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Capt Josh Howard
| Favorite team: | LSU  |
| Location: | |
| Biography: | |
| Interests: | |
| Occupation: | |
| Number of Posts: | 10 |
| Registered on: | 7/1/2013 |
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re: Deep South Charters' Josh Howard sentenced for keeping illegal bluefin
Posted by Capt Josh Howard on 8/28/13 at 2:46 pm to Vlad
Kinda wish I hadn't now but, little late. Just glad its all over>
0
re: Deep South Charters' Josh Howard sentenced for keeping illegal bluefin
Posted by Capt Josh Howard on 8/27/13 at 7:51 pm to Coon
thanks
re: Deep South Charters' Josh Howard sentenced for keeping illegal bluefin
Posted by Capt Josh Howard on 8/27/13 at 5:57 pm to ForeverLSU02
It was told to me by the federal agent, who is a super nice guy by the way.....you used to be able to have one accidental catch but 3 days before we caught ours a moratorium went into effect and you can no longer even have that one.
I may have been off on the felony with the gun rights, my lawyer never said that, this is what I thought to be true, I am guessing that would have came up had we have gone to trial.
Here are some of my issues. The state didn't even do enough research to find out that I was not even the captain and it wasn't my boat or permits, we had to tell them. They never even let me see the subpoena before arresting me. The first time I read that was when they came to my house like 5 days later. I was pissed that they felt like they had to come to the marina and put on a big show in front of everyone. The subpoena was written for my home address, they could have been professional about it and come there. They did not even make one attempt to come to my house even though the subpoena was 28 days old when they finally used it. I wasn't even supposed to be on the boat that day. We had blown a lower unit on the boat, I was already in Venice and I told gray I would stay and help him fix it, he picked up one from outcast in new Orleans that night and it was about 2am when he made it down. After he woke me up and we changed the lower unit, he was working on very little sleep and was going to run with no deckhand that day, I felt bad for him and went to help out. If the lower unit had not gone out, I wouldn't have even been there.
The fact that I didn't know the season was closed, I don't know what to say other than myself and Gray did not know. The guy that said its like shooting a big duck in teal season....that's almost the same other than I see big ducks every teal season, I have never seen a Bluefin in my life nor do I know anyone else that has. The chances of us landing that fish was 1 in a million, so no, I do not keep up with blue fin season because we never ever see them. I have enough bs to keep up with, they change seasons and limits every day around here, hard enough to keep up with the fish we do catch.
The state acted like I was some kind of hard core criminal. I had nothing on my record . I do not claim to know everything and I do not claim that I never do things wrong, I know everyone on the forums know it all BUT I DO NOT. Only tried to make a living doing what I love. I help out folks when I can, I may not be the nicest guy you will ever meet but I do what I can when I can. I am real, that all I can tell you.
If I had it to do over again, I wouldn't have tossed the phone. It wasn't worth it. They put me in a corner and I was so mad that my emotions got the best of me. They thought they would find pics of this fish at the dock and never did. If you read what was released they make it sound like they found the smoking gun, he gave pics of the illegal fish> Well, no I didn't. I gave them pics of a fish on the boat offshore and then it was thrown back. We thought we could keep it, found out we couldn't and threw it back. Not much different that catching a red snapper out of season, taking a pic and throwing it back to float. Its still dead, its still out of season, you still caught it but the difference is, you never brought it back to the dock and neither did we.
The captain was let off with a written warning so this must have really been a serious crime. And if you think for a min that they let me go with a slap on the wrist because they had all of their ducks in a row and they had good evidence then you are just being silly. They fought this like it was the murder trial of the century. They put divers in the water and recovered my phone, multiple man hours spent on this. For what, 800 dollars in fines? Sounds like the state got a good deal on that one. Tax dollars at work.
