Okay well I thought you could collect and keep any fish in nj as long as you caught it legally; I.e. : The size requirements, liscense to fish, etc.
Now I go to a fancy new petstore an hour away from my home. I'm buying black worms(treat for my sunnies). Guy asks me what I'm feeding it to. I tell him my redbreasted sunfish. He then out of nowhere tells me that's cool but that it's illegal to own any native fish from nj in nj. Though I don't see any ordinance or anything. Guy isn't a cop he even told me just not to be saying it around. But it does piss me off when people try to alter the law to their own meanings. It clearly states I can own NATIVE fish except snake heads or anything endangered in nj. Which I don't. I barely have luck catching bass sometimes why would I have any luck catching anything endangered or even a snakehead?
I kinda want to know if anybody has a recently updated laws and ordinance stating otherwise that I can or cannot keep natives in nj; because this isn't the first time it happens to me. One time I was collecting a few baby snapping turtles. CLEARLY says on ALL rule books you can catch, collect any; there are no sizelimits, and at most you can only own 3 or something.
You don't even need a permit or a special permit to collect it or keep it. But some jerk of a warden thought he's an actual cop and started telling me that it is illegal. So I show him the laws (back then I carried them with me just incase of some wise cracking cop)and he tells me "what are you talking about the laws? I AM the law and anything I say goes".
This place also has no such regulations stating which fish or turtles you can or cannot take. Just I guess some stupid angler got annoyed that I was searching for them when he was trying to fish(he even told me -though I arrived early and a few minutes after I did I had a problem with the guy like he owned the place).
Still. I'm not sure how to deal with these people who are pretend cops and think I'm going to take them serious when I see some people dumping stuff in the river and yet they say nothing to them. Oh but wait- what's funny it says NO LITTERING! :l so I'm kinda mad because I hate and I mean I hate being accused of doing something illegal. I love my country and I'm proud to be an american. But when the heck did it go from the land of the free; to the land of not so free unless I told you so?
So what I'm asking and pardon my rants. Is if there is a piece of paper I can print out with signatures of whomevers the head honcho of making the laws and enforcing them so that whenever these smart allecks come up I can show it to them and make them get all embarrassed. Sorry I know it's a fish forum but I assumed since this is the greatest fish forum I know and it already has stickys(from 2007) on legallities on natives I was wondering if someone could make another and tell me where I can go to. Because apparently even calling the hotlines and such for the state; they just let their emotions and what they think is right get in the way. If it's legal it's clearly legal. They told me it's legal to catch one and take it home to eat but not keep one because that's not what that law was meant for.
Again this isn't the first time. It's already happened on several occasions in fact once I caught a nice fish and I was actually going to eat it, it was a big bass but the guy made me let it go because he thought I was going to keep it in an aquarium.
So any help would be appreciate so ima just post this before I keep ranting some more. :x
Now I go to a fancy new petstore an hour away from my home. I'm buying black worms(treat for my sunnies). Guy asks me what I'm feeding it to. I tell him my redbreasted sunfish. He then out of nowhere tells me that's cool but that it's illegal to own any native fish from nj in nj. Though I don't see any ordinance or anything. Guy isn't a cop he even told me just not to be saying it around. But it does piss me off when people try to alter the law to their own meanings. It clearly states I can own NATIVE fish except snake heads or anything endangered in nj. Which I don't. I barely have luck catching bass sometimes why would I have any luck catching anything endangered or even a snakehead?
I kinda want to know if anybody has a recently updated laws and ordinance stating otherwise that I can or cannot keep natives in nj; because this isn't the first time it happens to me. One time I was collecting a few baby snapping turtles. CLEARLY says on ALL rule books you can catch, collect any; there are no sizelimits, and at most you can only own 3 or something.
You don't even need a permit or a special permit to collect it or keep it. But some jerk of a warden thought he's an actual cop and started telling me that it is illegal. So I show him the laws (back then I carried them with me just incase of some wise cracking cop)and he tells me "what are you talking about the laws? I AM the law and anything I say goes".
This place also has no such regulations stating which fish or turtles you can or cannot take. Just I guess some stupid angler got annoyed that I was searching for them when he was trying to fish(he even told me -though I arrived early and a few minutes after I did I had a problem with the guy like he owned the place).
Still. I'm not sure how to deal with these people who are pretend cops and think I'm going to take them serious when I see some people dumping stuff in the river and yet they say nothing to them. Oh but wait- what's funny it says NO LITTERING! :l so I'm kinda mad because I hate and I mean I hate being accused of doing something illegal. I love my country and I'm proud to be an american. But when the heck did it go from the land of the free; to the land of not so free unless I told you so?
So what I'm asking and pardon my rants. Is if there is a piece of paper I can print out with signatures of whomevers the head honcho of making the laws and enforcing them so that whenever these smart allecks come up I can show it to them and make them get all embarrassed. Sorry I know it's a fish forum but I assumed since this is the greatest fish forum I know and it already has stickys(from 2007) on legallities on natives I was wondering if someone could make another and tell me where I can go to. Because apparently even calling the hotlines and such for the state; they just let their emotions and what they think is right get in the way. If it's legal it's clearly legal. They told me it's legal to catch one and take it home to eat but not keep one because that's not what that law was meant for.
Again this isn't the first time. It's already happened on several occasions in fact once I caught a nice fish and I was actually going to eat it, it was a big bass but the guy made me let it go because he thought I was going to keep it in an aquarium.
So any help would be appreciate so ima just post this before I keep ranting some more. :x