Any one have a good game warden story?
I have a couple but I want to see what direction this thread takes before I share........
I have a couple but I want to see what direction this thread takes before I share........
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Game Warden stories
- Thread starter Skeptic1
- Start date
Are you for or against the King's Men who think they are above the constitution and the law and think they are their own special brand of all powerful tyrant?
Never met a good one. I'm sure they exist though. Every single interaction I've ever had was guilty until proven innocent. I've never been ticketed for any game or fishing violation BTW.
Game Wardens are my least favorite law enforcement. When I drive past one, I flip em off every time.
Had one try to run me and my kids off a logging road once. Said I was trying to avoid her and wanted to know what I was trying to hide. We passed each other both waved. Her hand didn't leave her steering wheel. She just raised a couple of fingers to wave. I did the same. She later told me that she tried waving me over.
Knew one growing up around Raleigh. He would check folks fish when fishing. He'd purposefully find a reason to confiscate their fish and their gear. Only on Fridays though......
He'd call his wife on the way home and tell her "get the grease and the kids ready babe, we having fish tonight!".
He'd give out nice rod and reels for Christmas gifts as well!
He NEVER went in the woods during deer season though.
I wonder why?
He'd call his wife on the way home and tell her "get the grease and the kids ready babe, we having fish tonight!".
He'd give out nice rod and reels for Christmas gifts as well!
He NEVER went in the woods during deer season though.
I wonder why?
I am super pro law enforcement, with the exception of game wardens. Never trust them.
Know 1 doing life for murder for hire on his wife. 2 more doing 10 for theft,embellishments. Absolute power Absolutely corrupts. Former le but Absolutely despise game wardens. Lowest of the low.
The absolute sorriests, chickenshit individual I ever knew, so sorry he took pride in being a chickenshit, sucked and snitched his way into becoming a Game Warden.
He told everyone, including those he trespassed and poached with and sold his drug dealing brother's dope to, when he became a warden if "you beat the shit out of me, you're fucking with the state."
He told everyone, including those he trespassed and poached with and sold his drug dealing brother's dope to, when he became a warden if "you beat the shit out of me, you're fucking with the state."
So far interactions have been positive. This is on private property.
While Deer hunting on horses and we talked to one. He asked if any issues with road hunters and didn’t even ask for hunting license or question us about having loaded guns on a road! (this was 20 plus years ago.)
Last year a nephew had his truck parked at a gate and they noticed corn. My BIL stopped by to talk. They asked whose truck and where he was. They wanted to check his license. BIL calls him since they wanted him to send a picture of License. They didn’t want to ruin his hunt - or too lazy to walk that far? He didn’t have one! They just told him to get one and they would check. And make sure to spread the corn vs piling it up.
We had a Louisiana officer come to a meeting to address a bunch of guys. He was nice and seemed to only want to go after more serious offenses. I asked about deer transported from ms to processor in LA. La requires a tag where MS doesn’t. He said as long as I have a ms license they wouldn’t ticket me. Are they all like this? I doubt it…
While Deer hunting on horses and we talked to one. He asked if any issues with road hunters and didn’t even ask for hunting license or question us about having loaded guns on a road! (this was 20 plus years ago.)
Last year a nephew had his truck parked at a gate and they noticed corn. My BIL stopped by to talk. They asked whose truck and where he was. They wanted to check his license. BIL calls him since they wanted him to send a picture of License. They didn’t want to ruin his hunt - or too lazy to walk that far? He didn’t have one! They just told him to get one and they would check. And make sure to spread the corn vs piling it up.
We had a Louisiana officer come to a meeting to address a bunch of guys. He was nice and seemed to only want to go after more serious offenses. I asked about deer transported from ms to processor in LA. La requires a tag where MS doesn’t. He said as long as I have a ms license they wouldn’t ticket me. Are they all like this? I doubt it…
Mid 70’s, while duck hunting, we motored (electric trolling motor) through our 5-6 dozen decoy spread. WA state game agent contacted us, and told my dad he had “Molested the waterfowl”. My dad’s response was “My pants weren’t even down”. Gamey ticketed my dad, took it court and dismissed. I was an LEO for 30yrs., and still don’t trust them.