I am pretty much over all of this, I just like the cats that know nothing but know everything about what happened. Just like he said pictures were posted on line but I be damned if we have seen them here even after I put up 1000 bucks for it. I will say that who ever he is, he seems to know a lot. Or atlease know a lot about what the state thought. With him saying its because of his job and he was there when I got arrested, almost seems like one of the state officers. Atleast I don't hide behind a screen name. You know exactly who I am. Even on the stand the other officer admitted under oath that he saw everything but he never saw the officer give me the subpoena . We had 3 people that were going to testify that he didn't. Would that matter? I don't know, Im no lawyer but it still smells bad. This whole thing just felt so personal for some reason. Don't really know why, even to this day. Before that day, me and the officer had never had words, never no bad blood, never one ticket so who knows.
Its all over now so we can sit back and say should have done this, could have, should have known. That's all nice now but did me no good then. The state tried to say we never reported anything to HMS but in the end we proved that to be wrong. Had records to back it up. We were the first ones to ever report anything because we heard rumors of people trying to start sh.. so we wanted to head it off and if we did anything wrong then we wanted it taken care of. We thought we covered our basis and then led to this.
Had I never have tossed then phone, I now know that the federal agent would have done the same with me as he did with gray, gave me a written warning and that would have been that but because I tossed then phone, now we have all of this bs. It wasn't the actual act that got me in a bind, it was the after effect. So, let that be a lesson to you as well as myself. I would like to think I learned something from all of this. If I didn't , then it was all a waste all the way around.
So carry on with your rants about how I should have know the season etc... if it makes you feel better. Dint think as a deck hand I had to know one damn thing but guess I was wrong>
Josh
I may have been off on the felony with the gun rights, my lawyer never said that, this is what I thought to be true, I am guessing that would have came up had we have gone to trial.
Here are some of my issues. The state didn't even do enough research to find out that I was not even the captain and it wasn't my boat or permits, we had to tell them. They never even let me see the subpoena before arresting me. The first time I read that was when they came to my house like 5 days later. I was pissed that they felt like they had to come to the marina and put on a big show in front of everyone. The subpoena was written for my home address, they could have been professional about it and come there. They did not even make one attempt to come to my house even though the subpoena was 28 days old when they finally used it. I wasn't even supposed to be on the boat that day. We had blown a lower unit on the boat, I was already in Venice and I told gray I would stay and help him fix it, he picked up one from outcast in new Orleans that night and it was about 2am when he made it down. After he woke me up and we changed the lower unit, he was working on very little sleep and was going to run with no deckhand that day, I felt bad for him and went to help out. If the lower unit had not gone out, I wouldn't have even been there.
The fact that I didn't know the season was closed, I don't know what to say other than myself and Gray did not know. The guy that said its like shooting a big duck in teal season....that's almost the same other than I see big ducks every teal season, I have never seen a Bluefin in my life nor do I know anyone else that has. The chances of us landing that fish was 1 in a million, so no, I do not keep up with blue fin season because we never ever see them. I have enough bs to keep up with, they change seasons and limits every day around here, hard enough to keep up with the fish we do catch.
The state acted like I was some kind of hard core criminal. I had nothing on my record . I do not claim to know everything and I do not claim that I never do things wrong, I know everyone on the forums know it all BUT I DO NOT. Only tried to make a living doing what I love. I help out folks when I can, I may not be the nicest guy you will ever meet but I do what I can when I can. I am real, that all I can tell you.
If I had it to do over again, I wouldn't have tossed the phone. It wasn't worth it. They put me in a corner and I was so mad that my emotions got the best of me. They thought they would find pics of this fish at the dock and never did. If you read what was released they make it sound like they found the smoking gun, he gave pics of the illegal fish> Well, no I didn't. I gave them pics of a fish on the boat offshore and then it was thrown back. We thought we could keep it, found out we couldn't and threw it back. Not much different that catching a red snapper out of season, taking a pic and throwing it back to float. Its still dead, its still out of season, you still caught it but the difference is, you never brought it back to the dock and neither did we.
