New York officers ticket striped bass poachers after discovering illegal catches hidden in odd places [Video]

After a series of compliance checks were conducted on Long Island, several officers with the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation’s (DEC) Division of Law Enforcement discovered something rather fishy.

Striped bass fishing season in marine waters and the Delaware River does not start until April 15, according to the New York DEC, but some eager fisherman decided to get an illegal head start and the Environmental Conservation Officers (EOC) were quick to act.

Late into the evening on April 6, ECO Brent McCarthy saw multiple individuals catching striped bass, and he witnessed the anglers keeping the out-of-season fish instead of releasing them back into the water, the DEC reported in a recent press release.

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Since there was no moonlight that evening, McCarthy struggled to find where the anglers in question had hidden the illegal catches, so he called …