We've got some gray area ATV laws.
I had a friend get a hunting with an ATV fine after pull/pushing the warden out of the ditch.
I had a friend get a hunting with an ATV fine after pull/pushing the warden out of the ditch.
Nope. Had one run-in with a warden years ago, and that run in actually resulted in the game warden being reprimanded and a full change to a state law. He was one of the most accusatory, unprofessional assholes I have ever come across. This guys picture was next to Napoleon syndrome in the dictionary and it was comical how much of a prick he was.
This happened to a cousin of mine.
He was sitting in a blind on his own land, rifle sitting on a shelf, barrel sticking out a window. GW driving by, saw the rifle, decided to walk across the field to check his license. My cousin came out of his blind to see WTF this asshole was doing. He had his license in his wallet, so the fish cop couldn't get him for that. But it was a warm day and my cousin took his coat off and left it on a hook in the blind. He got a ticket for not wearing orange.
This happened to me.
In MI, it's illegal to shine deer from 11/15~11/30 except on your own land, or land owned by an immediate relative. I'd been hunting on my grandparents land on the 30th, got dark, I was packing up to leave. Started my truck while putting my stuff away so my headlights were on, and shining right into some really thick brush that I'd parked in front of. Lady fish cop decided to stop and give me a ticket for shining deer.
Problem #1, there's no way in hell I was shining thru that brush. Problem #2 it was my grandparents land, an immediate relative. She was determined to get me for something, but my gun was already unloaded, in a case, and in the back of my truck. I had already taken off my orange coat and put it in my truck too, but since it was after dark on the 30th, firearm deer season was over. She ended up leaving disappointed.
Another one. I had someone shoot a deer across the property line on my land. I followed the blood trail, found the deer, and left it there for a couple hours to see if anyone would come to claim it. Nope. I called the poaching hotline, they didn't give a shit, said I could do pretty much whatever with it. I dragged it to my house and gutted it, a nephew came and put a tag on it and took it home.
I'm done dealing with fish cops. I haven't hunted anywhere besides my own land for 20 years, and I won't ever again.
He was sitting in a blind on his own land, rifle sitting on a shelf, barrel sticking out a window. GW driving by, saw the rifle, decided to walk across the field to check his license. My cousin came out of his blind to see WTF this asshole was doing. He had his license in his wallet, so the fish cop couldn't get him for that. But it was a warm day and my cousin took his coat off and left it on a hook in the blind. He got a ticket for not wearing orange.
This happened to me.
In MI, it's illegal to shine deer from 11/15~11/30 except on your own land, or land owned by an immediate relative. I'd been hunting on my grandparents land on the 30th, got dark, I was packing up to leave. Started my truck while putting my stuff away so my headlights were on, and shining right into some really thick brush that I'd parked in front of. Lady fish cop decided to stop and give me a ticket for shining deer.
Problem #1, there's no way in hell I was shining thru that brush. Problem #2 it was my grandparents land, an immediate relative. She was determined to get me for something, but my gun was already unloaded, in a case, and in the back of my truck. I had already taken off my orange coat and put it in my truck too, but since it was after dark on the 30th, firearm deer season was over. She ended up leaving disappointed.
Another one. I had someone shoot a deer across the property line on my land. I followed the blood trail, found the deer, and left it there for a couple hours to see if anyone would come to claim it. Nope. I called the poaching hotline, they didn't give a shit, said I could do pretty much whatever with it. I dragged it to my house and gutted it, a nephew came and put a tag on it and took it home.
I'm done dealing with fish cops. I haven't hunted anywhere besides my own land for 20 years, and I won't ever again.
Speaking of Napoleon syndrome, the punk I described in post #9 was about 5'6", weighed 240lbs. and wore 1" rubber soles on his boots to try and make him look taller. We called them his 'Lift kits', another reason he swore he would arrest us when he became a game warden.
He couldn't do one push-up or pull-up so he took his P.E. instructor in high school hunting to try and bribe him into giving him a passing grade.
Upon leaving, the coach was informed by a third party he had been hunting on Lower Colorado River Authority Park property where firearms and hunting were very much prohibited.
The disgusting fatbody, future game warden got an F in P.E.
