Wildlife Officer Encounters

[MCG1]

Parked my red Ford Ranger on State land and went squirrel hunting. Back at truck I decide to cross the road and hunt the State land on that side. Barely in the woods when a ghillie suited fella jumps up from the ground and asked me how the bird hunting was going. Silly thing to do to an armed fella I thought. He pulls back his ghillie and displays his badge, pistols, and what looked like 2 boxes of ammo stuck in his belt! I explained I was squirrel hunting. He was angry because he had staked out my truck looking for a young, tall, skinny guy who was stealing treestands. I didn't fit the description and he missed the chance to write two tickets while he was laying on the ground! I sure hope he picked up ticks!

[NCkenner]

I have a similar Lake James/fire extinguisher story:
Back in 2001 when the Kenner was new, I had talked my Pastor into going fishing with me on Lake James in early April for White Bass at the Linville flats. Early that morning we had caught about a dozen when the warden showed up to chat and check us out. Since everything was almost new (6 months old +-?), I had no worries and made small talk/jokes with both of them as he went through all the regulars. One of the last things he asks for was the extinguisher and I opened one of the compartments, take it out, and hand it to him. I see a frown come over his face as he says this isn't any good..... Of course my response was why not? He turns the gauge towards me and shows me it's on "0". Then a frown came to MY face.... I explained it came with the boat as original equipment and if I'd known it was bad I'd have already replaced it (it's kinda bad giving excuses in front of your Pastor, but there I was). He gave me a short lecture on doing a safety inspection each time you launch since you never know when you'll need the safety gear and wrote me a warning citation.

My takeaway from the experience is: Never take your Pastor fishing. It brings out the Devil!!!


Chris

[cocgiunhiet]

Everything will be okay, it's okay.

[Ketchn]

how about this one ....
when I was around 20 , I loved to walk a long ways down to a big spillway and ketch channel cats . I knew there was a bite window and if you wanted a few to take home, it better be VERY early or right at dark .
I tight lined them with 2 rods and you best watch the rods like a hawk , they bit hard and fast and if you didn't set the hook exactly on the bite you just donated your chicken liver to them .
Well this here location was difficult to get to , the cliffs on each side of the spillway were way too steep to go up and down , so you had to walk about a quarter mile down stream to get down to the water level and then back up the river to where they were.
It's about 8:30 am and the bite is good , I got 6 on the stringer and know it's about to quit ....
I am totally zoned out on my rods and then here comes a voice from on high ....
he askes if I am ketchn fish ....I say yep and never look away from my rods ....
he asks how many I got and point down the bank at my stringer and say ...that many without looking away or up ....
I am still tranced out on my rod tips and he says ....I AM A GAME WARDEN !
at that point I turned around and looked up to where the voice was coming from AND sure enough from on high there is mister green jeans ....
he says COME UP HERE and let me see your license !
well silly me was in the are you kidding me mode . the bank is straight up .....
at this point it gets dicey and he proceeds to put his hand on his PISTOL !
I was like WOW , am about to get shot it seems for not much of a reason ...so I let brains take over and said tell ya what sir ....
I will wrap it in a rock and throw it up to ya ...he looks not happy at all ....
2 tosses later , he goes on his way and the fish were done biting ....
sure made me mad , but it seems not near as mad as he was at me for not complying with his take a hike request....