Northwest Fishing Reports

Don't care one way or the other...but will consider the source...

7/18/12, 11:50pm

fishenfreak wrote:Well, later in the morning, we were marking a lot of fish and hooked up on a double header, well i already had 2 fish on my card and my buddy had none. Well we were each fighting a fish, and it just so happened that my buddies fish came off and mine stayed on, I was going to hand off the rod but we had a double, and by the time he lost his, mine was tired. To make a long story short, we netted the fish, and yes, i fought the fish for the majority of the fight, and we marked it on my buddies card so i wouldnt have 3 fish limit on my card...

7/19/12, 8:34am

fishenfreak wrote:Like i said i admitted that i fought the fish more the majority of the time because we hooked another fish and kockman had to grab it, but come on... A ticket for fighting his fish for the last half because he had another fish on? What a bUnch of bull... We had 2 punches each, doing everything legal ect... The ticket isnt gonna hold up in court because the ticket is for fishing after retaining limit, but i had only 2 punches on my card. He said because he handed off to me it should of been my 3rd even tho we marked it on kockmans card. It wont hold in court because i only have 2 punches for the day.

7/19/12, 12:04pm

fishenfreak wrote:And you are right, like i said, i know the situation of having a double header and reeling in the fish caused me to brake the law, im not complaining about that, it was just the whole situation him following me just cause i was catching fish, he was just waiting to jump on something, when he could have been at the launch checking every boat that comes in, would have been much more useful... What a petty little thing to spend so much time on is what made me a little angry.

7/20/12, 9:59am

fishenfreak wrote:What happened was my buddy set the hook with MY ROD because he hadnt caught one. Then. 10 seconds later his rod gets hammered. So he hands the rod back to me to fight his own. He then loses his fish and the one i have is finished and 2 feet from the boat. So we net and mark on his card cause it was originally suppose to be his fish but i ended up being forced to reel him in. Kinda confusing and dumb i got a ticket for it. THE GAME WARDEN MADE UP THE MAJORITY THING... Wtf.

7/21/12, 10:10am

fishenfreak wrote:My buddy was suppose to reel the fish in, we had planned to have him reel in whatever fish bit any pole next. The double header forced me to reel the one fish in, but i figured since he set the hook and the fish was suppose to be his in the first place, that we were in our rights to mark it on his card, even tho i had to reel the fish in after he handed it back to me.

7/21/12, 2:30pm

fishenfreak wrote:My buddy hadnt caught a fish all day, and he put on some new gear and got the bite, he switched it up and got a fish, he was rewarded for his change! But unfortunately i had to reel HIS fish in because another rod went off, since he did all that work to get his first bite, regardless of who reeled it in, we thought hell yea its your fish you were smart enough to switch it up and get a bite, who cares if i reeled it in?....I reeled a fish in that my buddy did all the work to set up the gear, bait the hook and set the hook and hold the rod until the fish was under control, because i merely reeled it in, in my opinion, DOES NOT mean that it must go on my card.

For me, there are too many inconsistencies in your chronological description of the events. On 7/20/12 you state you took control of your rod 10 seconds after your buddy set the hook because his rod got hammered. Why didn't you just take his rod and let him fight the fish using the rod he set the hook on? What difference does it make "who's" rod it was since the rods aren't licensed to the angler? Nowhere do you state the rod was ever returned to your buddy prior to the fish being netted leading me to the conclusion you played the fish from 10 seconds after hookup to the net. If this occurred in MY boat, you'd mark your card, you are tagged out, your rods get stowed, end of discussion. Had you done this, or had you taken his rod when it got hammered, no citation would have been issued and this debate wouldn't exist - case closed.

I think your real intent was stated in your very first post, "we marked it on my buddies card so i wouldnt have 3 fish limit on my card". I believe you did this so you could keep more gear in the water to better your chances. Nothing wrong with that at all, and I do it too, the exception being if I am one fish away from a limit, I never touch a rod unless I'm counting it toward my personal limit, and that means from hookup to the net. If I do, and I successfully complete my limit, the rods I am licensed to use (2 in my case if legal on the body of water being fished) get stowed immediately. This, IMO, is where you went wrong, and got caught for doing so.

