To catch a thief....or Operation Game Thief...or just let the thief go...
A few weeks ago I witnessed a guy cleaning a fish basket full of crappies....filleted them quickly, and I would guess he had over a limit in the basket. Two or three minutes later, he is back cleaning another basket of crappie, yes I am sure they were crappie....another limit minimum. Now I was interested. After filleting the second basket, here comes another large basket. This time I counted each carcass he threw in the water after filleting each fish. It only took him thirty seconds to fillet and skin one side, turn the fish over and fillet and skin the other side. I counted a total of 23 crappies this time.
I later talked to another fisherman on the same dock, and he told me there were three people fishing on the dock and they were way over their limits.....found out later only two of the three had licenses. This was over the 4th of July weekend and at a busy condo, and the next afternoon I saw the same guy him fillet another two baskets of crappies.
Now what would you do?
Someone did call OGT (Operation Game Thief) and two of Missouri's finest.... conservationists.... came out a day or two later. I understand they did check all guys on the dock for licenses and did talk to the actual culprit, but the guy had probably frozen, given away or eaten the evidence. They did not find anything wrong and did not go in the guy's condo. Found out later that they did not want to make a scene as it was a busy holiday and there were tons of people around. They did say that they would keep an eye on the dock especially on weekends.
Anyone have thoughts out there, and how far can an agent go as far as checking the inside of a residence?
Husker