Men fined $10,000 for illegal harvesting of fish in Mississippi lake

Published 4:28 pm Monday, October 30, 2023

Two men have been ordered to pay more than $10,000 in fines for the illegal harvest of fish from a Mississippi lake.

Jian Wu Huang, 50, and Qiu M Huang, 44, both from Lakeland, Tennessee, pleaded guilty to one count of taking more than the daily bag limit of crappie from the Enid Lake Spillway earlier this year.

The men allegedly caught 171 crappie, 141 more fish than the allowed creel limit of 15 each, with oversized hooks and in excess of the maximum number of hooks allowed per line.

Subscribe to our free email newsletter

Get the latest news sent to your inbox

On Oct. 30, a judge ordered each man to pay a $1,000 fine along with restitution of $4,275 to the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks.

They were also put on probation for a year, prohibiting them from fishing anywhere in the world, and banned from all Corps of Engineers property in the Northern District of Mississippi.

“We are committed to working collaboratively with the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks, to conserve, protect, and enhance fish, wildlife, plants, and their habitats. The illegal take and interstate transport of a state trust species is a violation of federal law and will be investigated and prosecuted. We will continue to work closely with our state partners to conduct these criminal investigations,” said U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Office of Law Enforcement Special Agent in Charge Stephen Clark.