Let's look at this from a different angle...

fishenfreak wrote:I reeled a fish in that my buddy did all the work to set up the gear, bait the hook and set the hook and hold the rod until the fish was under control, because i merely reeled it in, in my opinion, DOES NOT mean that it must go on my card.

So you feel it is your buddy's fish and he should mark his card for it because he did all the work except reel the fish in.

How does this work when you have client's on board? Let's change ONE word...

I reeled a fish in that my GUIDE did all the work to set up the gear, bait the hook, set the hook and hold the rod until the fish was under control, but because i merely reeled it in, in my opinion, it DOES NOT mean that it must go on my card.

Now who's fish is it?? Using your logic about the ticket would mean every client you do this for doesn't have to mark their tag and every fish caught, even though you didn't reel it in, counts toward YOUR limit.

Bodo is right about one thing, all of our opinions are just that, opinions. The only opinion that matters will be the one the judge has. You presented your situation here for feedback and advice whether you openly stated so or not, and you've gotten plenty on both sides of the issue.

Good luck in court and I suggest you DO NOT bring a copy of this thread with you.

Bodofish wrote:

dutchman2858 wrote:Bodofish: You are absolutely correct that "freak" has the right to go to court...but your "...you goons..." comment is off base. "Fishenfreak" initiated the thread to express his outrage at what he perceived as mistreatment by the wardens, and to garner vindication from other members for that outrage. He got plenty...but he also got disagreement with his position. Those dissention opionions are also guaranteed by the Constitution.

While the court decision will settle the issue of this ticket...it will not have any affect on "Fishenfreaks" (or your) opinions. If the court sides with him and dismisses the charge he will get his vindication and be able to crow, "I was right!" If the court upholds the ticket and fines him, he will state, "They made a mistake...if they had understood what really happened they would have dismissed the ticket!" That's no condemnation of "Freak" it's human nature. Good thread, though!

It's a perfect use of the word and not off base at all, he doesn't deserve to be bullied by any of the posters telling him to just buck and take his punishment. There is no punishment to take unless the Judge deems it so.

SO IF YOU DON'T LIKE IT, TOO BAD.

going through all that trouble was ridiculous hewescrafter,

Your right, IT IS MY OPINION that we were in our rights to mark the fish on his card, and its my opinion because ITS NOT IN THE RULE BOOK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!anywhere, at all, no rule against what i did, anywhere, ever ever ever.

i honestly would have felt like i was stealing his fish if i marked it, because all good fishermen know reeling them in is the easy part, its tricking the fish is who really caught it... (such as guides, ect...) and since there IS NO RULE we figured hell yea, you can mark it you got it to bite, all i did was reel it in when you were busy. I HAD NO IDEA THIS WAS "illegal" (at least in the wardens mind)

for one, everything in red you highlighted in big, annoying letters is CONSISTANT. my buddy set the hook, handed off to me when another fish bites, he loses his, we net his fish that i was fighting because he was busy, marked it on his card because he got the bite and initially fought the fish. Whats is ur point, because i read it over and it was consistant


except one time, ONLY once i accidentally wrote it bit on my rod when it was on his... it was a mistake. YES he hadnt caught one AT THE TIME of the double, but caught fish later explaining why we had 2 marks each when the warden stopped us.

Do you not understand that it was all his fish, and i only fought it because i was FORCED to? he set the hook fought it for 10 or so seconds and was forced to hand off. NOWHERE in the rule book does it say because i fought HIS fish that i must mark it, NOWHERE,

so do you see why i am angry at the ticket? A 540$ ticket for something that is NOT WRITTEN IN THE RULEBOOK? yes its opinion on whethere i should have marked it or not, but a warden should NOT be able to give a ticket for his opinion,

MY FINAL STATEMENT: Im just trying to be realistic, it was suppose to be my buddies fish, he hooked it on his bait, his pole, his gear, and had to hand off since we had a double. I thought in all honesty that simply because i reeled it in does not mean i have to mark it, and APPARENTLY i am correct because there is no written rule against it. Opinions are opinions but a true fishermen knows that reeling in the fish is the easy part, which is why we gave credit to my buddy for the fish, thus marking it on his card.

im going to court soon (today) and once i post the results END of story. OK ps how does being blasted with the rainbow feel?

hewesfisher did the color...not motoboat....just saying.
good luck at court.

goodtimesfishing wrote:hewesfisher did the color...not motoboat....just saying.
good luck at court.

correction made!

