Credit: The Star |
On a recent overcast morning, Dale Sides dropped his lines 25 feet to the bottom of the murky Ohio River. Just then, a green boat motored past.
A few hundred yards from where Sides was anchored, the boater, a commercial fisherman, began pulling up submerged hoops big enough for a human to swim through. If not for the nets attached.
Sides was not happy. |
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"I watch him pull five, six, seven nets right through this area right here, and he's pulling fish out," Sides said. "He's fishing it 24 hours a day, seven days a week."
The commercial angler in the green boat is Sides' opponent in a contentious debate that has pitted sport and commercial fishermen against each other in at least four states. The battle has spawned heated exchanges at prime fishing holes, in public game commission meetings and on online forums. Sides said it's reached a point where he's heard of fishermen vandalizing the commercial anglers' nets and gear. |
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