I went down to the local planter pond after work today for a couple of hours. Didn't want to plunk so decided to cast some of my favorite trolling lures. Started out with the floating rapala that usualy knocks em dead but they werent in the mood for that. So I switched to a deep diving rapala. Two casts and got wedged in the rocks or hooked a log and lost the lure. Went back to the floater and got a strike. Saw a couple of plunkers catch some little ones on powerbait. Water was a little dingy so I thought I would put something a little more flashy and colorful. I switched to a blue fox spinner with a yellow tail. I made a couple of cast with that then I got to talking to one of the plunkers for a while. He decided to leave and three casts after he left I hooked into a 16" bow. It put up a pretty good snuff for a hatchery jumbo. That was it though, I didn't get another bight.

I saw this one guy catch two little planters and put them on his stringer. He let them sit their for an hour or so the he got up pulled the fish off the striger an put them back in water. The poor bastards were out there belly up. I gues the guy felt sorry for them or something becuase he tried to revive them by throwng sticks and rocks at them. What a knuckle head.

Another guy was having a decent day casting and he had about four of the jumbo's they have planted in there. The thing is that the rules say you cant retain more than two over 13" out of this pond. What a knuckle head.

I wanted to ask these guys why they were doing what they were doing but I just kept right on a casting. Does anybody here confront people when thet are doing stuff like this?

call in a ranger



rules are rules. if everyone fished like this, just imagine what would happen

Knuckleheads abound in Washington State! North, south, east, west...it doesn't matter. The WDFW spends large amounts of money publishing regs, yet lots of folks are unwilling or unable to read them, despite the section entitled "How To Use this Pamphlet" and it's step by step instructions. And of course there are not enough officers to cover all of our waters so we have to police our own ranks. Rarely is there an officer around when one is needed.

I've found that the "politically correct" approach works quite well. Often times just a friendly reminder is enough to steer someone in the right direction and effect positive change. Some folks are genuinely naive/ignorant to rules simply because they failed to read up before fishing a new body of water. But occasionally you'll run into the extreme knucklehead who will rant and rave and talk some silly crap about how he pay his taxes, too (like paying our taxes entitles us to not follow posted regs). I've actually seen people go to blows over this...no kidding, bringing in the local police!!!

Yep, and the fish don't get any love. I've seen people drag them to the bank, bounce them around on rocks for a minute or so, squeeze them to death while yanking a swallowed hook, then throw them several feet through the air enroute back to the water (while conveniently forgetting that the fish in questions counts against their daily limit because it was caught with bait).

One thing I've found helpful is to tell them about the reg and say something like "I've seen WDFW here recently and they were passing out tickets - if I were you I'd ..." Regardless of whether WDFW was in the area, this approach always gets a pause from the offender and they usually stop what they were doing (or leave). Using this approach does two things - it educates the offender that they are doing something illegal and it usually stops the action. And done this way you look like a guy just trying to warn someone instead of a guy who is harrasing them, which keeps the risk of coming to blows at a minimum.

Be friendly with them and let em know they are doing something wrong...

Dont be like "Hey I'm sorry you can't keep more then 2 fish over 13 inches."

Say something like "Hey I didn't know you can keep more then 2 over 13 inches or did the rules change?"

Play dumb on them and they wont be sparked to start a fight....

Cause I've seen it happen when some guys who think they are the WDFW get all pissy at someone who bends the rules even in the smallest of ways and I can hear them screaming at eachother on the dock and I will be halfway across the lake in my boat...