Post by ActionPoint on Apr 17, 2007 22:44:34 GMT -5
After many years of contemplating fishing the Maumee river walleye run my friend and I decided to actually head over there and do some fishing this year. Now I have heard some of the horror stories, but I figured most were just exaggerations or here say. Well the first time we attempted to fish the Maumee this year the weather was terrible. We fished all day and ended up foul hooking 3 fish between the 2 of us. A full day's effort plus licenses and gas and we left for home empty handed.
We decided that we would pay closer attention to the weather next time and use a live bait presentation this time in hopes of actually getting a fish to eat the bait. Well, everything came together today. A good push of fish were in the river, we keyed in on a spot where the fish were holding and they were tearing up our live bait presentation. It was a sweet redemption compared to lack of success we had in our previous effort.
Apparently our success was causing some chatter among the other anglers and spectators and also came to the attention of the DNR. In a rather quick fashion another "angler" enters the water and wades next to our boat. Now, i'm not a rocket scientist but by the this guy's instant line of questioning and discussion it didn't take much to figure out he was CO. Not a problem, but shortly thereafter the insinuating remarks started. Now it's great to make sure everbody is clear on the law, but I find it offensive when someone makes insinuations when I know the laws and am following them. Especially when my friend and I are making it a point to show the other fisherman around us that the fish we are catching are hooked legally.
Well, basically this guy warned us that the DNR was up at the parking lot "keeping and eye on us" and we'll no doubt get stopped when we were ready to leave. I know that the DNR is always glassing the anglers checking for people snagging fish and I knew they had been watching us. But at this point i'd had enough. I said in a matter of fact way that if there was something to be said then just go ahead and say it. We had nothing to hide, all of the fish on our stringers were hooked legally in the mouth and we released 20+ others that were legal (we were using live bait and the jacks were on the feed). All fish that were foul hooked were immediately released. We were getting bad vibes and we definitely felt like something shady was going down.
Well of course when we head back to shore two CO's were waiting on us. We showed them our fish and our licenses and then one of the officers proceeded to pull me aside and say that one of my fish was hooked illegally. Apparently he believed that one of my fish was snagged. Instantly i'm thinking it's all b.s. and the guy is just bustin my chops. That was until I was escorted to the courthouse+. Now i'm P'd. I've had a great day fishing, i've got a full stringer of HONEST CAUGHT fish and the day is turning to hell pretty quickly.
Obviously i'm thinking there is no way things are going down like this. I always obey the laws, i've always done the work and I pride myself on having honest successes in the field or on the water. I've never been in any trouble with the law and i'm getting pinched for something that I didn't do and have no way of exhonerating myself for. My word, my buddies word and the word of the dozen or so people around me fishing meant absolutely nothing.
Now this is where things get shady IMO. This whole thing is set-up like a Wal-Mart U-scan. Walk in, cough up the $107 and be on your way. Like it's no big deal, you're just feeding a money machine. They really try to make it seem like a normal transaction. The resource and it's protection seems to have been completely lost somewhere along the way. It's barely a slap on the wrist and frankly I think it's an embarassment to all of the agencies involved.
So now I am at the courthouse with the officer and the clerk, and I notice the court date on the ticket is April 20th. I'm like whoa, the 20th, that's only 3 days away. Now the CO seems very surprised that I mentioned the court date like I may challenge the ticket. Not in an angry way, but moreso like he didn't really want me to challenge it for whatever reason. I know how these things work, Mother Theresa and the Pope could testify on your behalf but the ticket is still going to stick. There is no burden of proof. Most of the time it's justice, sometimes it's not, but it's just the way it is. However, if you want to steal $107 from me I want the opportunity to voice my displeasure in the proper setting. Well so much for that thinking, I've got $50 cash, my drivers license and my fishing license. My buddy has his check card with $25 in his account and a Discover card which the court does not accept. That means since i'm from out of state and I don't have money to post bond, i'm on my way to jail until my old lady gets off work and comes and bails me out. But wait, the CO says that because i'm being "nice about things" he will try to see if I can avoid jail by copping to the ticket and making a partial payment of the $50 cash I had. So i'm left with two choices. If I want to wait and contest the ticket I can sit in jail for 7 hours until I get bailed out or, I can cop to the ticket, pay $50 now and go home. Wow, that's not coercive. Obviously I decided to cut my losses and head home. All I can say is never again. Ohio got the last $118 they will ever get from me.