The fact he couldn't do a push-up, much less make it over a barricade in the academy shows how political and strong the Good Ol' Boys system was in TPWD in the 70's.
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i live right next to the lake in my city. Been there 4 years(so not the longest time). Never seen a game warden until last year and then all the sudden they were there every weekend harassing anybody and everybody that was NEAR the water. My neighbor said some political bull shit went down and they were told to "generate revenue"... I learned all of this because we got ticketed for a life jacket infraction. I admitted fault, wasnt a dick, etc... Guy still wrote me the ticket... "whose the captain of this vessel"... "me"... I had on a blue trucker hat that said CAPTAIN on it with navy eggs on the bill... so no shit I'm the captain... LOL.... My neighbor asked me "who wrote you" and I said "officer xxxxxxxx" he said "that guys an asshole who would write his own mother a ticket".
I was out to dinner with my uncle a few weeks later. He's a retired cop of 30+ years that as far as I know "did it right"... told him the story and he said "thats chicken shit police work". He said he, outside of zero other interaction with me, and me not being a dick, would have had an education session with me on the law and told me if he caught me again for the same infraction its a ticket...
Went to pay the ticket as its a no points nothing ticket, just revenue generation, and the lady at the court house said "ive rarely seen a ticket from the lake and this year I have seen like 200+ tickets" and I said "its revenue generation from an asshole"... she looked at me like "yea no shit"...
They just broke ground on a new court house..................................
I was out to dinner with my uncle a few weeks later. He's a retired cop of 30+ years that as far as I know "did it right"... told him the story and he said "thats chicken shit police work". He said he, outside of zero other interaction with me, and me not being a dick, would have had an education session with me on the law and told me if he caught me again for the same infraction its a ticket...
Went to pay the ticket as its a no points nothing ticket, just revenue generation, and the lady at the court house said "ive rarely seen a ticket from the lake and this year I have seen like 200+ tickets" and I said "its revenue generation from an asshole"... she looked at me like "yea no shit"...
They just broke ground on a new court house..................................
I don’t have any stories. Only been checked for a license once.
However, the fact they can walk right in on you while pounding cheap beer in the fish house is fucking bullshit.
In MN, they don’t need a warrant, they just come on in.
However, the fact they can walk right in on you while pounding cheap beer in the fish house is fucking bullshit.
In MN, they don’t need a warrant, they just come on in.
Texas just passed a law recently that a GW can no longer enter private property without consent or a warrant.
Before, they were the most unrestricted branch of LE there was and could go anywhere, anytime on your private property they wanted to.
Before, they were the most unrestricted branch of LE there was and could go anywhere, anytime on your private property they wanted to.
Got checked once. I wasn’t ticketed or harassed.
Probably because it’s a small town and my dads……a guy.
Probably because it’s a small town and my dads……a guy.
I had one accuse me of jump shooting wood ducks even though he had no proof asked me why I had a trolling motor on my john boat I told him to propel the boat....LOL He says are you using it to sneak up on ducks I said no sir that's ileagel....LOL.
Only ticket I got from a game warden was for not having enough life jackets on my boat for all the people I had on board.
Only ticket I got from a game warden was for not having enough life jackets on my boat for all the people I had on board.
Fish officers, road pirates, beat cops, and fed terrorists all suck. They serve, protect, lie, cheat, and steal on behalf of gov’t. What a disgusting bunch of statists.
back several years ago,there was a bunch of them "under cover" at one of the main miami exits to the atlantic. always trying to befriend and trick people and try to scam a look in their ice chests,supposedly for "shorts". on the same line in have never heard of or witnessed anything involving the coast guard being anything but the actions of pigs in a boat. i even had to deal 1 time at a rifle range with their "tactical" unit. obnoxious,overbearing,entitled assholes all. they also were using your tax dollars for schmidts,pelicans,AIs,barretts and FGMM. their marksmanship was not especially intimidating.