The captain was let off with a written warning so this must have really been a serious crime. And if you think for a min that they let me go with a slap on the wrist because they had all of their ducks in a row and they had good evidence then you are just being silly. They fought this like it was the murder trial of the century. They put divers in the water and recovered my phone, multiple man hours spent on this. For what, 800 dollars in fines? Sounds like the state got a good deal on that one. Tax dollars at work.
I am pretty much over all of this, I just like the cats that know nothing but know everything about what happened. Just like he said pictures were posted on line but I be damned if we have seen them here even after I put up 1000 bucks for it. I will say that who ever he is, he seems to know a lot. Or atlease know a lot about what the state thought. With him saying its because of his job and he was there when I got arrested, almost seems like one of the state officers. Atleast I don't hide behind a screen name. You know exactly who I am. Even on the stand the other officer admitted under oath that he saw everything but he never saw the officer give me the subpoena . We had 3 people that were going to testify that he didn't. Would that matter? I don't know, Im no lawyer but it still smells bad. This whole thing just felt so personal for some reason. Don't really know why, even to this day. Before that day, me and the officer had never had words, never no bad blood, never one ticket so who knows.
Its all over now so we can sit back and say should have done this, could have, should have known. That's all nice now but did me no good then. The state tried to say we never reported anything to HMS but in the end we proved that to be wrong. Had records to back it up. We were the first ones to ever report anything because we heard rumors of people trying to start sh.. so we wanted to head it off and if we did anything wrong then we wanted it taken care of. We thought we covered our basis and then led to this.
Had I never have tossed then phone, I now know that the federal agent would have done the same with me as he did with gray, gave me a written warning and that would have been that but because I tossed then phone, now we have all of this bs. It wasn't the actual act that got me in a bind, it was the after effect. So, let that be a lesson to you as well as myself. I would like to think I learned something from all of this. If I didn't , then it was all a waste all the way around.
So carry on with your rants about how I should have know the season etc... if it makes you feel better. Dint think as a deck hand I had to know one damn thing but guess I was wrong>
Josh
re: Deep South Charters' Josh Howard sentenced for keeping illegal bluefin
Posted by Capt Josh Howard on 8/26/13 at 11:04 pm to Capt Josh Howard
word for word from the hull truth, just copied it!
Guys, I am really flattered taht you find my life so interesting I really am! Normally I wouldnt post much on something like this but figured its worth it on this one! I may even do a post on my blog where i can show the subpoena with my home address on it yet they carried it out in Venice! Like Mitch said, I was the the deckhand on the boat! This was not my trip, not my customers, not my permits, nothing at all to do with me, I was the deckhand! We caught this fish after 5 hours, had no clue it was out of season, why would I keep up with something that I never catch! I have no idea if I can kill a polar bear if I see one either! We knew that bluefin had been landed in Venice before so thought we were ok to keep it, lets be honest who the hell would think we would land one on a 50 wide anyway but we did! I have phone records to show where I called HMS and spoke to Tom Warren for 14 mins about the fish to find out if we had indeed broke the law! He said if the fish never hit the dock then nothing to report! We sent a text to eddie while still about 10 miles south of Elf to get him to check the laws, he said cant keep it! The fish was dead after the fight, still moving but not gonna make it! Even though woody said it would, we all know he knows everything! If this fish was brought to the dock, we would have pics, people would have seen it! Kinda hard to hide a 500 pound fish! I can care less if you think we did or did not bring the fish in! This post is more to let you know how the state really stiff armed me! I have emails from the federal game warden to back me on this, he said and I quote "since the boat and permits are in grays name and this was not your trip, you should have NEVER even been a person of interest! Keep in mind, I can produce any of this! I also have pics of the fish on the boat and its pitch black in the background, thats because it was 40 miles offshore! I know they really thought I had pics of this fish on my phone but feel free to contact one of about 15 people who saw the pics, I showed them from my camera, not from the phone! The fact that this was an illegal search at the marina, I knew I would go to jail but never thought it would go this far! I thought if you are innocent, it always works out but thats not the case! They act like this was some kind of cover up, im like wow, really??? why would