# STARTRIBUNE TODAY



## curty (Sep 18, 2003)

INTERNATIONAL FALLS MN...concerned anglers thought there was somthing fishy about two fishermen from Illinois,and they were right. 67 walleyes were seized and the two were charged with possession of an over limit of walleye while fishing on Rainy Lake.the fish were seized and a $4000 fine,they lost thier licences and seizure of thier boat, motor, and trailer....an additional 40 walleye were found in thier International Falls motel where they were staying...this was in the trib today...selfish people!!!!!


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## Ryan_Todd (Apr 11, 2004)

i'm glad they got caught and lost their boat :withstupid: . they should have even gave them a bigger fine. it just ****** me off when people do things like that :******: . it gives all outdoorsmen a bad name and gives the animal rights wacko's more ammo. hopefully the dnr will make a lot of money when they auction their boat off!!!


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## MSG Rude (Oct 6, 2003)

AMEN!


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## Field Hunter (Mar 4, 2002)

One of the biggest problems is that the resort owners are somewhat hesitant to stop their guests from over fishing....I saw it first hand and was told by the resort owner that I camped at for 18 years to "bud-out" when I questioned how many panfish the out of staters actually needed to freeze in any given week. I think in the past the DNR officers sort of looked the other way in many cases of over fishing....nice to see them really getting some guys and getting them good.

I can't imagine how many more people would be caught on these overfishing violations if the wardens just stiopped and did a spot check of all the resorts in MN on a random and infrequent basis. The resort we were at had all the fish labeled by fisherman and most were over the limit at any given time.


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## jd mn/nd (Apr 8, 2004)

Anybody that violates the game & fish laws no matter how many they have should lose their right to hunt and fish for one year the first time and three years for a second offense and for the rest of their life if they are caught a third time however the problem being that this is not on some form of a national registry and the CO's can't possiby know if they have violated any laws in other states. I would bet that if we had federal laws that superceded the state laws when it came to poaching and this was tracked that the number of poachers would be greatly reduced. People need to appreciate the natural resources, if they lost their right to partake in the natural resouces they may look at it differently the next time they think about violating the laws. Keep in mind people they are criminals because they are stealing our natural resources!! They violate everyone in the process of committing their crime, both residents and non-residents that are upstanding, law abiding citizens. They are not just hurting the wildlife, so don't look at these violations as, well they didn't hurt me, so I don't care. They are hurting you because there are that many of that species that not only do not get to reproduce, but they also can not be taken by someone else that might have legally enjoyed the outing to the great outdoors, wether it was hunting or fishing. :2cents:


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## Bob Kellam (Apr 8, 2004)

I have posted this before but I feel Game and Fish Law Violations should be a Mandatory loss of Hunting and Fishing rights for life Nation Wide.

Have a good one.


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## 870 XPRS (Mar 12, 2003)

I agree totally bob, but that is pretty tough to do. There has to be some give there on what will and what won't ban you for life. Accidents can happen while hunting and I don't think that an accident that happens to be a game violation should be grounds to take away your priveleges for life. I'm not saying this case, this is obvoiusly just blatant disregard. For instance I hunt with an older man well into his 70s who has goose hunted all his life and I've witnessed him shoot a few specs in the spring. Obviously not intentionally but his vision is not quite as keen as it once was. This is a game violation but I don't think that he should lose his priveledge to hunt. That said i just don't see how we can get to losing hunting and fishing rights for life because there can be to much of a grey area between what constitutes a violation of a great enough magnitude to justify such action.


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## Ryan_Todd (Apr 11, 2004)

i would have to aggree with 870. i would love to see them banned for life but it would be difficult to do. and besides then the dnr would be out of a lot of licence money comming in and they wouldn't want to do that.


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## Bob Kellam (Apr 8, 2004)

870; Ryan
I agree I should have clarified my position better, I do feel for "Gross" violations, like the guys from IL. That had a truck full of ducks (Bass brothers I think) and the guys a couple of weeks ago with the trunk full of fish in MN.

Did you ever see the documentary on black bear poaching? it was a National Geographic program, anyway these guys were poaching black bears for their gall bladders and misc. parts. they were caught in a sting operation slapped on the hands and were caught again. they kept doing it because the penalty was a joke.


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## Bobm (Aug 26, 2003)

This country has lost the concept of personal responsibility and suffering the consequences for your actions. If your a criminal you just blame it on society or your parents or some such rot and we say "Oh,poor baby" and let them go. Your are right gross violations should have big big fines how about 1000.00 a fish. When I was a kid the fine for Jacklighting deer in wisconsin was $150.00 and the guns fired all night. When they raised it to something like $2000.00 and forefiture of your truck and guns the legal kill went up about 100,000 deer in a couple of years. Shows you what an impact poachers have on us all.


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## Ryan_Todd (Apr 11, 2004)

great post bob. it would be great if the fine was $1000/fish. i think that would help curb the problem. i get so sick of these little slap on the rist punsihments.


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## jean (Jun 24, 2004)

I believe it would only be fair if they would have lost their fishing privledges for LIFE!!!


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## nilsmaster (Sep 26, 2003)

bobm,

Your first two sentences are spoken like a true conservative/republican. I couldn't agree more!!! Believe me, I've learned the hard way and I don't go blaming society or somebody else. Finally, I blame myself and that will be the last time I will have to do that because there won't be anymore times to blame!!! P.S. Just to make it clear my whoops wasn't Game and Fish related!


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## dlip (May 16, 2004)

870 XPRS said:


> I agree totally bob, but that is pretty tough to do. There has to be some give there on what will and what won't ban you for life. Accidents can happen while hunting and I don't think that an accident that happens to be a game violation should be grounds to take away your priveleges for life. I'm not saying this case, this is obvoiusly just blatant disregard. For instance I hunt with an older man well into his 70s who has goose hunted all his life and I've witnessed him shoot a few specs in the spring. Obviously not intentionally but his vision is not quite as keen as it once was. This is a game violation but I don't think that he should lose his priveledge to hunt. That said i just don't see how we can get to losing hunting and fishing rights for life because there can be to much of a grey area between what constitutes a violation of a great enough magnitude to justify such action.


i must agree, im going to come out and say it right now, i have made one big mistake, it was out of ignorance, i read through my book of regulations probably 20 times looking for anything that would make rifle hunting illegal in the fall, because it said in the fall you could use rifle, or shotgun, and i thought that meant the whole season, well, it turns out, muzzle loading deer season over laps with fall turkey for 2 days at the beginning of the season, well i went out and shot a turkey with my rifle, i got lucky that i called the neighboring land owner, because he showed a little bit of mercy on me and didnt call the gamewarden, i never felt so sick in my life, just the thought that my ignorance took over and i didnt see that, i was very irresponsible, but i wasnt poaching by knowledge, in those situations, you all may not agree, but i think a hefty fine is deserved, but i dont think that hunting should be taken from a kid for life, i think maybe a suspension of your permit or a large fine would be instore, and i know that all poaching is just as bad as the worst their is, but i didnt intentionally take my rifle out and kill a turkey, becauase i thought i was above the law, i did it because i thought i was right, even though i was far from it, i didnt realize what i was doing was a criminal offense, im probably going to take a lot of heat from you guys about this, but i figured i might as well tell my story in this post, because this one is talking about punishments


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## Bob Kellam (Apr 8, 2004)

dlip
I clarified my position with respect to the severity of the violation. Wanton disregard for the law should have decisive consequences. You made a mistake, we all have, do not beat yourself up for that, it is part of life. we all learn valuable life lessions from our mistakes. I have made so many mistakes in my life I am learning lessons from my lessons


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