In the early 2000s, Texas was revamping their hunting licenses- moving to an electronic system that printed the licenses in the spot. That first year, licenses looked like CVS receipts. You know what I’m talking about. Anyway, when I got my license, the clerk printed my HIP certification as a separate fucking CVS receipt. I didn’t realize the issue, and left that second print out at home when I went duck hunting with a couple of friends. Of course we were stopped as we were leaving the dock by a GW. He asked for licenses and asked about my HIP cert. That is when I realized what that second print was for. I explained what happened and he reiterated that it is supposed to be on your person, but didn’t write a ticket.
I got the “what’s in the cooler, son?” at a gas station around that same time. I showed him the skinned and quartered deer, the license, and the tagged head. Technically, proof of sex is supposed to stay on the carcass until final disposition, but he didn’t hassle us about anything.
GW showed up at our deer lease a few years ago. He hassled the guys that were there and wrote a couple of warnings regarding the “harvest logs” not being properly filled out, but no tickets. I had driven in to town to get breakfast (and probably buy something to fix my blind/feeder) and missed the festivities.
Sorry, pretty mundane stories. But, we have a couple of cops on our lease now, so I fully expect the next GW visit will entail a dick measuring contest…
I got the “what’s in the cooler, son?” at a gas station around that same time. I showed him the skinned and quartered deer, the license, and the tagged head. Technically, proof of sex is supposed to stay on the carcass until final disposition, but he didn’t hassle us about anything.
GW showed up at our deer lease a few years ago. He hassled the guys that were there and wrote a couple of warnings regarding the “harvest logs” not being properly filled out, but no tickets. I had driven in to town to get breakfast (and probably buy something to fix my blind/feeder) and missed the festivities.
Sorry, pretty mundane stories. But, we have a couple of cops on our lease now, so I fully expect the next GW visit will entail a dick measuring contest…
Us white people where always approached by fish and game at Show Lo lake. They would never approach the no abla english. We had one officer tell us the no abla never paid the fines so it was no use ticketing them.
I think most game wardens are pathological. They're always wanting you to think they're your friend, when all they're doing is getting inside to find something to write you up for. They're sneaky, dirty, underhanded worms and more or less, rejects who couldn't find any other job to do. Wouldn't piss on them if they were on fire.
This is very accurate.
In WA you have to be a damn lawyer to read the pamphlets. And even then you have to go online daily to see if they closed an area that was suppose to be open. So if your going by the book you are still wrong.
I knew him. Crooked as a dog's hind leg. In fact, BLEE's above analogy described him to a T. Friend to your face, invite you to dinner at his house and then try and bust you the next day.
He took that fat loser I described under his wing and was his mentor, getting him a job with TPWD before he went on to be become a GW.
The fat loser, who never changed his outlaw ways, got a DWI and was involved in a Felony Mischief incident which Grover told him how to lie, deny and get out of.
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In 25 years of hunting and fishing, mostly in super liberal west coast. I’ve had a dozen or so interactions with F&W. Most very positive, great folks who truly loved and enjoyed nature. Some even suggested new hunting/ fishing spots.
Unfortunately every basket has a bad apple or two..
A few years back a buddy and I were out late season duck hunting, after a long hike in 15* we get back to the truck around dark and there is a F&W officer parked blocking our truck from leaving.
He jumps out of his truck and tells us not to move, that he is going to do a “compliance check”.
Ok officer, here are our guns, licenses, etc. He goes through everything, has us empty every pocket, empties our packs, checks every shell we have, etc, etc. Even took my shotgun apart to make sure my plug couldn’t be “ easily removed “ whatever that means.
After standing around for 30 min in the now 10* weather we are really getting cold, like borderline hypothermia cold. But officer insists we need to remain outside our vehicle “ for safety “
After another 10 min we are both shivering uncontrollably and I tell the officer we are going to get in my truck or his, whichever he would prefer, but we need to get warm.
10 min of huffing and puffing about officer safety later, as we are now defrosting in my truck, He decided to write me a ticket for lead ammo in a non toxic only area.
Apparently When searching my truck, he found several empty 20 ga shells from lead loads. ( I always pick up any empties I find when hunting)
There was no 20 gauge gun, no loaded ammo, just the empty hulls. I tried explaining the obvious for a few minutes but got nowhere, so after 1.5 hours we were allowed to go on our way with the one ticket.
Unfortunately every basket has a bad apple or two..
