I got off work late this afternoon and didn't have many fishing opportunities except to run to the lake on Blue Ridge Parkway property and try to catch a few bluegill. It's 5 minutes from my house. I caught 3 on my first four casts.
A guy in a jacket walked up behind me and said "Doin' any good?"
"I just got here," I replied.
I wasn't payin him much attention.
"You know, it's after sundown," he said.
"Man, it's early. It's not anywhere near sundown," I replied.
"Yeah, but the sun just went over the ridge over there. You're fishing after sundown, and I'm a Park Ranger. If I give you a ticket, you'll have to go to Asheville and pay the fine."
Just then, my popper went down with a flush. I hated it, but there was nothing else to do. I set the hook and brought in the nice little 2 1/2 pound bass and released him without taking him out of the water. Then I turned to the ranger and asked him what we should do now.
"Have a nice evening at home," he said, and walked away. Sheesh.
He was just doing his job, and truth be told, probably should have given you a ticket. You should be glad that he let you get off that easy.
Am I missing something? You can trout fish for 30min after sundown. The times are on the back of your regulation digest, and it's usually dark by then. All other kinds of fishing it's legal to fish at night. Maybe there are some special regs for this pond?
it all sounds a bit fishy to me....
...but it makes a good story?
Fiction or Truth?
I doubt the sun setting behind a ridge is considered offical sunset.
VDGIF has a chart on their website listing offical sunrise and sunset.
http://www.dgif.state.va.us/hunting/regulations/sunrisesunset.pdf
Parkway regs say fishing is prohibited one-half hour after sunset until one-half hour before sunrise on all Parkway waters.
Kim 8)
http://www.ncwildlife.org/pg04_HuntingTrapping/2007_08_sunrise.pdf
Thank you for the info Mr Dancing man (BTW Sat Night Fever is one of my favorite movies) very timely as usual . Today that would have meant Sunset 7:15 +30min. They even add a couple extra min the farther west you are, it's +7 min in Asheville. So today you could have fished until 7:52. Like I said in my first post, till dark.
The only thing is, up on the ridge like that, it's daylight a bit longer. That's something I wasn't aware of, though. Nice of him to just give you a warning. It's like he was trying to tell you to go home before you get into trouble.
Quote from: phg on September 27, 2007, 06:55:12 AM
The only thing is, up on the ridge like that, it's daylight a bit longer. That's something I wasn't aware of, though. Nice of him to just give you a warning. It's like he was trying to tell you to go home before you get into trouble.
Exactly my point. That is why I posted what I posted earlier.
Quote from: brownhunter on September 27, 2007, 07:39:39 AM
Quote from: phg on September 27, 2007, 06:55:12 AM
The only thing is, up on the ridge like that, it's daylight a bit longer. That's something I wasn't aware of, though. Nice of him to just give you a warning. It's like he was trying to tell you to go home before you get into trouble.
Exactly my point. That is why I posted what I posted earlier.
NC Wildlife reports Sunset on 9/26 to be 7:15 for Charlotte, + 7 minutes for Asheville.... So that would give to somewhere between 7:45 and 7:52 to be legal. You didn't post your the exact time that you were fishing.
Guess I was cutting it a bit close. The Ranger talked to me between 7:30 and 7:40 p.m.
I'll pay closer attention to the time in the future.
Some 12 or 15 years ago I was on a BRP pullover using my turkey call pior to the season and all. Mostly just practicing, made dang sure I did not even have a pocket knife on me or in the truck. Along came a park ranger and asked me what I was doing. Told him, his response was rather surprising. He said that was considered harrassing the wildlife and that he could give me a ticket. Long story short he didnt and I got the heck outta there.