Beware Game Wardens!

[J White]

No really, they are a good bunch for the most part. Had a couple
run-ins long time ago, but those guys are either retired or not doing
field work anymore. Wrote me up once for "no fire extinguisher"
'cause it was a shade low on the gauge - I assure you it worked,
I tried it before getting it refilled. Wonder what would've happened
after I had said ticket in my pocket if I'd pulled the pin and hosed
'em down with dry chemical? Figure I'da got shot, the way that
guy acted. Anyway, the reason I'm posting this is to relate a couple
of stories one of them told me about some recent tickets they wrote
for no fishing license - First one, guy said he wasn't fishing, just trying
to snag something he'd lost in water - no sale. Next, a woman was
just practicing her casting technique, was not fishing. nope, didn't
buy that either. And finally, another lady was just holding the rod
for hubby while he took a break - but not fishing. I'm glad I don't
have their job! One told me that the only reason many years ago he
wanted the job was that he loved to hunt and fish, but now he hasn't
done either in years. I see them headed to the lake all the time and
tell them I wish I could get given a nice boat and paid to cruise around
checking bikinis - They seldom see the humor - tell me they'll trade
places with me on the spot. Wouldn't that be terrible, to NOT want
to go to the lake?

[fiddlefarter]

I have about 2.5 years college towards a degree in wildlife management. Decided I didn't want to continue to make $25,000 a year and not get to hunt and fish as much as I would like. A Wildlife Officer was the only job I ever really wanted to do. But I love the job I have now and I didn't have to pay for a degree and I get most weekends off and enough paid vacation to hunt or fish whenever I don't feel like working.

[Moose1am]

When at Purdue I gave some thought to getting my degree in Wildlife Biology or Fisheries Biology. I took a few courses in those fields but decided to go for a new degree that the University was just starting to offer.

I heard that only two of the Wildlife Biologists that graduated from Purdue that year got jobs and one of those guy had to move to Alaska to work up there. So the job offers were far and few between.

My good friend Mark Reiter got his degree in Wildlife Biology and he got a job with the Indiana DNR. He has worked his way up the chain of command into a better higher paying job but still with three kids to feed and a wife, house payment, two cars etc he does not think he makes enough money. He could have made more in sales or some other type of job. But he enjoys working with wildlife and is committed to this field. We sure need guys like him in the State Capital who understand the needs of fishermen and hunters and work hard to give us State Lands on which we can hunt and fish.

I had a blast taking a Junior Level Wildlife Biology Class my Senior year and I learned a lot about modern wildlife management techniques etc. That class was not a pud class either. The test were extremely difficult. There were not multiple choice answers and the prof made us think. A question on the test could have one right answer or it could have several answers that were correct. If you guessed at a question and got it wrong the prof would subtract points for every question that you marked as being the answer but was not the answer. So maybe the question had three correct answers and A B C was right and D and E were wrong. If you chose all five possible answers you got credit for getting A B C right and then were penalized for guessing that D and E were right when they were in fact not the correct answer. I had never had a prof give a test such as this one. But the Prof was just starting out at Purdue that year and was fresh from the Ivy League School of Yale University. He was teaching graduate courses at Yale in Wildlife Biology. Man could that guy tell a story. Everyone in his class was attentive as he gave his lecture. I was always on the edge of my seat and hanging on every word he spoke. But the first examine almost killed my spirits. After that I really had to buckel down and study harder and finally got my test scores up. He really made me think harder than any other class and since I really was into that class it was not that hard after a while.

Sometimes I wish I had gone into that field as I know I would have loved the work. Just the fact that the State does not pay much was a turn off. You have to really love that work and not want a lot of money to become a biologist for the state.

I do admire those that perform this job as without them we would not have the opportunities to fish and hunt that we have today. Without the professional management of our wildlife resources and the cooperation of the hunters and fishermen the resource would be wiped out like the passenger pigeons.

I have about 2.5 years college towards a degree in wildlife management. Decided I didn't want to continue to make $25,000 a year and not get to hunt and fish as much as I would like. A Wildlife Officer was the only job I ever really wanted to do. But I love the job I have now and I didn't have to pay for a degree and I get most weekends off and enough paid vacation to hunt or fish whenever I don't feel like working.

[CrappiePappy]

it's like the old saying - "if you want to fish ... don't buy a bait store" :p

I thought I'd like to be a Wildlife Officer, back when I was young. But, that never went past the "dream" state. Now, I don't envy those guys their jobs, for any reason. I'm just glad that someone has the drive and determination to do that job. Me, I'm just glad to have a job :D that pays the bills and feeds, clothes, houses me; and still allows me to fish. ........cp

[Moose1am]

My neighbor wants to join the police dept someday. He has a degree in Criminolgy now and plans on further schooling. Right now he and his wife are running a beauty salon that they opened a few months ago. She is a great hair stylist or what ever they call them these days. She is not cheap either LOL. But she is really good as she has a lot of customers that followed her to her new shop. She worked for another beauty shop in the past and finally decided that she was going to make the money and stop working for someone else who took all the money. Good decision on their part IMHO. So far the business is working good.