A few years back a buddy and I were out late season duck hunting, after a long hike in 15* we get back to the truck around dark and there is a F&W officer parked blocking our truck from leaving.
He jumps out of his truck and tells us not to move, that he is going to do a “compliance check”.
Ok officer, here are our guns, licenses, etc. He goes through everything, has us empty every pocket, empties our packs, checks every shell we have, etc, etc. Even took my shotgun apart to make sure my plug couldn’t be “ easily removed “ whatever that means.
After standing around for 30 min in the now 10* weather we are really getting cold, like borderline hypothermia cold. But officer insists we need to remain outside our vehicle “ for safety “
After another 10 min we are both shivering uncontrollably and I tell the officer we are going to get in my truck or his, whichever he would prefer, but we need to get warm.
10 min of huffing and puffing about officer safety later, as we are now defrosting in my truck, He decided to write me a ticket for lead ammo in a non toxic only area.
Apparently When searching my truck, he found several empty 20 ga shells from lead loads. ( I always pick up any empties I find when hunting)
There was no 20 gauge gun, no loaded ammo, just the empty hulls. I tried explaining the obvious for a few minutes but got nowhere, so after 1.5 hours we were allowed to go on our way with the one ticket.
They had a decoy deer set up to catch people shooting from the road...on private property. My buddies land.
He drives by, spots the deer, recognizes that it is not a real deer. He slams on his brakes, jumps out of his truck with his 12 gauge, jumps the fence and runs right up to and unloads the shotgun on the head and antlers before they can get out of their hides. They are PISSED because he broke their toy. He just laughs at them, waiting, baiting. Finally, knowing they can't really ticket him for breaking their toy, ask him if he has permission to be on this property. He says, of course, he would never unlawfully trespass. So he asks them, do they have permission to be on this property. They act all super powerful and said yes. He laughed at them and asked if they would radio the sheriff for him. They want to know why and he says he is being harassed and wants a witness. They stupidly agree to call in the sheriff. When the sheriff arrives with a deputy, they greet my buddy by name, shake his hand. Then he drops the bomb...arrest these dick heads for trespassing and harassment. Sheriff writes them up and escorts them to their vehicles. Buddy took them to court and won but not really, it still cost him time and money.
He drives by, spots the deer, recognizes that it is not a real deer. He slams on his brakes, jumps out of his truck with his 12 gauge, jumps the fence and runs right up to and unloads the shotgun on the head and antlers before they can get out of their hides. They are PISSED because he broke their toy. He just laughs at them, waiting, baiting. Finally, knowing they can't really ticket him for breaking their toy, ask him if he has permission to be on this property. He says, of course, he would never unlawfully trespass. So he asks them, do they have permission to be on this property. They act all super powerful and said yes. He laughed at them and asked if they would radio the sheriff for him. They want to know why and he says he is being harassed and wants a witness. They stupidly agree to call in the sheriff. When the sheriff arrives with a deputy, they greet my buddy by name, shake his hand. Then he drops the bomb...arrest these dick heads for trespassing and harassment. Sheriff writes them up and escorts them to their vehicles. Buddy took them to court and won but not really, it still cost him time and money.
I reckon I've got an experience from several years back to share with regards to Game Warden interactions that left a bad taste in my mouth. To quickly set the stage- a coworker of mine invited a few of us to go waterfowl hunting with him and this is the fella that has the boat, decoys, and almost hunts waterfowl exclusively so had much more experience than we did. The catch was- he was a diehard waterfowl hunter and needed some help setting up all of the decoys/blind etc. and he was one of those early morning types. Now I'm NOT a morning person by any stretch and am fully in the night owl category but I was excited to receive the invite and agreed to meet him at the boat launch something like 0500 for this hunt which was about an already 45 minute or so drive. So I hardly got any sleep to speak of and there's the 4 of us at the launch loading up the boat with gear and shuttling everyone back and forth to an island in the middle of the river. We get the decoys & blind set up and it's probably January so quite literally freezing but we settle in and wait for first light/legal shooting hours. As we wait we notice that several hundred yards in front of us, facing down river, there's now another group on a distant island doing the same thing and this coworker is telling our group stories about how competitive & protective people are on 'their spots' and something about hanging a plastic jug to mark their perceived territory (on public grounds nevertheless). Well they're comfortably outside of shotgun range and just off to the side of our shooting lanes (probably at our 10 o'clock and shooting between 11-1 o'clock) with regards to how our blind was positioned so I didn't worry too much about it.