Well the moment you've all been waiting for...

It took me all of 4 minutes for the judge to throw the ticket out.

First, the ticket was for retained 3 sockeye and continuing to fish, however, since i had 2 marked on my card, the warden apparently wrote the wrong ticket and it cannot hold up

Secondly, apparently the judge knows a thing or two about the fishin rule book because when i told him that my buddy got the bite on his rod, set the hook and handed off after a few seconds because of the double, he clearly stated that because there is nothing in the rule book clarifying who must mark a fish, the ticket is bogus.

He mentioned that with something like this it is kind of difficult to decide, he said if it were my fish, on my rod and i marked it on my buddies card, then he would have kept the ticket because that is obviously not his fish, but the situation we were in, the judge said it was totally reasonable to mark it on his card.

I told him i felt like i was stealing his fish if i marked it because he got the bite, but was forced to handoff, and he totally understood what happened and threw out the ticket, and left me with something like be careful next time, don't actually land the fish, if it happens again just keep it tight and wait, then hand back off when the other fisherman is free and ready for him to bring it to the net.

Thank God

Congrats fishenfreak!

Good news! I'm not impressed with local law enforcement but our judges are very reasonable IME. I still can't get over that this snake followed you around all morning. I suppose he was on the clock & burning government gas, for what??

Congrats on your successful contesting of the ticket.

Bigsky-the second he saw us catching fish he was all over us, i suppose after wasting all that time and money he figured he had to write a ticket for something... what a waste of his, and MY time.

thanks mike and dutch

congrats!! glad you got a judge that can understand.

fishenfreak wrote:going through all that trouble was ridiculous hewescrafter,

Opinions, we all have them, and it's hewesfisher btw.

fishenfreak wrote:OK ps how does being blasted with the rainbow feel?

Doesn't bother me a bit.

You might not think so, but I'm glad the ticket got thrown out for continuing to fish after retaining a limit. You, and the judge were right, the warden wrote the citation wrong.

Chalk it all up to a learning experience and the wise advice from the judge about next time, "left me with something like be careful next time, don't actually land the fish, if it happens again just keep it tight and wait, then hand back off when the other fisherman is free and ready for him to bring it to the net."

The highlighted part was my point all along and I see the judge agrees.

This is pure bs by this "warden" I sent a link to this thread to the director Phil Andersen and I hope he reads it. That way he will get a ear full on what we people who buy licenses and tackle to fish think about his fish cops on the water who pull this crapola off on us.

I think it's time to let this thread die.

bigskyx wrote:Good news! I'm not impressed with local law enforcement but our judges are very reasonable IME. I still can't get over that this snake followed you around all morning. I suppose he was on the clock & burning government gas, for what??

So those 2 could get in some free on-the-clock fishing.

No hard feelings heweslayer haha i knew what you were getting at and the judge said the same, still seems a little ridiculous in the big picture tho, as in who holds it for the last 5 seconds, but oh well, lesson learned!

reelinanrockin wrote:This is pure bs by this "warden" I sent a link to this thread to the director Phil Andersen and I hope he reads it. That way he will get a ear full on what we people who buy licenses and tackle to fish think about his fish cops on the water who pull this crapola off on us.

I sent them a cute little letter as well

fishenfreak wrote:

reelinanrockin wrote:This is pure bs by this "warden" I sent a link to this thread to the director Phil Andersen and I hope he reads it. That way he will get a ear full on what we people who buy licenses and tackle to fish think about his fish cops on the water who pull this crapola off on us.

I sent them a cute little letter as well

Since this is the largest fishing website in the Pacific N.W., I'm pretty sure that someone in the WDFW has already read this thread, based on the title of it alone.
Sometimes it is best to settle an issue quietly in court and not shine a spotlight on yourself.
WDFW does a lot more good than bad. I'm thankful that we have them or the quality of our fishing waters would be in a lot worse condition than we have now.
I would hate to see this thread continue to be a Game Official bashing thread......let it die.