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

[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....

[Snubby]

Good story. At least she was a little laid back. I remember when I was younger and fishing bass tournaments with my dad it was near sunset but everyone was at the one ramp waiting to get out. Couple of game wardens came up and started writing tickets for everyone since none of us had lights on our boats. We were all waiting at ramp to get out….lol. Well the ticket went to me since my dad had gone to get the truck. He paid it though.

Another story that happened this year. I was checked by a warden while fishing in my kayak. When he asked for my license i couldn’t find anything other than an expired one. I was freaking out because I knew I had renewed it. He called in my information and checked and I had renewed it but didn’t have it on me at the time. Told him I renewed online and wasn’t sure I received a new one in mail. He wrote me a ticket but really just to prove I had license incase another warden asked. After he left I remembered I had copies and receipts on my phone since it was online. I could have shown him that….lol. Which reminds me, I just renewed them again. I need to print them out.

Check for a hunting & fishing app for your states game & fish dept. I have license for several states and all have apps that have your license information stored on your phone. Easiest way to go, I still try to carry my card's but not neccessary.

Sent from my SM-S916U using Tapatalk

[darcie1]

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....

They seem to bother the good ones.

[Ketchn]

They seem to bother the good ones.

it is rare for me to get sideways with any law enforcement people , dad taught me to never cross one , he had a degree in psychology and made it really clear that most law enforcement folks have something to prove and you best not ever challenge their authority .

[scout-j-m]

Never really had an issue with them, but there is this older warden who patrols the 3 boat launches on 2 local hp restricted lakes. I've only seen him in on foot and not on the water in a patrol boat. He rolls into the parking lot of a launch and hangs out for 30 minutes or so and checks people as they are getting out. He is fairly nice but it bothers me that he checks people for fishing licenses who aren't actively fishing or even in the water still. I've seen him ask kayakers before who didnt even have rods. Just rubbed me the wrong way as it gave me the impression he didn't even know the rules or some gullible people would get tickets when they either did nothing wrong or at minimum weren't busted in the act. He asked me for fishing license once as I got out to which I replied that I wasn't fishing even though I did have rods in the boat. Truth is, I wasn't fishing - I had just done some work on my outboard and was out doing a test run. Maybe I technically wasnt supposed to even have rods in the boat, but either way I wasn't in the water and had already pulled the boat out when he rolled up. Not about to get a retroactive ticket for something I was assumed to have done! He didn't argue it to me though, just said OK and then went to the next boat out of the water already and strapping down to go home.