Have any good poaching bust stories to share?

[ia_trouter]

Here is one from November. Iowa stocks some urban lakes with bows each year. Makes it easier for kids and the disabled to access some trout fishing. Six people busted in one day, on one lake. They probably figured our Conservation Officers were too busy with hunting season. Gotta love the guy that was caught stuffing trout in his trousers. Really?

Easy to Catch Trout Too Tempting for Some

 

[Rip Tide]

This article is from last week but it's not exactly breaking news
Another Tilghman Island waterman heads to jail for rockfish poaching - Baltimore Sun

Kent Conley Sadler, 31, of Tilghman Island, was ordered to spend 30 days in jail and pay $25,000 in fines and restitution for his role in the Chesapeake Bay scheme.
Sadler worked with two other Tilghman Island watermen, William J. Lednum, 41, and Michael D. Hayden Jr., 43, who took more than 92 tons of illegally caught striped bass worth nearly $500,000 from the bay from 2007 to 2011, according to prosecutors.

A couple of years ago, I was mentoring a guy from our club's beginner fly fishing class.
We came across a couple of guys bait fishing in a 'fly only" section and called the hot line
They must have seen us call 'cuz when a random guy in a green hat came strolling out of the woods, they beat feet.

 

[mridenour]

Years ago, I read a great story in The Missouri Conservationist. It seems that a crew of conservation employees went out to film some geese on a lake here in the Show-Me state. They were able to do that but they also got to capture, in beautiful detail, the poaching exploits of several poachers in living color from several angles.

Arrests were also filmed along with the confiscation of several nice guns. Stills were posted in the magazine along with the story.

Sometimes timing is just perfect.

 

[fredaevans]

"Northwest Sportsman" magazine has a page (every month) dedicated to 'Name and Shame' where someone(s) been nailed for sports violations. It would appear that most were 'one off's'' but some of the repeaters are big time.

 

[yikes]

In California, we have the CalTIP hotline 888-334-2258 for reporting poaching, fish and wildlife reg violations and polluting. I have no problem being a nark, because the victims of these violations are you, me and the environment.

While on the river, if I am far from civilization, I will be more circumspect about direct confrontation, especially if alone. There are a lot of crazy people out there, some packing heat, especially if the pollution violation is related to a pot farm.

 

[silver creek]

It's been over 10 years ago that the worst poacher in Wisconsin history was caught in my county and sent to jail. This guy not only poached deer out of season but he also shot goose, ducks, and anything else that moved.

He also had sandhill crane which are a protected species. Sandhill crane meat was found in his freezer as well as other wild game. There was also testimony that he forced his young son to shoot a sandhill crane.

The kicker though was when the warden asked him what the sandhill crane tasted like, he smiled and "bald eagle." Of course his license was revoked for life and he got several years in jail.

 

[moucheur2003]

Animal Planet has a regular TV show that follows Maine game wardens as they track down and nail poachers.

North Woods Law | Animal Planet

 

[fyshstykr]

Just this morning as I was looking at FB(yea, I know, I know) and did see a friends son had posted a video of himself while ice fishing, jigging for Kokanee and chumming them with maggots.
I'm still shaking my head at this illegal act, and how brazen he is to post this video. He never has been the sharpest crayon in the box.

 

[bruce m]

Twenty plus years ago my wife translated in our local court against a Korean man claiming he could not understand the charges brought against him.
He was running a trout line in my favorite River and got nabbed.
My wife and I were/are friends of the court clerk so she got a hold of my wife for the translation, made the man understand the charges and then they fined him $1500 and pulled his fishiing license.

 

[ia_trouter]

This one doesn't end so well. About 40 people total were eventually charged in a huge walleye netting racket (selling to restaurants) in northern MN. Many of the kingpins ended up in Federal Court for felony charges. I believe I read later that FED prosecutors screwed it up and many of them walked last summer.

Northern Minnesota walleye poaching bust widens - TwinCities.com

 

[mcnerney]

If you fish in Wyoming, here is the hotline to report poaching: 877-943-3847.

 

[mridenour]

Just this morning as I was looking at FB(yea, I know, I know) and did see a friends son had posted a video of himself while ice fishing, jigging for Kokanee and chumming them with maggots.
I'm still shaking my head at this illegal act, and how brazen he is to post this video. He never has been the sharpest crayon in the box.

Don't be ashamed of being on Social Media. This forum is Social Media as well. I view it as my duty to be one rational and sane person in a firestorm of paranoia, anger, drama and whining.

Facebook needs us!

---------- Post added at 01:35 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:29 PM ----------

Back before I gave up archery and bowhunting, I had spent several months watching a particular deer with a huge wide rack and at least 16 points identifiable through binoculars at a long distance. He also frequented the adjoining farm and they were watching him too. Bow season neared and just before opening day, the deer quit showing up in any of his normal spots.

The neighbor was out on a trip around his place on his ATV and found the headless body of a huge deer. It had been shot with a rifle several times. News spread quick that a big trophy had been poached.

In a couple days the news got back around that the genius had taken the head to a taxidermist a county to the north the day before archery season opened. There was no way he had taken the deer legally and he was busted.

Still, I would have liked an opportunity to overcome the shakes drawing down on that monster.

