Friendly CO

Wanna say thanks to the CO that was working on Waconia last night. Was checking everyones licenses but not ours cause my 2 year was going potty in the fishhouse when he stopped. My 3 yr old was bummed out by it cause she had been watching him out the window. Seen him about 20 minutes later and asked if he could come back later when my kids are back and check us. He seemed kind of surprised by my request but about an hour later he came back and talked to my girls for a bit. Im sure he had better things to do but came anyway. Just thought I would share cause most people don’t talk about wardens unless they are complaining.

Always cool when you have a good encounter. I wish more people would share those.

We got checked on Mille Lacs the other day. Super cool asian dude, never met him before.

I’ve had a few bad encounters in the last five years though too.

Two of them were on Rainy River.

Both times doing nothing wrong at all, but got raked over the coals just to make sure????

They must get bored up there.

The third was local and not a terrible experience, but just felt disrespected. It was the only time I’ve ever had a warden run up to my fish house window and blast a 2 million candlepower light into it at 9pm, then start pounding on the door…..

How about a knock-knock “warden” like all of the rest off them.

It was a nice first impression…..

My boys and I were checked by two CO’s during the youth firearms deer hunt. My boys were sitting in my truck while I was helping a buddy set up his camper. The female CO went straight to them and asked to see licenses, weapons, prove they were unloaded, etc etc.
She was very nice and my kids thought it was cool as well. They felt proud of themselves that she thanked them for doing everything correctly.
I sent the DNR an email the next day about it to pass along the feedback and they said they would.

My interactions with COs over time have been overwhelmingly positive. One bad conversation in 60+ years fishing and hunting. The local CO near our deer shack thought our group was poaching, gave us bad time. We stayed polite, talked to him whenever we say the DNR truck and he eventually came around. We found out several years later that a local who is a friend clued the CO in that we were good guys and the poacher was a local who lived a few miles down the road.

Otherwise I am always pleased to provide my license, show equipment, lend a hand if asked. A few now recognize me from firearms safety training classes I taught and the word got around that my crew is OK.

I’ve had mainly positive interactions, IMO in the last 20 years, I’ve seen a decline in the COs that seem to think they have to come across as hard@ss, “Everybody’s doing something wrong and it’s just my job to catch them” types.

Some interactions have been downright funny. For example…

A few years back, we were varmint shooting on tribal lands out west. Across the section toward us heads a black pickup truck. “Here comes the warden,” our guide says.

Out of the truck unfolds the largest tribal conservation officer in the world. The 6 foot, 11 inch, 385 pound, Vernon. After a good conversation that did not actually involve him remembering to check our licenses, I told him to help himself to a sandwich and a drink from our cooler as it was after noon and quite a hot day.

We strolled out into the dog town for the afternoon shoot as Vernon continued to chat with our guide for some time. Believe me, he was easily visible from several miles away. When we got back, our guide mentioned that we needed more lunch meat for tomorrow.

After that, for the next 3 days, almost like clockwork, the Tribal Warden appeared as a dust cloud on the horizon at precisely 12:04 each day. His precision was astonishing.

Our guide finally suggested on day 4 that as long as Vernon was going to burn the Tribe’s gas in his tireless efforts to prevent the plunder of the Tribe’s sacred resources, the least he could do is put down his sandwich and check our licenses. Which he again forgot to do before leaving.

I asked our guide if this happens a lot on the rez and he gave the typical reply, “Things are different on the rez.”

Grouse

Good job Dad!!! Thank you for showing your girls what good CO’s are!!!

It’s super awesome when you have a good experience especially when there are kids around..

On the other hand… when you are as straight as a Grizzly’s d*ck your whole life and you encounter a bad one over and over it can really make a man bitter. And I know I’m not the only one in very Central MN>

I can honestly say I have only seen one real dink CO. After telling him his crap was being petty I just smiled and calmly walked over to the burn barrel with my warning ticket and dropped it in then put the grate back in place. “You didn’t even read it”, he said. “Right” I answered….”There was nothing of substance to read, your claim is baseless and I didn’t want to litter”. The next time I saw him he was all peaches and cream.

