MISSISSIPPI LEGISLATURE

1998 Regular Session

To: Game and Fish

By: Representative Livingston

AN ACT TO BRING FORWARD SECTIONS 49-7-9, 49-7-81 AND 49-7-99, MISSISSIPPI CODE OF 1972, FOR THE PURPOSE OF AMENDING THE PENALTIES FOR FISHING LICENSE LAW VIOLATIONS; AND FOR RELATED PURPOSES. 

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI:

SECTION 1. Section 49-7-9, Mississippi Code of 1972, is brought forward as follows:

49-7-9. (1) (a) Each resident of the State of Mississippi, as defined in Section 49-7-3, fishing in the public fresh waters of the state, including lakes and reservoirs, but not including privately owned ponds and streams, shall pay an annual license fee of Eight Dollars ($8.00). Any resident purchasing a public freshwater fishing license as prescribed in this subsection shall be entitled to fish, in accordance with the regulations and ordinances of the commission, in all public fresh waters within the territory of the State of Mississippi.

(b) A resident may purchase a resident fishing license valid for a period of three (3) days for the sum of Three Dollars ($3.00).

(c) No license shall be required of any resident citizen of the State of Mississippi who has not reached the age of sixteen (16) years or who has reached the age of sixty-five (65) years or who is blind, paraplegic, a multiple amputee or has been adjudged by the Veterans Administration as having a total service-connected disability, or has been adjudged totally disabled by the Social Security Administration. Such person shall not be required to purchase or have in his possession a hunting or fishing license while engaged in such activities.

(d) A person exempt by reason of age, total service-connected disability as adjudged by the Veterans Administration or total disability as adjudged by the Social Security Administration or who is blind, paraplegic or a multiple amputee, shall have in their possession and on their person proof of their age, residency, disability status or other respective physical impairment while engaged in the activities of hunting or fishing.

(2) Any person engaged in fishing for commercial purposes and selling or peddling fish at retail or selling or shipping same at wholesale, as to markets, dealers or canning plants within the State of Mississippi, shall pay Thirty Dollars ($30.00) for a commercial fishing license. Each piece of commercial fishing equipment must have a commercial fishing equipment tag (at a cost of Three Dollars ($3.00) each) attached. A piece of commercial fishing equipment is defined as: One (1) each hoop or barrel net; one thousand (1,000) feet of trotline; one thousand (1,000) feet of snagline; three thousand (3,000) feet or less of gill netting; or three thousand (3,000) feet or less of trammel netting. Netting of over three thousand (3,000) feet is prohibited.

Upon payment of the Thirty Dollars ($30.00) license and tags for use of hoop or barrel nets, the purchaser of the license is hereby permitted to use lead nets thirty-five (35) yards in length for each two (2) barrel nets used, but not to exceed seven (7) lead nets.

(3) Each person taking commercial freshwater fish of any kind from the fresh waters of the state shall be considered a producer and shall be entitled to sell his own catch to anyone or at any point within or without the State of Mississippi.

(4) Each person buying or handling fish secured from commercial fishermen or others for the purpose of resale to others than consumers, whether handled on a commission basis or otherwise, and each resident person shipping fish not his own catch out of the State of Mississippi shall be considered a wholesale dealer and shall pay a commercial fishing license in the sum of Thirty Dollars ($30.00) per annum. Nonresident wholesale dealers who buy fish from fishermen or resident wholesale dealers for the purpose of resale shall obtain a nonresident commercial fishing license. Resident wholesale dealers licenses shall be issued only to persons who have been bona fide residents of the State of Mississippi for at least six (6) months. Any nonresident who brings fish into the state from without the state for the purpose of resale to a wholesale or retail dealer or to the consumer shall obtain a nonresident commercial fishing license.

(5) Each resident buying fish from a licensed wholesale dealer or licensed commercial fisherman for retail sale to the consumer only on rural or urban routes shall pay the sum of Thirty Dollars ($30.00) per annum for a commercial fishing license to do so.

(6) Each person engaged in the buying and selling of fish as a wholesale dealer's agent, whether on a commission or salary basis, or otherwise, and not selling in the open market, or any vessel buying fish to make up a cargo, shall pay a commercial fishing license in the sum of Thirty Dollars ($30.00) per annum and shall be responsible for any illegal transaction ensuing between the time he purchases from the fisherman and the time the fish are accepted by the wholesaler by whom he is employed.

