Officers Saw Three People Climb Through a Fence—What They Were Carrying Led to Wildlife Charges

A Florida wildlife officer checking a vehicle parked along Interstate 75 in Big Cypress ended up uncovering a much larger fishing violation after he saw an adult and two teenagers emerge through a hole in a fence carrying rods and stringers loaded with fish.

According to body-camera footage presented by the YouTube channel Swamp Cop, Officer Pruett began what looked like a routine resource inspection but quickly discovered that the group had far more largemouth and peacock bass than they were legally allowed to keep.

The anglers had caught a wide variety of species, including cichlids, Oscars, tilapia, largemouth bass, and butterfly peacock bass, but only some of those fish were subject to the bag and size limits that concerned the officer.

The Officer Finds a Huge Pile of Fish

Pruett first stopped after noticing a vehicle parked along the busy road running through the preserve and asked the group what they had been doing.

They told him they had been fishing.

The adult said he was 69, while the two younger anglers each said they were 14. When Pruett asked whether they had fishing licenses, he then began focusing on what they had actually caught.

The answer was immediately obvious from the stringers.

There were so many fish that the officer decided the only practical way to handle the inspection was to lay them out, identify each species, and count everything carefully.

The fishermen said the bite had been extremely good, telling Pruett that the fish were hitting plugs in nearly every color.

That productive day, however, had created another problem: nobody seemed completely sure how many of each regulated species they were permitted to keep.

When Pruett asked how many largemouth bass were legal, one of the anglers guessed six or eight before another suggested five.

The correct number, the officer explained, was five per person.

The Group Had Used a Hole in the Fence

The fish were not the only thing that caught Pruett’s attention.

The anglers had accessed the fishing spot through a hole in the fence surrounding the nature preserve, and the adult told him that his brother had dropped them off there.

When the officer asked whether they had simply discovered the opening that day, the man acknowledged that they had fished the area before and knew the hole was there.

Pruett told them that using that route was illegal access.

He did not charge them for the fence violation, but he warned that another officer who actually watched them entering or leaving through the opening could treat it more seriously.

“You can go to the rest area and enter,” Pruett explained, but going through the fence was a “big no no.”

That part of the encounter added another layer to what otherwise might have been a simple over-limit fishing case. The group had apparently found a highly productive spot inside the preserve, but the way they reached it was not an authorized entrance.

Pruett Separates the Fish by Species

Once the group moved away from traffic and behind the officer’s truck, Pruett began sorting through the catch.

The channel narrator explained that the fishermen had landed several different species, but the officer was primarily concerned about the largemouth and peacock bass because the other species did not carry the same limits in this situation.

Pruett separated the fish into piles while identifying them one by one.

The process took time because there were so many fish tangled together on homemade stringers, and the officer remarked that he had never seen anyone use stringers in quite the same way.

The largemouth bass then had to be counted and measured.

Under the rules Pruett explained at the scene, each angler could possess five largemouth bass, with only one fish over 16 inches per person.

With three anglers, that meant the group could legally keep 15 largemouth bass in total.

Swamp Cop reported that they actually had 20 Florida bass, placing them five over the combined bag limit, with two additional fish exceeding the applicable size restriction.

The Peacock Bass Count Was Even Higher

The group had an even larger problem with butterfly peacock bass.

Pruett explained that the limit was two peacock bass per person per day, with only one over 17 inches.

For three anglers, the combined daily limit was six.

According to Swamp Cop, the group had 25 peacock bass.

That meant they were 19 over the allowed total.

The difference between the two species appears to have been something the fishermen had not understood before the inspection. They had simply continued catching fish while the action was good, without keeping a reliable count against each species-specific limit.

That is exactly how a productive fishing spot can become expensive very quickly. When several species are mixed together and different rules apply to each one, counting only the total number of fish is not enough.

The Officer Works Through the “Fish Math”

Pruett then began what the channel jokingly described as “fish math,” dividing the legal number of bass between the three anglers and determining which fish they could keep.

He allowed them to retain the lawful portion of their catch while separating out the excess fish.

The officer explained that cichlids, Oscars, and tilapia could be kept without the same numerical restrictions he was enforcing on the bass, but the peacock and largemouth limits had clearly been exceeded.

Some of the extra fish had already been dead long enough that releasing them was no longer an option.

When one of the anglers asked what would happen to the confiscated fish, Pruett said they would have to be disposed of.

That was likely one of the more frustrating parts of the encounter for everyone involved. The fish had already been harvested, yet because too many had been kept, the excess could no longer simply become part of the anglers’ catch.

The Adult Receives a Court Date

Pruett ultimately told the adult fisherman that he would have to issue charges related to the over-limit fish.

According to Swamp Cop, the adult received a notice to appear for the violations.

The officer did not arrest him and did not charge the group for entering through the fence, but he made it clear that the fishing violations still required a court response.

Before letting them leave, Pruett also recommended the Fish Rules app, explaining that it can use location information to show anglers the current regulations, bag limits, and season dates for the water they are fishing.

That advice was practical because the anglers’ biggest mistake appeared to be continuing to catch fish without knowing the limits for each species.

The officer’s approach remained relatively measured throughout the stop. He did not treat every questionable decision as a separate criminal matter, but once the numbers were laid out, the overages were too significant to ignore.

A Productive Fishing Spot Turned Into a Legal Problem

Swamp Cop reported that the group had 20 Florida bass, five more than the legal combined bag limit, along with two fish that exceeded the applicable 16-inch size restriction.

The larger violation involved the 25 butterfly peacock bass, which placed them 19 fish above their combined legal limit.

What makes the encounter notable is that nothing about the scene initially suggested a major wildlife case. An officer simply saw people coming through a fence carrying fishing gear, stopped to check their catch, and gradually discovered that the group had taken far more regulated fish than the rules allowed.

For anglers, the lesson is straightforward: a good fishing day can become a problem if nobody keeps track of the regulations while the fish are still biting.

In this case, the group had clearly found an unusually productive spot, but the combination of illegal access and large numbers of regulated bass turned that success into a court matter instead of an ordinary day on the water.