I guess they all have their days, just like we do. For the most part I appreciate them being out and about checking.

Overall I think CO are polite and just doing their job. Remember they are trying to catch what all of us on IDO call liars, cheats, slobs, etc.
That said I know 1 CO that gets no cooperation from me. He is an arogant D!#k!!! and a smart ass.

Someday somebody will have to dedicate 20,000 words (Phil maybe) on why it pays not to comply with police & co’s. If I have done nothing wrong I have nothing to fear. If I have broken a law I have coming to me what I get. They have a job to do, I can’t see where arguing does any good.

Not to mention the fact they get ripped for not enforcing our laws and wasting our tax money in thread after thread. (littering)

Really makes ya wonder why it’s hard for the cops to recruit doesn’t it.

The old warden of my youth was so helpful …. “Fred” was one you could call anytime and he was really good about helping us understand the regs when you’d would call with a question. He’d BS with us and seemed to really enjoy passing on his knowledge.

I did meet one last fall, one I’d heard was a hardass…. when I finally met “Tommy Ticket”…..He checked the wife & I, even watched my wife reel in a huge sheepshead before he come up to our boat. He was friendly & just as interested in her catch as we were, till we saw what it was. Seemed like a guy I would definitely have a beer with or even go fishing/hunting with.

I get it. They have a job to do and there are turds out there that abuse the resources and make their jobs more irritating than it should be. I actually wish there were more CO’s to protect the resources. If you do something to warrant a ticket, you probably know it and earned the ticket.

I’ve never had a bad experience. Got checked on Red for the first time this year out of all the years I’ve been going up there. It was about 8pm and I didn’t hear a thing until a knock on the door. I was by myself and the closest guy was probably a quarter mile away or more. I asked who it was and he said game warden. Looked out the window and see a snowmobile with the driver standing there with his helmet on. Nothing on his sled or his snowmobile suit had markings on it that I could see.

I was skeptical and cracked the door and then I finally seen a badge on his suit. He took two steps back and asked to see my license. I showed him and he said I see your shelter license in your window you’re good to go and off he went. Never once asked me about any fish and didn’t show the least bit interested in looking in the house or ask to see what I had in the bucket.

Strange encounter. If you’re going to bother to stop to check my license aren’t you going to make sure I’m not fishing too many lines? Make sure I don’t have 10 eye’s in the bucket?

Still can’t figure out how he drove up without me hearing him. I sure heard him drive off.

Ice Cap wrote:

I’ve never had a bad experience. Got checked on Red for the first time this year out of all the years I’ve been going up there. It was about 8pm and I didn’t hear a thing until a knock on the door. I was by myself and the closest guy was probably a quarter mile away or more. I asked who it was and he said game warden. Looked out the window and see a snowmobile with the driver standing there with his helmet on. Nothing on his sled or his snowmobile suit had markings on it that I could see.

I was skeptical and cracked the door and then I finally seen a badge on his suit. He took two steps back and asked to see my license. I showed him and he said I see your shelter license in your window you’re good to go and off he went. Never once asked me about any fish and didn’t show the least bit interested in looking in the house or ask to see what I had in the bucket.

Strange encounter. If you’re going to bother to stop to check my license aren’t you going to make sure I’m not fishing too many lines? Make sure I don’t have 10 eye’s in the bucket?

Still can’t figure out how he drove up without me hearing him. I sure heard him drive off.

If he was riding a Yamaha they act much like Santa’s sleigh. They can swoop down from above, kind of like gliding. Once on the ground they act just like a SkiDoo or Cat. The little thingy on the handlebars you didn’t notice is a infrared scope capable of seeing threw walls much like Superman can.
So, he just really needed to see your license to know you were good to go.
They are working on a developmental unit that actually can roll back time to identify the owners of the shacks leaving all the garbage behind and ticketing them after the fact. It’s a subdivision of Boeing doing the research so it’s a bit behind with their other problems they have going on. Look for a winter of 2020 for a roll-out for that game changer.