But I once asked my neighbor why he wanted to be a policeman. He is still young by most standards. Under 30 years old and wanting to do some good for society and I think that is good. But for me I think about someone shooting me or something and that is not what I want. Even when I was younger my desire to get into fights with people or be shot at was not there. I was an emt and just wearing that uniform at rock concerts tended to make some people think I was a cop. Once a guy threw his beer cup at me and got me soaked with beer. I was ready to kick that guys ass but they held me back. LOL He was evidently a friend of the concert promoter and was drunk. That was the last time I volunteered to work for that concert provider as am EMT. I think that the real police finally did arrest him that night. While working at the rock concerts back in the late 1970s I often was looked upon as a cop since the uniform and badge that I wore resembled a police uniform. But if they were not drunk they would easily see the EMT path on the shoulder and the medical equipment around my neck. Most of those Kiss rock concert goers were drunk or on drugs and stoned back in those days. You could smell the dope in the air as soon as the lights went out. Maybe that is why I am hard of hearing these days. The sounds inside that concert hall were way over 100 decibles for sure. A lot of the time I just went back outside and sat in the ambulance waiting for the concert to be over. But I got to go to all the big concerts for free by volunteering to work as an EMT. So I got to see Elvis and some of the other big stars back in those days.

I remember seeing a guy that I went to grade school and hs with. He was a good friend back when I was in GS but we lost touch in HS. I went on to Purdue and he joined the Evansville Police force and not is a detective. I saw him throw a guy out of the concert and proceed to make sure that the guy didn't ever return to that concert, if you know what I mean. LOL I am sure that guy woke up in jain the next day thinking "what hit me a mack truck?"

Anyway I do admire those that have the abilty to join the police force and protect and serve. It's not the job I want to do though.

My neighbor wears a bullet proof vest when he goes out on patrol. The other night he asked me if he looked fat in his uniform. He was waiting for his ride to pick him up and we were out in the front yard discussion the tent moving incident that happend to me the other day. That bullet proof vest makes him look twice a big around the chest as normal. LOL But hopefully it will save his life one day if he has one of the good vest and not one that is defective.

Then last Saturday the DNR enforcement guys had their boat trailer vandilzed.
Now the DNR conservation officers get my respect as they have to patrol the boonies by themselves and that is a lot more dangerous than patrolling the city. Out in the boonies they could be shot and lay there for days before somone find them. So you have to give them a lot of respect for enforcing the game laws. For without them the game would not last very long. If everyone took home as many fish and game as they wanted there would be none left pretty soon.

it's like the old saying - "if you want to fish ... don't buy a bait store" :p

I thought I'd like to be a Wildlife Officer, back when I was young. But, that never went past the "dream" state. Now, I don't envy those guys their jobs, for any reason. I'm just glad that someone has the drive and determination to do that job. Me, I'm just glad to have a job :D that pays the bills and feeds, clothes, houses me; and still allows me to fish. ........cp

[papasage]

yes and there are somethat keep anything that gits hooked and then grumble about no fish to catch . . we have the apolousaoe flat head as some call it cats in our river here . that is the talk that they are eating up the redbrest . the same fishermen come out with a cooler half full [[a 36 quart] not a little toat cooler . not big enough to keep . and never eat them . just show them off and dump them . they would never admit to it and cant proovce it . but they dont cook that menny fish either .
i dont keep anything that i dont eat . and big enough to git some meat off of

[Arkie John]

Don't have much use for fish cops. They go out of their way to write a ticket. It is rediculous to write a man up for a fire extinguisher that is is perfect working order, just because it is a tad low!

I was fishing once and my sister came along at the last moment. We had three life vests, but one was a child's vest.. Over $200.00. They were grinnin' like jackasses eatin' briars.

I have no use for them at all, period. I work for the Corps of Engineers and our rangers will not write a ticket unless it is just absolutely necessary. ...and these idiots come on Corps lakes and harrass good people just because they can. They can all go jump in the lake.

aj

[slab-seeker]

arkie, it sounds like you just had a run in with a group of big headed jacka**... but that really should not put a bad image in your mind of the people who actually try and preserve our hunting and fishing lands and waters... i mean i am attending MTSU now trying to earn my degree in agribusiness so i can hopefully become a game warden one day. its just like the police... for the most part the police force is there to do what they claim to do "protect and serve" but i know almost everybody has probably ran into one of those big headed officers who will write a ticket for anything just so they can go back to the squad and brag about how many citations they have wrote... but thats no reason to hate the police force... so it should be the same for the wardens... im not trying to say all of the wardens are good at what they do .... but now-a-days we all have to bank on the fact that in every field of work there will always be some crooks and there will always be some truly honest people who do what they do for the right reasons.... just thought id lay that out on the line

[BULLFROG-1]

There needs to be some big budget cuts............Big budget cuts!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[BULLFROG-1]

ps all you that work in a W&F dept. and feel you are under paid ............please quit and find you another job as soon as possible.