People now days will steal anything that isn’t nailed down and even then if they have a nail puller watch out!  Now people are stealing wildlife!

     Last week I read a post on the Michigan Sportsman forum where a guy had a nice fish pond stocked with blue gill and bass.  The pond owner had placed a feeder to raise these fish over the past several years.  Earlier two guys jumped the fence around his property and fished out the bass that were planted in the pond.  Evidently that wasn’t enough, they came back and caught out the blue gill as well which were all around 9 – 10 inches long! 

     This pond owner’s dad saw two guys jump the fence again and assumed it was the same two fish stealers from the bass incident.  This time he called the police and identified them.  They were caught with the ill gotten fish red handed so to speak.  This case is going before the prosecutor of that county.  But what the prosecutor needs to know is, what value should be placed on the fish?  The pond owner feels that it should be at least $25 per fish minimum.  He raised them after all for years feeding them.  Personally I feel they should throw the book at them, but since it was on a private stocked pond, traditional game laws don’t apply.  This is going to be settled in the courts instead of by the DNR issuing a ticket.

     Hopefully the judge will be an avid outdoorsmen and take their hunting and fishing licenses away also!