I tell the guard at the marina we caught a bluefin as I step off of the boat, why would I post it on tons of sites including this one, why would gray and I both call HMS, why cant they find a picture of the fish at the dock or anyone that saw it? I even spoke to Lad Turner which is a special investigator for the state, after one phone call, never heard from him again and then a month later they have a whole new investiation! They also gave gray a ticket after finally realizing I wasnt the captian and then federal game warden took over his case and dropped his stuff and wrote him a written warning and it was all over for hime! This same game warden aid the sate was out of control on this and he wanted to help me too but I had a hot head and had to go throw my phone in the water so now i had state charges on me that he just couldnt help with! My lawyer said we had this won all day in trial and begged me to let him take it to trial but I didnt want to take a chance! I had 2 fellony charges against me and if one sticks for whatever reason, I lose my gun right! I have a 6 month old at home and want to be able to take him hunting so this was a win for me! Yeah, I would love to have had it all dropped and clear my name but I just didnt have the balls to chance it! They wanted me to give up my license for life and no way was I going to do that, I have worked too hard to get what I have! We were going to take it to trial ! After the 2nd pre trial, they offered a 2 year suspension and I still wasnt going for that! We tried for 6 months, they met us with a year! So i decided this was a safe way out for me and I knew for sure I wouldnt have a felony charge! I can still fish as a deckhand for the year, I still have my gun right! People ask why would you plead guilty to something if you are not?? well, sometimes you do what you have to do! My lawyer got a 894 after 2 years this should all be off of my record so I thought it was worth it! I also do construction and play music so I have other income, I will still be booking trips, my deckhands are licensed captains as well and will be running my boat and just for fun, I have added another boat to the fleet! Hope to have a record year!! Everyone keeps saying we got ratted out! I dont know so much about that considering I posted in on the web but you can believe the state agaent has ties to someone in Venice but hey! Im a big boy, I can take it! I wish things had been done different! People that know me may like me or not like me but I doubt you will find one to say Im an outlaw! Up to this bs, my record was super clean, a couple of speeding tickets and that is it! NO crimianl record at all! So feel free to say whatever you want! I could care less, just remeber, can always been you! If you are fine with the state overstepping then fine with me! I will be fine! This little 6 month old boy at home is my top prioroty! Folks saying things about me on the web, well, not so much!! Hope to see you all on the water, maybe one day I will be in a position to lend a helping hand!!!
Capt Josh Howard
ps, sorry for any spelling mistakes! I went through this pretty quick! I will post on here when and if I decide to post the subpoena, bluefin pics, emails from federal game warden....... need to speak to my lawyer first!!! Have a great night!!
Guys, I am really flattered taht you find my life so interesting I really am! Normally I wouldnt post much on something like this but figured its worth it on this one! I may even do a post on my blog where i can show the subpoena with my home address on it yet they carried it out in Venice! Like Mitch said, I was the the deckhand on the boat! This was not my trip, not my customers, not my permits, nothing at all to do with me, I was the deckhand! We caught this fish after 5 hours, had no clue it was out of season, why would I keep up with something that I never catch! I have no idea if I can kill a polar bear if I see one either! We knew that bluefin had been landed in Venice before so thought we were ok to keep it, lets be honest who the hell would think we would land one on a 50 wide anyway but we did! I have phone records to show where I called HMS and spoke to Tom Warren for 14 mins about the fish to find out if we had indeed broke the law! He said if the fish never hit the dock then nothing to report! We sent a text to eddie while still about 10 miles south of Elf to get him to check the laws, he said cant keep it! The fish was dead after the fight, still moving but not gonna make it! Even though woody said it would, we all know he knows everything! If this fish was brought to the dock, we would have pics, people would have seen it! Kinda hard to hide a 500 pound fish! I can care less if you think we did or did not bring the fish in! This post is more to let you know how the state really stiff armed me! I have emails from the federal game warden to back me on this, he said and I quote "since the boat and permits are in grays name and this was not your trip, you should have NEVER even been a person of interest! Keep in mind, I can produce any of this! I also have pics of the fish on the boat and its pitch black in the background, thats because it was 40 miles offshore! I know they really thought I had pics of this fish