I had a warden call me on the sausage Hous venison deal. He kept asking obtuse questions and was beating around the bush. I was pheasent hunting and told him that I would call him the next day. I was direct that next day in asking him what exactly he needed to know. Turns out I had a sausage order in after the 2017 season and didn’t register a deer that year. After telling him I did not get a deer that year to my recollection and that 3 others hunt my farm with me he finally let it go. He was courteous but I thought out of line to expect me to remember what happened two years ago as I was walking with my dog. In my opinion DNR mounted a “witch hunt” to chase down paperwork issues,…from two years ago,…not ok. A friend had two wardens show up at his door,…same situation for him. Do they not expect people to share deer when doing sausage orders???

Ice Cap, maybe it was the same guy that checked my group. We were renting a house, I was in the attached bathroom taking care of business when I heard someone ride up outside. I thought it was one of the outfitters and didn’t really pay any attention, then the other three guys in the shack started hollering for me to say something. I said “Hold on!”, and a few minutes later finished up and went back into the shack, not knowing a CO had stopped by until they finally told me. The warden just wanted to double check we had a fourth guy around since we had 8 lines in, he didn’t even stay to check my license or anything like that.

Overall I’ve had good experiences with LEOs, and COs in particular. I will say the one time I didn’t was when we were out duck hunting in college. My buddy basically shouted at me to grab my gear and hop in his truck as soon as I got home from class, and we tore off to a family friend’s cabin. Well the next day in the canoe I realized that since I was in such a rush, I just grabbed my ammo bag with all my shotgun shells in it, and didn’t sort out the lead/steel ones. I only used steel shells all morning, and when the CO showed up I told him what happened, and showed him how there were steel shells in my gun, and nothing but empty steel shells all over the canoe. He was cool and BSed with us for a bit, then basically said “oh by the way, here’s your ticket” and took off. Now I’m not arguing that he didn’t have the right to ticket me, I was breaking the law. But from how forthright I was about it combined with how he spent most of the time joking and shooting the breeze with us, I didn’t expect the ticket at all. I guess I would have appreciated a little discretion on his part since I admitted everything before he even asked, and had plenty of evidence showing that I was trying to do the right thing. Again, it’s his right to cite me for it, so that’s not even what bugs me the most. I guess if I’m going to get a ticket, I’d rather the guy be upfront about it and not spend 15 minutes being all buddy buddy beforehand.

Really not a huge issue at all, but that’s about the worst experience I’ve had with them. Again, “worst” is relative, since it’s not really a bad experience, just slightly annoying.

I’ve had nothing but positive experiences with cos , I was ice fishing years back and spent all day out there regularly this day I had just caught my 10th and final crappie to keep when the warden checked me I showed him my catch and told him how I was having a good day and i was going to Move and try for walleyes he proceeds to tell me the crappie limit is 15 in this section of river and I could keep going ,he left me after everything checked out and went to check the only other people out there, it was 2 guys and a kid had came out on a sled and went about a mile out of sight .long story short when the warden came walking back an hour or so later he comes out of his way to talk to me again and see how it’s going yet then he proceeds to ask me if I would be interested in a illegal short walleye he had just confiscated from the other group, I said heck yeah I’ll take it so he went to his truck wrote up a citation but made it out like a gift receipt for a 14 n half inch walleye in case I got stopped with it I would have proof it’s was from him . Still have that citation hanging up as a keepsake . I remember watching the guys come back on the sled an hour after Laughing to myself still on the ice thinking the warden might have just ruined there day but hopefully the kid they had with learned something that day .

Some good some not so good . Deer hunting on a mountain bike got stopped on way back to truck , he literally ran out in front of me had to hit both front and back disc brakes to avoid hitting him . I was 4 minutes passed legal shooting time {my fault } I had my 300 A bolt slung behind me,it was loaded ,{my bad } I was 7 miles back in on a non motorized road that day .I was humping it to get out in time. When i got the ticket it read [Hunting with a loaded weapon in a vehicle ] WTF i was pedaling a bicycle ! The CO also accused me of shining deer with the headlight on my bicycle ! Thought i was going to jail that night , they gave a break and did not charge me for the 4 min over but got the ticket for the loaded gun on a bicycle , this was Ontario Canada