Another low life caught. The State needs to change the regs and take this guys license away for a while, he doesn't deserve to fish!

http://news.bellinghamherald.com/stories/20040302/LocalState/179141.shtml

While it is nice to know that there is at least SOME enforcement out there, it simply isn't enough. This guy took 8 wild steelhead in a week and was reported more than once. The fact that he was actually caught was more a matter of luck than a result of adequate enforcement. The problem is that unless you have enforcement officers drifting the river several times a day, you simply don't even see most people fishing (not to mention the private nets that some riverside residents feel entitled to use). The only thing I can imagine that would actually help would be many more enforcement officers or a vigilante fisherman program, because phoning in a violator just isn't very effective.

"After he allowed officers to search his car, they found a rain jacket smeared in blood. Nelson eventually confessed he had thrown the steelhead out of the car when he saw the Fish and Wildlife cars."

Poaching a resource that belongs to all of us and then throwing it out the window of a moving vehicle. Lovely. Not only does this Jeremiah Nelson, 29, of Ferndale, have no respect for the resource, but he also has no respect for the other anglers who follow the rules.

Quote: "Most of the wild steelhead in the Nooksack River originate from a hatchery run by the private organization Washington Trout on the river's middle fork. "
Huh??? Wild Steelhead from the Hatchery? Is this a brood stock type program, or something like that Snider Creek thing?
Please enlighten me.
Thanks

Threw the fish out the window.....well that takes the "I didnt know the req's" excuse away now all we have to do is determine weather he was starving on welfare and that caused him to poach.....Ill bet someone hide his welfare check under his work boots and now hes hungry..>DJ

One of the best parts was:

>>The citations were given after enforcement officers stepped up patrols during the last week of the steelhead fishing season because of a number of complaints from the public about sports fishers illegally taking wild steelhead from the river....<<

Legal fishermen need to feel obligated and be willing to Turn In Poachers. Yeah, I think it sucks too...but anyone who steals a WILD fish from the river is stealing a portion of the future of that wild stock.

I don't like getting ripped off.

On one hand, I hate the thought of being a "narc", but a crook is a crook. Always have my cell phone on hand when I'm fishing and wouldn't hesitate to call in a poacher. We might not like doing that sort of thing...but it is the right thing to do.

Mike

It should be legal to thrash them on the spot Judge Roy Bean style, fair trial followed imeadiately by a proper hangin:-)

"Most of the wild steelhead in the Nooksack River originate from a hatchery run by the private organization Washington Trout on the river's middle fork. "

I dont think that Washington Trout would be associated with a hatchery operation.. :p the reporter was off base. Trout Unlimited has had a imprint pond of the river for years, and has help build back the run, its a crime that some people just dont get it...
I hope they get there justice..
It sucks when TU and others do all that work to restore fish and then Joe Blow decides to steal what we are all working so hard to save.

I remember a while back guy name John Wayne Bobbit that has his "thing" thrown out the window, maybe this should be the penalty for throwing out a wild steelhead, but again maybe that would not be a stiff (no pun intended) enough penalty.

Washington trout has nothing to do with the nooksack. I am in the TU club here. We have been raising these extra fish, with money from an auction we've had the last two years. No these are not broodstocked fish we want to start the broodstocking again but everyone is afraid the tribes will while the wild fish are running. All the fish we help raise are clipped.

There are rearing ponds on the middle fork of the Nooksack... I think they call them McKennan Ponds but they might have a different name. Couldnt tell you why they are saying that they are wild fish tho...

PimpinShrimp prolly knows the name.

TTT

His name was not Joe Blow, it was JEREMIAH NELSON, 29, of Ferndale. Just clarifying. We wouldn't want Joe to take any heat for the acts of JEREMIAH NELSON, 29, of Ferndale.