Three trout net angler two years behind bars

By Christian Boone

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Tennessee poacher Kurt Wesley Ellis is paying a hefty price for fresh trout: two years in prison. That's eight months behind bars for every fish.

Murray County Sheriff's Department Kurt Wesley Ellis, 31, was sentenced to two years in jail for violating probation by trout fishing.

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Ellis was busted in Murray County recently after Georgia Department of Natural Resources officials, acting on a tip, spotted him fishing on Holly Creek, four miles east of Eton. The 31-year-old Tennesseean pleaded guilty in January 2009 to 12 poaching charges and received two years probation in which he was ordered to stay away from fishing holes.

The prison term was tacked on earlier this month after he was caught fishing while on probation.

Philip Earheart, of the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency, said Ellis, who netted three trout from Holly Creek, is "not a bad guy. He’s just going to hunt and fish when he wants to hunt and fish, no matter what anybody tells him. But not for awhile this time."

The Dalton Daily Citizen has the complete story.