sluggo6850
Well-known member
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
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