This is about the time of year when Shannon Thompkins, the Chron’s outdoor sports writer, devotes a column to what’s going on in the Legislature with bills that are about outdoor activities. I always look for them because he writes about bills that I may not have heard about. Here’s this year’s effort, which not surprisingly spends some time on the feral hogs and helicopters issue. One other item caught my eye:
Texas law makes perpetrating fraud in a freshwater fishing tournament offering any kind of prize punishable by as much as a $5,000 fine and a year in jail. If the prize is worth $10,000 or more, it is a felony.
Saltwater fishing tournaments are not covered under the statute.
But twin pieces of legislation — HB 1806 by Rep. Dan Flynn, R-Canton, and SB 897 by Sen. Glenn Hegar, R-Katy — would change the law to apply to all fishing tournaments and add altering the length or weight of a fish or entering a fish taken in violation of a regulation to the list of fraudulent actions.
Both bills easily cleared their respective committees, have little or no opposition, and appear very likely to pass.
Fishing fraud! Does Greg Abbott know about this? I sense a publicity opportunity for him, or at least a show to pitch for Animal Planet. In any event, it’s good to know the Lege is on the case. Read the column for more.
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