Yeti GOBOX Collection

over the limit

sluggo6850

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This is an article that was in the local newspaper in the editorials. I have never heard of such a law, just wondering if any of you guys have ever run into something like this.


First of all, I would like to thank all the people and fellow fisherman who wrote letters in my defense. Now it’s time I tell the whole story.

The thing that started this is a phone call the Game Fish and Parks received from a person I will not name, stating that I was over bagging on Lake Madison. I know who this person is.

I have never come off of the lake with more than my limit, so they should put their badge away and maybe take fishing lessons.

On Sept. 24, the GF&P conservation officer loaded his spoting scope and note pads and headed off to Lake Madison for a long and grueling day of work, sitting in his air-conditioned truck watching a 75-year-old man and his friend fish.

As we were leaving the lake to load the boat, the conservation officer shows up and immediately comes to me and tells me to get in his truck. The C.O. tells me that he has been watching me for weeks, hours and hours a day. Even though he claimed he saw me over bag on two other days, why wasn’t I ticketed? Because I came in with my limit.

This day we caught our limit of 30. (The C.O. said I caught 23 of the 30.) We then went to fish for crappies and gills.

The thing that amazes me is the conservation officer already had the ticket made out and all I had to do was sign it. That tells me he was ready and waiting for me to come off of the lake so he could get his “big catch” of the day.

If he would have been watching everyone on the lake, he would have had to write a lot of tickets that day and any other day, because everyone who fishes with a partner does the exact same thing my friend and I did. You both catch fish until you have 30, the legal limit.

When my attorney asked the state’s attorney for a videotape of this incident of me over bagging, we received a letter back from Ken Meyer (state’s attorney) stating, “In an effort to resolve this matter, if your client were to simply plead guilty to one count of unlawful possession of fish for the Sept. 24 incident where he had six perch over the limit, I would agree not to file additional charges against him.” This sounds like a threat to me. And I feel I was coerced into pleading guilty.

What a screw job:(
 
I am pretty sure thats how the fish limit in wisconsin goes also though I have never seen it enforced.
 
I do the same thing with elk... 10 guys in camp, I just keep shooting until everyone's tag is filled.

A poacher is a poacher, no matter how you try and paint it. A screw job? Hardly. Come pull that trick up here and you'll get a fine, lose your fishing gear, and possibly your truck and boat.
 
I never worried about it I am not a good enough fisherman to get my limit let alone another guys.
 
I do the same thing with elk... 10 guys in camp, I just keep shooting until everyone's tag is filled.

A poacher is a poacher, no matter how you try and paint it. A screw job? Hardly. Come pull that trick up here and you'll get a fine, lose your fishing gear, and possibly your truck and boat.

Ditto!
 
Unless there is some law on the books wherever Lake Madison is allowing "party fishing", the article writer quite simply broke the law. He needs to pay up.
 
Can't count the number of times my duck hunting buddies have quit shooting, to watch me finally hit my last bird (I'm usually the last one done, cause I can't hit crap). It's an individual limit, not a party limit. Party hunting, and fishing, is illegal. Needs to pay the fine, and quit breaking the law.
 
When I have hunted snow geese in Canada the outfitter gives each of us different colored zip ties and we have to zip tie the birds we shoot with our color. No party hunting and I suspect no party fishing either.

Nemont
 
http://gfp.sd.gov/ePubs/wildlife/2013-fishing-handbook/2013FishingHandbook.pdf

NOTE: Fish caught by groups of anglers are typically kept together in live wells or on the
same stringer and as a result, some anglers pursue a combined daily limit for their group. State law provides that anglers must abide by the daily limits established by the Game, Fish and Parks Commission and the Department of Game, Fish and Parks cannot authorize an angler to exceed his/her daily limit in the course of obtaining a combined limit for a group of anglers.

The Department does not require members of angling parties to keep their individual limits separated from other members of an angling party and encourages anglers to
practice reasonable restraint in the pursuit of the daily limits for members of a group.
 
Not how our folks taught us to fish. "Hey you have your limit so go catch grasshoppers, bugs, or whittle a stick". Basically learned about catch and release in the 50's.
 
I do the same thing with elk... 10 guys in camp, I just keep shooting until everyone's tag is filled.

A poacher is a poacher, no matter how you try and paint it. A screw job? Hardly. Come pull that trick up here and you'll get a fine, lose your fishing gear, and possibly your truck and boat.

What he said.

And since when was plea bargaining "threatening"?

That guy is a cry baby. Some people can't take responsibility for their actions no matter what the case may be.
 
Thanks for the comments guys. After reading your replies and putting fishing in the same perspective as elk, deer, pheasants, etc. I have to agree that it is breaking the law. I don't have to worry about it though cause every time i go fishing it's like there are no fish in the lake. thanks again
 
Love the approach this guy takes,

belittle the person that reported him,
then belittle the CO for being a lazy ass and picking on old men,
then belittle the CO for ticketing old men,
then belittle the prosecutor for playing hardball with his sorry ass.

The big bad game warden was doing his job, and sounds like he did it well that day. Kudos to him.
 
Thanks for the comments guys. After reading your replies and putting fishing in the same perspective as elk, deer, pheasants, etc. I have to agree that it is breaking the law. I don't have to worry about it though cause every time i go fishing it's like there are no fish in the lake. thanks again

Sounds like me.
 
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