"People don't realize this," he began. "Commercial fishing takes all of the fish out of the water. Recreational fishing does little to no damage to the fish populations of the world. And this is fact, this is just pure fact. They've studied this extensively. What's going on now is, it's a combination of all different governmental agencies who want money. They can never get enough of it. Why, well we all know about wasteful spending. But what they're realizing is that fishing is a big business and it's basically disposable income that people are using. And what happens is, you see a lot of guys that go fishing; I'd say probably 50 percent plus are below-middle income people. And what happens is these people don't really have extra money but they spend money to go fishing. And what they're realizing is that people like to fish, it doesn't matter what you do, they'll pay the piper. People grumble, they complain but they're still going to pay."

While it's true most people I've come across while doing recon for fishing spots have been "below-middle income" (myself included) I believed most of them are the more likely ones to fly below the radar. Fishing spots like the ones at the end of shady avenues, climbing fences after dark, or sneaking past security or surveillance video cameras aren't really the types of places the DEC agents are likely to patrol. Still, the DEC fines can range from $500 to confiscating your gear, of which easily $500+ could be taken. That's the real worry with fishermen: that some part of their livelihood is being taken away by this new restriction, nominal fee notwithstanding, but on pure principle. Like John Ruffino said, most of the bums want to spend that $10 on beers or food, but for most recreational anglers, $10 is a beer and half at the bar, or three gallons of gas. For the bums, it's more of an issue of access to water, which is also being constricted, especially in this neighborhood.

"The thing is the thing with no access, it's nonsense. There's no real good reason for it. [But] it's really people are getting what's coming to them for them being idiots, collectively as fisherman. The reason a lot of people keep people out is, and I know this from a lot of guys that we know that will let us fish in certain spots, is that it's garbage [i.e. fishermen leave garbage]. You see fuckin' garbage everywhere. You see styrofoam containers for the worms, everything else. When I go half the time I bring a garbage bag and end up leaving with 2 days worth of crap from other people.

(At this point the recording is interrupted by Robert shouting into the phone: "I HAVE SOME WORMS BUT USE BUNKER! BUNKER! I CAN'T UNDERSTAND WHAT YOU'RE SAYING!")

"If everybody collectively came together and didn't let this shit go on—you see somebody littering on a pier—it's one of those things that if everyone else on the pier sits there and makes the person feel like an asshole, they're not going to do it. Even the people drinking. You know, you want to drink, fine. Just don' t throw your fucking bottle in the water. You know they came in a case or a carton or you brought a bag with you. You walk in, you can carry it out. That's really what it comes down to."