On Drone Use & Other Fishing Regulations

It’s been a few weeks since I last went fishing at the coast. Naturally, I find my thoughts wandering to the salt.

Lately, I’ve been wanting to take a fishing trip with my wife’s brother Joe to the beach. The last time we went was back in October. He brought his fishing drone, which he had never used before. The fishing wasn’t great, and there was a little bit of a learning curve with the drone. The beach was crowded for some reason, too. It’s time for a rematch.

For those unfamiliar, fishing drones allow you to drop baits much farther off the shore than you could by casting. Lots of people use kayaks for this purpose. You bait a hook, set a pole on the shore with the bail open, and paddle out the bait. The only limit is how much line your reel can hold.

But kayaking in rough surf can be difficult and dangerous. That’s why I don’t understand why the federal government has banned them at places like the Padre Island National Seashore. And Texas Parks and Wildlife (TPW) seems to be less than enthusiastic about fishermen using them.

Last November, TPW released an official statement saying that deploying bait using a drone is prohibited by federal law. The statement was quite vague and didn’t say whether Texas game wardens would enforce the law.

The federal law that TPW cited, the Federal Airborne Hunting Act, was enacted in 1956. It mainly involves hunting or harassing animals using aircraft. The law doesn’t even mention fishing or deploying bait.

The following month, TPW issued another statement clarifying that the drone ban was a federal law.

“If someone chooses to use Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS), also known as drones, to deploy bait while bank or surf fishing, it is a federal, not a state level violation, and no state charges would be incurred. However, we do not condone or authorize violating federal law,” the statement said.

So I guess we can use drones, at least on the state shoreline. I know the park rangers at Padre Island strictly enforce the drone ban (along with a bunch of other silly regulations, like digging in the sand for bait like ghost shrimp. It’s perfectly fine to dig for sand castles, though.)

Call me crazy, but I think all of this is a form of class discrimination against bank fishermen.

A few years ago, a saltwater guide spoke at a TPW Commission public hearing concerning the speckled trout fishery. He wanted a stricter catch limit than what was then five fish between 15 and 25 inches. Part of his argument was this: “Sportsmen are not spending the money on licenses, boats, and gear to have a mediocre fishery to come home to.”

Today, the limit is three fish between 15 and 20 inches. I’m not saying that’s a bad idea. I’m just pointing out the kinds of people TPW listens to: “conservationists” with fishing boats.

Another angler who spoke at the same public hearing had this to say: “The simple fact is that today there are more boats that can run further and much faster. There are more guides, more anglers, more tournaments than ever before and none of those seem to be slowing down whatsoever.”

Notice, no mention of shore fishermen. But the angler fishing from the jetty has to abide by the same rules as a tournament angler on a $100,000 boat with state-ofthe- art fish-finding electronics.

I read dozens of transcripts of TPW public hearings spanning the last 20-plus years. I could find only one reference to shore or jetty fishing, and that was in 2008. I suspect the TPW Commission doesn’t give much thought to shore fishermen.

The game wardens certainly do, though. I’ve only been saltwater fishing on a boat maybe two dozen times in my life, and I’ve never been checked by a game warden on the water. Maybe that’s because most of those times I was with a guide. Perhaps the game wardens know and trust the guides. From the shore, however, I couldn’t tell you how many times I’ve been checked. Nearly every time I walk off a jetty I encounter a game warden.

Don’t get me wrong – every game warden I have ever encountered has been courteous, professional and eager to answer questions I’ve had about wildlife. But I know they have bosses telling them where to concentrate their efforts.

One of these days, I fear, the State of Texas will outright ban drones for dropping bait. That’s why I’ve been practicing longer casts. Or maybe Joe and I will find a kayak.