on my phone but feel free to contact one of about 15 people who saw the pics, I showed them from my camera, not from the phone! The fact that this was an illegal search at the marina, I knew I would go to jail but never thought it would go this far! I thought if you are innocent, it always works out but thats not the case! They act like this was some kind of cover up, im like wow, really??? why would I tell the guard at the marina we caught a bluefin as I step off of the boat, why would I post it on tons of sites including this one, why would gray and I both call HMS, why cant they find a picture of the fish at the dock or anyone that saw it? I even spoke to Lad Turner which is a special investigator for the state, after one phone call, never heard from him again and then a month later they have a whole new investiation! They also gave gray a ticket after finally realizing I wasnt the captian and then federal game warden took over his case and dropped his stuff and wrote him a written warning and it was all over for hime! This same game warden aid the sate was out of control on this and he wanted to help me too but I had a hot head and had to go throw my phone in the water so now i had state charges on me that he just couldnt help with! My lawyer said we had this won all day in trial and begged me to let him take it to trial but I didnt want to take a chance! I had 2 fellony charges against me and if one sticks for whatever reason, I lose my gun right! I have a 6 month old at home and want to be able to take him hunting so this was a win for me! Yeah, I would love to have had it all dropped and clear my name but I just didnt have the balls to chance it! They wanted me to give up my license for life and no way was I going to do that, I have worked too hard to get what I have! We were going to take it to trial ! After the 2nd pre trial, they offered a 2 year suspension and I still wasnt going for that! We tried for 6 months, they met us with a year! So i decided this was a safe way out for me and I knew for sure I wouldnt have a felony charge! I can still fish as a deckhand for the year, I still have my gun right! People ask why would you plead guilty to something if you are not?? well, sometimes you do what you have to do! My lawyer got a 894 after 2 years this should all be off of my record so I thought it was worth it! I also do construction and play music so I have other income, I will still be booking trips, my deckhands are licensed captains as well and will be running my boat and just for fun, I have added another boat to the fleet! Hope to have a record year!! Everyone keeps saying we got ratted out! I dont know so much about that considering I posted in on the web but you can believe the state agaent has ties to someone in Venice but hey! Im a big boy, I can take it! I wish things had been done different! People that know me may like me or not like me but I doubt you will find one to say Im an outlaw! Up to this bs, my record was super clean, a couple of speeding tickets and that is it! NO crimianl record at all! So feel free to say whatever you want! I could care less, just remeber, can always been you! If you are fine with the state overstepping then fine with me! I will be fine! This little 6 month old boy at home is my top prioroty! Folks saying things about me on the web, well, not so much!! Hope to see you all on the water, maybe one day I will be in a position to lend a helping hand!!!
Capt Josh Howard
ps, sorry for any spelling mistakes! I went through this pretty quick! I will post on here when and if I decide to post the subpoena, bluefin pics, emails from federal game warden....... need to speak to my lawyer first!!! Have a great night!!
re: Deep South Charters' Josh Howard sentenced for keeping illegal bluefin
Posted by Capt Josh Howard on 8/26/13 at 11:01 pm to Capt Josh Howard
oh, did that guy ever fin the pictures? My offer still stands!!
re: Deep South Charters' Josh Howard sentenced for keeping illegal bluefin
Posted by Capt Josh Howard on 8/26/13 at 11:00 pm to WhiskerBiscuitSlayer
I hear you, I haven't been home at all!! We are busy this time of year. I came home a little while today and then back to venice tomorrow to fish. I have the contender at fiberglass shop so been dealing with that, hands are kinda full. I will see if I can find what I posted on the hull truth, its pretty much the same thing I will post here so I can copy and paste.
re: Deep South Charters' Josh Howard sentenced for keeping illegal bluefin
Posted by Capt Josh Howard on 8/26/13 at 10:42 pm to DonChowder
Sure, no problem! The whole point of this thread was to run my name thru the mud so now bc im not all sad about it you don't want to talk? Wasn't really advertising, just posted a offshore fishing video I thought a few may enjoy. the whole point of spending the time on the video was for advertisement so yes it has my phone number on it but I did NOT post any contact info on the post, just posted a link. Geez, some people are never happy! Well, I am, we have a brand new 37 ft Sea Hunter on the way, should have it next week! Cant wait. Trip 300 yamahas, sweet boat, if you care. Sorry, from now on I will only try to say things you agree with, maybe you can send me a list.......