We decided that we would pay closer attention to the weather next time and use a live bait presentation this time in hopes of actually getting a fish to eat the bait. Well, everything came together today. A good push of fish were in the river, we keyed in on a spot where the fish were holding and they were tearing up our live bait presentation. It was a sweet redemption compared to lack of success we had in our previous effort.
Apparently our success was causing some chatter among the other anglers and spectators and also came to the attention of the DNR. In a rather quick fashion another "angler" enters the water and wades next to our boat. Now, i'm not a rocket scientist but by the this guy's instant line of questioning and discussion it didn't take much to figure out he was CO. Not a problem, but shortly thereafter the insinuating remarks started. Now it's great to make sure everbody is clear on the law, but I find it offensive when someone makes insinuations when I know the laws and am following them. Especially when my friend and I are making it a point to show the other fisherman around us that the fish we are catching are hooked legally.
Well, basically this guy warned us that the DNR was up at the parking lot "keeping and eye on us" and we'll no doubt get stopped when we were ready to leave. I know that the DNR is always glassing the anglers checking for people snagging fish and I knew they had been watching us. But at this point i'd had enough. I said in a matter of fact way that if there was something to be said then just go ahead and say it. We had nothing to hide, all of the fish on our stringers were hooked legally in the mouth and we released 20+ others that were legal (we were using live bait and the jacks were on the feed). All fish that were foul hooked were immediately released. We were getting bad vibes and we definitely felt like something shady was going down.
Well of course when we head back to shore two CO's were waiting on us. We showed them our fish and our licenses and then one of the officers proceeded to pull me aside and say that one of my fish was hooked illegally. Apparently he believed that one of my fish was snagged. Instantly i'm thinking it's all b.s. and the guy is just bustin my chops. That was until I was escorted to the courthouse+. Now i'm P'd. I've had a great day fishing, i've got a full stringer of HONEST CAUGHT fish and the day is turning to hell pretty quickly.
Obviously i'm thinking there is no way things are going down like this. I always obey the laws, i've always done the work and I pride myself on having honest successes in the field or on the water. I've never been in any trouble with the law and i'm getting pinched for something that I didn't do and have no way of exhonerating myself for. My word, my buddies word and the word of the dozen or so people around me fishing meant absolutely nothing.
Now this is where things get shady IMO. This whole thing is set-up like a Wal-Mart U-scan. Walk in, cough up the $107 and be on your way. Like it's no big deal, you're just feeding a money machine. They really try to make it seem like a normal transaction. The resource and it's protection seems to have been completely lost somewhere along the way. It's barely a slap on the wrist and frankly I think it's an embarassment to all of the agencies involved.
So now I am at the courthouse with the officer and the clerk, and I notice the court date on the ticket is April 20th. I'm like whoa, the 20th, that's only 3 days away. Now the CO seems very surprised that I mentioned the court date like I may challenge the ticket. Not in an angry way, but moreso like he didn't really want me to challenge it for whatever reason. I know how these things work, Mother Theresa and the Pope could testify on your behalf but the ticket is still going to stick. There is no burden of proof. Most of the time it's justice, sometimes it's not, but it's just the way it is. However, if you want to steal $107 from me I want the opportunity to voice my displeasure in the proper setting. Well so much for that thinking, I've got $50 cash, my drivers license and my fishing license. My buddy has his check card with $25 in his account and a Discover card which the court does not accept. That means since i'm from out of state and I don't have money to post bond, i'm on my way to jail until my old lady gets off work and comes and bails me out. But wait, the CO says that because i'm being "nice about things" he will try to see if I can avoid jail by copping to the ticket and making a partial payment of the $50 cash I had. So i'm left with two choices. If I want to wait and contest the ticket I can sit in jail for 7 hours until I get bailed out or, I can cop to the ticket, pay $50 now and go home. Wow, that's not coercive. Obviously I decided to cut my losses and head home. All I can say is never again. Ohio got the last $118 they will ever get from me.
ed. so i show up in court judge ask how i plead i say not guilty i have the tape to prove it. prosacuter asked to see it. my layer replyed if this proceding goes any farther he will display the tape in court, and also file a suite against the state. the case continued in court all charges were dropped, but they still expected me to pay a 3 month impound fee. that will also be in the suite along with travel expences and lawyer fees. needless to say i got the lawyers fees covered impound fees covered, and the co got suspended with out pay for 2 months.
