Dumb outdoor crooks can't resist walleyes, rams and red snappers

It’s a fact that many of my 91 semi-regular readers really enjoy my frequent installments of dumb outdoor crooks. Both of the e-mails I received over the past several days made mention of wanting to see more such installments.

So, with all that demand in mind, here they are.

Caught in a rough spot

Montana conservation officers were a little surprised to get “numerous” complaints from citizens using their cell phones to report two anglers who were catching and keeping undersized walleyes. It seems these complainants were motorists in their autos, and the anglers were fishing from a well-traveled bridge.

It was even reported that the fishermen would take the undersized fish to a van parked nearby and put them inside.

The officers arrived soon enough, and both men were questioned. Both denied either catching or keeping any fish. So, the officers asked them to open their van for inspection, which they readily did.

And much to the officer’s surprise, the only thing present inside the rear of the van was a golf bag. There were no coolers or other containers that might hold illegal fish.

But the officers knew that so many people could not possibly all be wrong, so they made a closer inspection. They unzipped a rather large compartment on the side of the golf bag. And inside they found eight walleyes. Two were legal sized, and the other six were all too short.

One guy quickly admitted catching all of the fish, but both eventually paid some pretty stiff fines.

Heavy penalties for poaching

Speaking of stiff fines and penalties, it doesn’t pay to poach bighorn sheep in Wyoming. Two men from Greybull, Wyoming, poached one trophy ram each in an area of the state closed to all sheep hunting.

Then they bragged about their nefarious deeds to several mutual friends.

Well, one of those friends had been trying to draw a legal ram tag for many years, but without success. I guess he got a little miffed, because he blew them in to the state.

An investigation was conducted, and our two would-be poachers ended up in state court facing two counts each of wanton destruction of wildlife and two counts each of hunting without a license.

Circuit Judge Bruce Waters dropped his gavel on their heads, figuratively speaking of course. One was sentenced to a year in jail plus a year of electronic monitoring and two years probation. He was fined $27,000.

Among other penalties, he was banned from entering any federal or state lands, and his hunting, fishing and trapping privileges were suspended for 50 years! The other poacher (who ratted on the first guy after both were charged) was sentenced to a year of weekends in jail, two years probation, a $27,000 fine, and the suspension of his hunting, fishing and trapping privileges for 10 years.

Take that, you dummies!

Success is fleeting

Commercial fishing around the Gulf of Mexico can be a real cutthroat proposition. There is a lot of competition by a lot of hungry fishermen for every fish swimming in those waters.

So one might assume that a boat captain, knowing every other boat captain was watching his every move, would not try anything stupid like fishing outside the open seasons, right?

Wrong!

One commercial fisherman went out after red snapper during the closed season. He and his crew actually caught 474 pounds of this prized food fish in the four to six hours they were away from the dock.

The state fish and game boys received “dozens of calls” beginning just five minutes after the boat left its dock — in the middle of the night, no less.

Well, the Captain of the offending vessel lost the 474 pounds of fish (including many undersized fish), paid $18,000 in fines, and had his commercial fishing license suspended for 120 days, which included all of the limited red snapper season. He has since filed for bankruptcy protection.

Be aware of your surroundings

A Mobridge, South Dakota poacher decided he would catch and keep as many fish as he possibly could, the reason being that he just loved to fish. So he went to his favorite lake (also in Mobridge) in broad daylight, and started catching walleyes.

Unfortunately for him, his chosen fishing spot was directly off the dock of the local conservation officer.

The officer took his time, preferring to observe this yahoo for a better case. When he finally arrested our unfortunate (or stupid) lad, he found the guy had caught 59 walleyes. He seized all of them, and the hapless poacher paid $1,006.50 in fines and $2,550 in civil damages.

Waterfowl applications are open

The DEC is currently accepting waterfowl lottery requests for the opening weekend of both Tonawanda and Oak Orchard WMAs. The lottery will close on Sept. 15.

Applicants can contact the Iroquois National Wildlife Refuge or the Avon office of the DEC for instructions. Successful applicants will be notified shortly after the closure of the lottery.

Len Lisenbee is the Daily Messenger’s Outdoor Columnist. Contact him at lisenbee@frontiernet.net

This article originally appeared on MPNnow: Dumb outdoor crooks can't resist walleyes, rams and red snappers