Josh
Josh
re: Deep South Charters' Josh Howard sentenced for keeping illegal bluefin
Posted by Capt Josh Howard on 8/26/13 at 4:08 pm to El Josey Wales
Been super busy! Brandon and I won #2 wahoo and Offshore Grand Slam at faux pas rodeo. Here is a new video we shot a few weeks ago, headed back down to fish.
<iframe width="420" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/wcP4XoRFbbU" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
LINK
<iframe width="420" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/wcP4XoRFbbU" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
LINK
re: Deep South Charters' Josh Howard sentenced for keeping illegal bluefin
Posted by Capt Josh Howard on 7/22/13 at 9:35 pm to brass2mouth
Really? Ok, please share the pic with us then! I will give you 10K if you can produce the pic for these fine people. 3 pics do exist but I can promise you they have never been posted anywhere at all!
I made it back from cabo! Wow, what a beautiful place. We went 7 for 8 on striped marlin the first day and then one more the 2nd day. Been in Venice after that. Just made it back, getting ready to head back down to fish Faux Pas and then I should have some time to play on here. Im not sure how to post pics to here, maybe someone can help but I can always post to my blog and post the link.
Capt Josh
I made it back from cabo! Wow, what a beautiful place. We went 7 for 8 on striped marlin the first day and then one more the 2nd day. Been in Venice after that. Just made it back, getting ready to head back down to fish Faux Pas and then I should have some time to play on here. Im not sure how to post pics to here, maybe someone can help but I can always post to my blog and post the link.
Capt Josh
re: Deep South Charters' Josh Howard sentenced for keeping illegal bluefin
Posted by Capt Josh Howard on 7/5/13 at 11:39 pm to Coon
What up guys? Just ran across your post. Some stuff you have right, some is waaay off. Like the guy that said a pic was posted to facebook....That never happened. No pic has ever been posted anywhere. I fly out to cabo tomorrow, when I get back, I will sit down and lay it all out for you. I will leave you with a few things that very few know, and I have the paperwork to back it up. This trip was not even my trip. I was a deckhand on the boat. Was not my trip, not my boat, not my permits and not my customers. All of that came out in the wash but you wont hear wildlife tell you that. Also, the paperwork for them to look at my phone was written for my home address, in Denham Springs. Not Venice Marina. Not even the same parish. I will post a copy of it for you to see when I get back. Long story short, they didn't have a case for the fish and ended up dropping everything on the actual capt of the trip other than a written warning. The only thing they were left with was the states criminal charges on me. Thru a plea deal, we decided to take a year with no guides license rather than fight it out in court. We believe we could have got it all thrown out just on the bad warrant alone but who knows how these things will play out. I did what I did with me and my family in mind and im cool with it. Sometimes when you win, you don't really but it is what it is. They believed in the beginning that the fish was offloaded at the dock, they now know it wasn't. We did land a fish but was never brought to the dock. I have 2 pics of the fish on the boat. Maybe I will post them sooner or later but as of now, they have NEVER been posted anywhere. Its kinda cute that all of these people seem to know how things went, when in fact they don't know much at all. I am still booking trips. I fished with Capt Brandon 2 days ago, we landed 11 yellowfin and left them biting. A very good day on the water. I will be back as captian come April. The whole crew flies out for cabo in the morning. We will take pics. Don't waste too much time worrying about me now, I will be just fine. See you out there. Capt Josh
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