(7) Any person using a wooden or plastic slat basket shall pay a license of Thirty Dollars ($30.00) per basket per annum. Slat baskets are defined as commercial fishing devices used solely for the capture of catfish and made entirely of wood and/or plastic slats in a boxlike or cylindrical shape. Slat baskets shall not exceed six (6) feet in length nor exceed fifteen (15) inches in width and height or diameter, may have no more than two (2) throats, and must have at least four (4) slot openings of a minimum one and one-half (1-1/2) by twenty-four (24) inches evenly spaced around the sides of the catch area. The one and one-half (1-1/2) inch wide slots must begin at the rear of the basket and run twenty-four (24) inches toward the throat end of the basket. Slat baskets may only be fished in public waters of the State of Mississippi that are opened to commercial fishing. Slat baskets shall be placed at least one hundred (100) yards apart and may not be used with any form of leads, netting or guiding devices. Each slat basket shall have a metal tag attached to it with the tag number of the owner imprinted on it. Such tags shall be purchased from the department at a fee of Three Dollars ($3.00) per tag. Any other identification of the owner of the basket shall meet such specifications as set by the department. The department shall designate as a slat basket zone:

(a) Only those portions of rivers, streams or oxbow lakes which serve as the borderline between Mississippi and any other state;

(b) Those portions of rivers, streams or oxbow lakes which flow from or into a contiguous state and are within five (5) miles of the state line except that any portion east of the center line of the Mississippi River levee shall not be designated as a slat basket zone; and

(c) Those portions of rivers, streams and oxbow lakes which are south of Highway 26 and east of Interstate 59.

Any violation of the provisions of this subsection shall be a Class I violation as prescribed in Section 49-7-141.

(8) It is unlawful for any person coming under the terms of this section to offer for sale undersized nongame fish, as set out and classified herein.

(9) All persons fishing in privately owned lakes or ponds shall have specific permission to do so from the owner of such lake or pond.

(10) The commission is authorized to issue nonresident freshwater commercial fishing licenses to be sold by the department and not by licensing agents. The commission shall determine the fee and shall promulgate such rules and regulations as it deems appropriate for issuance of nonresident freshwater commercial fishing licenses.

(11) July 4 of each year is designated as "Free Fishing Day." Any person may sport fish without a license on "Free Fishing Day."

(12) Any person authorized to issue any license under this section may collect and retain for issuing each license the additional fee authorized under Section 49-7-17.

SECTION 2. Section 49-7-81, Mississippi Code of 1972, is brought forward as follows:

49-7-81. (1) It shall be unlawful to take or kill game fish in any manner other than by hook and line with one or more hooks, or by use of a trot or troll line. Dip/landing nets may be used when landing a fish caught by hook and line, trot or troll lines. Shad and minnows may be taken as bait with the aid of a dip/landing net by residents for personal use in sportfishing. However, in private ponds or borrow pits or overflow ponds which go dry in summer and cut off from the regular streams, dip nets may be used for capturing or rescuing such game fish. It shall be unlawful to kill or take fish of any species at any time or anywhere by mudding, or by the use of lime, poison, dynamite, India berries, weeds and walnuts, giant powder, gunpowder, or any other explosive, and no nongame gross fish shall be taken by the use of nets, seines or trap for personal use without a commercial fishing license. It shall be unlawful to place any nets or seines in any stream, in such a way as to completely obstruct the passage of fish in such stream, and if nets are placed in water they shall be placed at least one hundred (100) yards apart. The commission shall not have authority to fix a minimum size mesh of more than three (3) inches for use in barrel nets, hoop nets and seines. Notwithstanding anything in this or any other section to the contrary, any person in Mississippi fishing with barrel nets, hoop nets or seines in that part of the Pearl River which is a common boundary between Mississippi and another state may use a mesh size in such nets which is the same as the mesh size allowed in the other state, where the other state allows a mesh size in such nets which is smaller than the mesh size otherwise allowable in Mississippi.

(2) It shall be unlawful for any person to catch or destroy fish by the use of dynamite, gunpowder or other explosive substance.

(3) It shall be unlawful for any person to use a telephone, battery or any other electrically operated device for the purpose of killing or capturing fish.

(4) It shall be unlawful for any person to use any chemical of any kind in any stream or any lake where the public fishes for the purpose of killing or taking fish, except that this provision shall not be construed to apply to any owner of any fish pond using such chemical in his own private pond.

(5) It shall be unlawful for any person to poison any fish by mingling in the water any substance calculated and intended to stupefy or destroy fish.

(6) Any person violating the provisions of subsections (2), (3), (4) and (5) of this section shall be guilty of a Class I violation and, upon conviction, shall be punished as provided in Section 49-7-141.

SECTION 3. Section 49-7-99, Mississippi Code of 1972, is brought forward as follows:

49-7-99. (1) Anyone having in his possession on or within six hundred (600) feet of Pickwick Lake any hoop net, barrel net, seine, gill net or trammel net of a size mesh that the use thereof would be unlawful in Pickwick Lake under the game and fish laws of this state or any regulation of the game and fish commission duly promulgated as authorized by law shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon conviction, shall be fined not more than Five Hundred Dollars ($500.00) or imprisoned in the county jail for not more than six (6) months, or both.

(2) Any such illegal hoop net, barrel net, seine, gill net or trammel net may be seized and held as evidence and, upon conviction of anyone found in possession thereof, shall be delivered to the sheriff for destruction.

(3) It shall be illegal to have in possession any illegal nets, wire baskets, slat baskets or any illegal fishing equipment for the taking of freshwater fish, regardless of location, without obtaining a permit from the state game and fish commission, such permit to be obtained no later than ten (10) days after said equipment is acquired and before any use thereof. This subsection shall not apply to subsection (1) of this section.

SECTION 4. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after July 1, 1998.