 

[mcnerney]

Still, I would have liked an opportunity to overcome the shakes drawing down on that monster.

Too bad that poacher took that big deer, that would have been a lot of fun getting a chance at a buck that size with a bow.

When I lived in Fairbanks, AK it seemed like every year some nit wit would shoot a moose along the Chena Hot Springs road, just for the fun of shooting one and leaving the whole carcass there. The road runs along some really nice moose habitat, lots of tourists like to drive along that road in summer just for a chance at a photo of a big bull.

 

[mridenour]

Too bad that poacher took that big deer, that would have been a lot of fun getting a chance at a buck that size with a bow.

Even when you miss it is still a great story to tell when you are reliving the moment of letting the arrow go.

Kind of like reliving the moment I pulled that big brown's head out of the river and broke the line.

 

[yikes]

He was running a trout line in my favorite River and got nabbed.

I didn't know what a "trout line" was, so I googled it. There was some guy who was using on the St. John River and he said it was legal for 25 hooks or less without a commercial license.
That's not fishing - that's merely harvesting.

For those of us fortunate enough to fish for enjoyment and not merely protein, here's a sad-sounding quote from that guy:
"The best thing about a trot line is that you don't have to sit with it. You can put your line out in the morning, go to work or back home, then check your line in the evening."

 

[mridenour]

For those of us fortunate enough to fish for enjoyment and not merely protein, here's a sad-sounding quote from that guy:
"The best thing about a trot line is that you don't have to sit with it. You can put your line out in the morning, go to work or back home, then check your line in the evening."

Well, for a guy that has to work and still get enough fish to feed the family, that's a plus feature. There are a lot of people that don't have employment opportunities where they live to provide a good diet for their families all the time. Parts of this state still have what amounts to sharecroppers and running lines in canals and rivers is part of surviving.

I don't do it but it is legal and the state here monitors its effect on the resources. It is also a LOT of work. I have ridden along with people and I'd not want to rely on that for my meals.

Mostly it yields catfish which are under-harvested here in most places and other rough fish. Lots of gar and I don't know how people can eat them. Of course, I've been served raccoon proudly by a family and wonder how that can be a treat. I wonder what they have when company isn't over.

Never seen a real "trout" line to catch rainbows or browns...lol!

I only harvest enough catfish to warrant a couple all-night lawn chair sessions with couple big rods and a cooler per year. The rest of the time I am a fly fisherman.

 

[Rip Tide]

Back when I was at the casino, I had lots of Chinese employees.
They were the nicest folks that you'd ever want to meet. Every single one of them.
One fellow and I used to talk fishing all the time.
Their fishing tackle consisted of a glass bottle, wrapped with mono, mounted on a stick.
To cast their bait, they'd sling it around their head like a sling, then fire it off over the water with the mono pealing off the bottle as it spun around on the stick.
When they caught a fish, it would go into the bucket. No matter the size or even what it was. Legal or not.
To do any differently would have be totally against their culture.
These guys enjoyed their fishing as much as anyone, but it's really about the harvest.

 

[ditz]

Last year here in middle TN there was 3 foreign born gents that were loading their boat with white bass as I recall fishing below some of the TVA dams. I understand that they had been doing this for at least a few years and selling the fish to some of the local resterants. They had been turned in multiple times and they finally got caught with like 400 fish in the boat. They did get fined but the boat and tow vehicle should have been confiscated as well. Jail time would not have been to severe IMO. They were doing this several times a week. This was gross poaching. Also about 1970 a fella up in IN was caught shooting deer over a salt block and they found 6 deer hanging in a barn close by. He was fined $10000, all his guns and his vehicle were confiscated and he lost his hunting privilege for life.

 

[Rip Tide]

Years ago I made the mistake of telling a fellow that I worked with that I needed a bunch of deer hair to dye for tying hair bugs.
The next morning he had 3 pelts for me

 

[Monello]

Don't get me started on this subject

So many examples, so little time to post them all.

A poacher in New Mexico has taken illegal harvest to staggering new depths. After getting an anonymous tip, Department of Game and Fish Conservation Officers found more than 1,600 rainbow trout in the home of Bounchanh Bounsombath of Clovis, New Mexico. That’s more than 160 times the legal possession limit.

Maryland Department of Natural Resources Police officers stumbled upon a poacher's net bulging with more than three tons of rockfish in the Chesapeake Bay, the largest haul seized by a single patrol in at least 25 years

The current charges represent, to date, the largest known illegal kill of black bears in Alaska for the purpose of marketing their gallbladders, officials said.

In the first of two indictments filed in U.S. District Court, Kwan Su Yi, 32; Tae Won Ro, 33; and James H. Moon, 26, were each charged with conspiracy, attempted export and sale of illegally taken wildlife, and making false statements in violation of the federal Lacey Act.

The indictment charges them with snaring and dismembering 10 black bears in Prince William Sound in the summer and fall of 2002. It says gallbladders stored in the freezer of one of the defendants, Yi, were to be sent to Korea.

In the second indictment, Chi Ung Kim, 82, and Kil Young Chu, 69, were each charged with conspiracy and sale of illegally taken wildlife. The indictment says the pair snared and shot four bears on the Kenai Peninsula from May to June 2003.