Anywho now that's out of the way- we get into legal hours and start calling and much to my surprise started having some success calling ducks in. We bring in a group and knock a few down- and then the coworker and another guy have to hop in the boat and chase the dead ducks down river (towards the other group) before the current carries them away. While the chase is on- we stop our hunt because our crew is in a position that wouldn't be safe to shoot for the two of us still on the island. We probably got only 2... maybe 3 volleys of this in before we notice a boat coming upstream from us and we're glassing them and notice that it's 2 game wardens and that they're glassing us. Of course they're doing this smack dab in our shooting lane, birds are flying overhead and we can't shoot with where their boat is positioned in the river. And they watch us watching them for... oh I'd say a good 15-20 minutes (again while birds are continuing to fly overhead and we can't safely take a shot at any of them even though they're right over our decoys). We also notice that they're only watching us and not the other group directly at their... 5 o'clock position.
Well eventually they put their binos down and start heading to the direction of the little island we were set up on. They approach our position, have us secure their boat and then once that was tied off- have us all unload our shotguns responding to a 'complaint' and looking for 'compliance'. We do as instructed and unload and then every one of our shotguns is inspected (slowly) to ensure not only what we had loaded was at legal capacity but that we all had the plugs installed to prevent us from loading more than we legally could and they seemed rather disappointed that we all checked out with only being able to load 2 shells in the tube. They checked all of our shells to make sure we didn't have any lead shot, and again were disappointed that we were all using steel/appropriate alternatives for lead and then searched our bags looking for 'hidden' lead shot rounds in our bags and didn't find anything. At this point they separated our group to perform license inspections (did I mention that birds were overhead and quite literally landing in the decoys we set up before daybreak while this is all going on?).
I was the first of the group to have their license checked and when I presented all of my documentation (I think someone mentioned the licenses being printed off like a CVS receipt and that was the case here) but they now suddenly kept harping on that they suspected us as drinking alcohol while hunting and I needed to "make things easier for me and my friends" by "coming clean". I assured them that nobody was drinking any alcohol and that we've been here since 0 dark thirty getting everything set up. They'd ask a few questions about my turkey tag then follow that with asking how many beers have we been drinking. I'd remind them that as they can clearly see- there's nothing but coffee thermos and water bottles at our blind. They'd come back with something like "oh, ok"-then go back to asking about my unfilled deer tags and throw in a "so how many wine coolers did this group drink", I repeated myself and we went onto my unfilled antler less tag, and they'd respond my answer with "so how many mixed drinks were you all drinking"... etc etc. Ducks and Geese are still swimming in our decoys but this is how my "license check" went and even though my shotgun was legally plugged, was shooting legal ammunition, clearly demonstrated there wasn't any alcoholic beverages in our tiny island sitting in the river, and had the proper waterfowl/migratory bird license & federal duck stamp they continued to grill me without any probable cause. I, of course, didn't get the opportunity to observe the other 3 license checks but afterwards, we all were sharing the same exact experience. Oh- the birds that were in our decoys had long since left by now and the crew that set up after we did were shooting throughout this 'random inspection'.
Well to skip over all the details- the next 3 people of our group were questioned and it wasn't until the last one said something about shooting a deer at his relatives place either this season or the previous that the game wardens changed their story for why they were talking to us completely and said that his deer tag from that season wasn't filled out and had to ticket him because he 'likely' shot that deer from either 3 months ago or 15 months ago but by not remembering which season implied some sort of acknowledgment of guilt and implicated himself by hiding it. Once they got their ticket written, they again had us hold their boat for them and they jetted off further upstream. After they left I remember the question being floated amongst the group was as they took their boat away, were they telling themselves "I can't believe that worked" or is that their SOP on filling tickets.
