayed harvest water, whereas the mainstem (aka middle branch) is ATW. Whether or not he was poaching depends upon one's interpretation of the downstream limit of the west branch. If the wb ends at the sand bar he is standing upon, then yes he is poaching the wb special regs area. But if the wb begins at the base of the large maple tree to the left of the photo, then he is fishing legally in the ATW.

In any case, I wasn't acting suspiciously; rather I was in a hurry to get home and feed the cats.

i was on the dhalo section of the quitte a few weeks ago.
saw some one that appeared to using a worm. i milled a round a bit to be sure of what i thought i saw. i wasn't sure if it was real or rubber, but said something anyway. in return i got a "it's rubber", i mentioned that you can't used molded imitations "where does it say that?"
i ended up not pressing the issue much more.....his buddies started joining in and i was alone. i moved down stream to continue fishing, they left shortly after.
frustrated, i quit fishing and just took the rod for a walk through the park, knowing the signs clearly mention what i said....to my dismay they in fact do not clearly mention it. the new signs are very brief and not clear at all......where as i found a few older signs that very clearly mention the use of molded facsimilings of bugs, fish, worms, ect and other invertebrates is prohibited. after returning home i referred to the hand book, which reads almost word for word as the new signs...the fish and boat website did not help me.




• Fishing may be done with artificial lures only
constructed of metal, plastic, rubber or wood, or
with flies and streamers constructed of natural or
synthetic materials. All such lures may be used
with spinning or fly fishing gear.
• The use or possession of any natural bait,
baitfish, fishbait, bait paste and similar substances,
fish eggs (natural or molded) or any other edible,
substance is prohibited.

Brain,
Seems pretty clear to me what the signs said, It involves some due diligence to determine what the definition of the words mean, go to the PFBC website and look up the definition of bait. It covers all of what you initially thought it should. Baitfish are just, that and fishbait includes crayfish, mussels, and all the bugs.

So rubber imitations are legal?