What really irritated me was throughout this (as I remember it at least) approximately during a 1.5-2 hour long process they kept saying as if they were trained to repeat it at a set interval that "they weren't interrupting our hunt". Which I'd estimate was once every 15 minutes or so despite us playing these games with them the whole time and not being able to pursue/shoot the game that was literally swimming in our decoys not even 30 yards out. And of course the crew downriver was now shooting up a storm. I'm pretty confident in the recollection of my memory because I distinctly remember them finally leaving after grilling us over a 'routine inspection' and having to immediately end our hunt because we needed to break down the blind and collect all of the decoys up by early afternoon so my coworker/the boat earner could get back to another commitment later that they had.
Whelp- that's a heck of a lot longer than I anticipated this would go on for and I have more to say but I'm sure most folks wouldn't read this post already due to its length so I'll save my alibi rounds for another post then.
-LD
Anywho now that's out of the way- we get into legal hours and start calling and much to my surprise started having some success calling ducks in. We bring in a group and knock a few down- and then the coworker and another guy have to hop in the boat and chase the dead ducks down river (towards the other group) before the current carries them away. While the chase is on- we stop our hunt because our crew is in a position that wouldn't be safe to shoot for the two of us still on the island. We probably got only 2... maybe 3 volleys of this in before we notice a boat coming upstream from us and we're glassing them and notice that it's 2 game wardens and that they're glassing us. Of course they're doing this smack dab in our shooting lane, birds are flying overhead and we can't shoot with where their boat is positioned in the river. And they watch us watching them for... oh I'd say a good 15-20 minutes (again while birds are continuing to fly overhead and we can't safely take a shot at any of them even though they're right over our decoys). We also notice that they're only watching us and not the other group directly at their... 5 o'clock position.
Well eventually they put their binos down and start heading to the direction of the little island we were set up on. They approach our position, have us secure their boat and then once that was tied off- have us all unload our shotguns responding to a 'complaint' and looking for 'compliance'. We do as instructed and unload and then every one of our shotguns is inspected (slowly) to ensure not only what we had loaded was at legal capacity but that we all had the plugs installed to prevent us from loading more than we legally could and they seemed rather disappointed that we all checked out with only being able to load 2 shells in the tube. They checked all of our shells to make sure we didn't have any lead shot, and again were disappointed that we were all using steel/appropriate alternatives for lead and then searched our bags looking for 'hidden' lead shot rounds in our bags and didn't find anything. At this point they separated our group to perform license inspections (did I mention that birds were overhead and quite literally landing in the decoys we set up before daybreak while this is all going on?).
I was the first of the group to have their license checked and when I presented all of my documentation (I think someone mentioned the licenses being printed off like a CVS receipt and that was the case here) but they now suddenly kept harping on that they suspected us as drinking alcohol while hunting and I needed to "make things easier for me and my friends" by "coming clean". I assured them that nobody was drinking any alcohol and that we've been here since 0 dark thirty getting everything set up. They'd ask a few questions about my turkey tag then follow that with asking how many beers have we been drinking. I'd remind them that as they can clearly see- there's nothing but coffee thermos and water bottles at our blind. They'd come back with something like "oh, ok"-then go back to asking about my unfilled deer tags and throw in a "so how many wine coolers did this group drink", I repeated myself and we went onto my unfilled antler less tag, and they'd respond my answer with "so how many mixed drinks were you all drinking"... etc etc. Ducks and Geese are still swimming in our decoys but this is how my "license check" went and even though my shotgun was legally plugged, was shooting legal ammunition, clearly demonstrated there wasn't any alcoholic beverages in our tiny island sitting in the river, and had the proper waterfowl/migratory bird license & federal duck stamp they continued to grill me without any probable cause. I, of course, didn't get the opportunity to observe the other 3 license checks but afterwards, we all were sharing the same exact experience. Oh- the birds that were in our decoys had long since left by now and the crew that set up after we did were shooting throughout this 'random inspection'.
Well to skip over all the details- the next 3 people of our group were questioned and it wasn't until the last one said something about shooting a deer at his relatives place either this season or the previous that the game wardens changed their story for why they were talking to us completely and said that his deer tag from that season wasn't filled out and had to ticket him because he 'likely' shot that deer from either 3 months ago or 15 months ago but by not remembering which season implied some sort of acknowledgment of guilt and implicated himself by hiding it. Once they got their ticket written, they again had us hold their boat for them and they jetted off further upstream. After they left I remember the question being floated amongst the group was as they took their boat away, were they telling themselves "I can't believe that worked" or is that their SOP on filling tickets.
What really irritated me was throughout this (as I remember it at least) approximately during a 1.5-2 hour long process they kept saying as if they were trained to repeat it at a set interval that "they weren't interrupting our hunt". Which I'd estimate was once every 15 minutes or so despite us playing these games with them the whole time and not being able to pursue/shoot the game that was literally swimming in our decoys not even 30 yards out. And of course the crew downriver was now shooting up a storm. I'm pretty confident in the recollection of my memory because I distinctly remember them finally leaving after grilling us over a 'routine inspection' and having to immediately end our hunt because we needed to break down the blind and collect all of the decoys up by early afternoon so my coworker/the boat earner could get back to another commitment later that they had.
Whelp- that's a heck of a lot longer than I anticipated this would go on for and I have more to say but I'm sure most folks wouldn't read this post already due to its length so I'll save my alibi rounds for another post then.
-LD
You are either a bot or should write a fucking book on a bunch of bullshit that no one will ever read.
In AK, our fish cops are mostly brown shirts. Alaska state troopers with a fish cop assignment. I’ve had great interactions with them, but I’m sure negative is out there as well. Most of them are hunters/fisherman themselves. The federal fish cops are another story. Those guys can go fuck themselves, the same with the lady flying the bird counting plane who actively herds birds away from hunters.
I'm sure it's the latter. I completely understand that you don't have the attention span to digest my post and that's ok with me- even though you didn't care to read that far into my remarks- I actually did surprisingly address that very same comment that you left expecting the same remark would follow.
The TL/DR version is yep- the GW's don't exactly have a great reputation but felt I should at least provide some of the backstory of where my statistically insignificant experience of one was coming from was all and not play into the typical "ACAB" nonsense. My apologies if that didn't meet your clearly high expectations but to be fair- I wrote my post for a broader audience than one and (if you can believe it) even tried to reduce my comments down from what I was planning/wanted to once I noticed the length.
-LD
Please believe, I have the attention span, reading comprehension, and education, to digest your posts. Tbh, I didn’t read your entire post as I find your writing style to be tedious and pedantic. From your posts, you might be either a boomer who has recently discovered the internet to a Russian bot. We don’t see such a formal writing style except from an esl or a bot, around here. To prove the point either way, just say ‘fuck’ in response, anyway you like.
You bunch of haters!! Put on the uniform and walk in their shoes! Until you have done that you can STFU!!
Can we not turn this thread into a pissing match. I'm enjoying it so far.
I took my two daughters fishing when they were young enough to not need a license. When we were loading up the truck to go home a fish cop pulled up and asked me for a license. I told him that I was not fishing that only the girls were. He said that he was going to write me a ticket for fishing without a license so I asked him if he witnessed that. He said no but the evidence suggested that I was. I told him to write the ticket and I will see you in court so you can lie to the judge. The fucker wrote the ticket. After realizing that he was just using the system to fuck with me I just sent a copy of the license with the ticket to the court.
They don't care because they are getting paid to show up for the court days. I would have to take time off from work and waste a day of my life. So I still get fucked and the judge, his boss or anyone in charge wouldn't do a damn thing to the POS fish cop for being a liar.
Years later I got a service call from him to repair his HVAC system. He didn't remember me. He unknowingly paid the tax for being a POS.
They don't care because they are getting paid to show up for the court days. I would have to take time off from work and waste a day of my life. So I still get fucked and the judge, his boss or anyone in charge wouldn't do a damn thing to the POS fish cop for being a liar.
Years later I got a service call from him to repair his HVAC system. He didn't remember me. He unknowingly paid the tax for being a POS.
Sounds to me like we're closer to agreeing with each other on stuff than you give me credit for.
-LD
I knew one of the people personally involved in this fiasco which unfortunately irreparably harmed the image of all green jeans out there. They jacked this one up so bad, it resulted in congressional hearings.
Is that the same woman who flies to count caribou? Fuck her right in the neck if so.
This never happened, you were too busy with your sex toys by your own account
