$3600 fine doesn’t seem like enough

I don’t understand why they don’t make the punishment more severe for this sort of blatant disregard for the regulations.

40 illegal walleyes

900 bucks a piece is only a drop in the bucket. I agree, it will take stiffer fines to put an end to such greed. There is not a bone of sportsmanship in there bodies. They were not there to enjoy the experience with such a statement as “16 fish is not worth the drive”, plus admitting they have done it the last couple of years. Sounds like 4 rocket scientist hey?

Hang em, hang em high

I agree. Maybe a little jail time and $5000 each would put a stop to this abuse. Guys like these really make me mad! Hope they never come back to MN!.

Why is it that the dnr for the most of the time they do not report the persons or peoples names. You see that they get find and money amount is reported and is about it. You see that alot in the wildlife newpapers also! It would be nice to see there names to see a poacher and be aware of them.

I’ve been saying for years I’d like to see the fines somewhere in the $2000 per fish range or higher. When you catch these guys with 200 extra Bluegills or Walleyes, it would make a major league example out of them in a hurry. Imagine some yahoo poaching and getting a 1/2 million dollar fine. I bet that would make some people think twice about keeping those extra fish.

honestly these guys are making it bad for all who fish. the fines they got were no where near what they should have gotten. we all know the rules and the limits over your limit your poaching. should lose your gear vehicles everything. If you were out hunting and shot and extra deer what do you think would happen no difference in my book strip em of their fishing privledges and strip em of their equipment used to take those fish and fine em and then send to em jail no excuse for their actions at all and they even admited they have been doing thise for years to the paper REALLY ARE YOU FRIGGIN KIDDIN ME!!!!

Seems like plenty to me. 10 walleyes for each guy and $900 for the 10 fish. Seeing that a DWI(where actual people are endangered) is a $700 fine for first offense, 900 for 10 fish seems high? (especially when our red brothers on the same lake can net/angle and sell on the same lake….actually when I think of it under those circumstances, it seems excessive….. )

Tim

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I don’t understand why they don’t make the punishment more severe for this sort of blatant disregard for the regulations.

40 illegal walleyes

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The tipping point for me on this is that they’re self-professed habitual offenders. First-timers get a “pass” with just the fine if I get to play king for the day. Because they admitted to doing it in years past the fines aren’t even close to enough. Pull the ice houses, trucks, gear… and then hit them with the fines. Pull fishing and hunting privileges for 5 years. In a perfect world the loss of fishing privileges in MN should transfer back to their home state as well. Force them to do community service after the five years is up to “EARN” back their fishing and hunting privileges.

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Seems like plenty to me. 10 walleyes for each guy and $900 for the 10 fish. Seeing that a DWI(where actual people are endangered) is a $700 fine for first offense, 900 for 10 fish seems high? (especially when our red brothers on the same lake can net/angle and sell on the same lake….actually when I think of it under those circumstances, it seems excessive….. )

Tim

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Never mix reality (poaching) with politics. (Tribal netting)

$900.00 might be a deterrent although it should have been more. In addition they should have hunting and fishing privileges taken away in both Minnesota and Wisconsin for a minimum of 5 years.

In addition the DNR in both states should have a web page dedicated to listing poachers names, addresses & photo similar to what the cops do with “Johns”.

IMO there is no penalty to severe for stealing from me.

In my eyes $900 is cheap when you think about it it just took how many years and how much of our money from license sales went into bring the lake back. All the money the resorts lost. Then you get some bone heads from out of state poaching. Is it just me, but most of the poaching articles i read the offenders are from out of state? Just my 2 cents.

What are their names?

Sometimes money is no issue with people. This could be the case knowing that they will be caught sometime if they do it enough.
Loss of all rights for 10 years in both states along with all equipment. But by them loosing their rights does not stop them from fishing anyway.
Jail time might make them think about doing it again but not just a slap on the hands with it. Make it tough 90 days or more.
Just my thoughts.

What a waste

maybe they should do to them like they do to waterfowl overachevers, take everthing they got in equipment and a nice fine.

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Never mix reality (poaching) with politics. (Tribal netting)

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I am not trying to mix the two. From what I see, the reality is that these guys took 10 fish each over their limit. On the same lake, other people(it doesn’t matter who they are) legally gillnet and sell walleyes with a high quota and without a tight slot limit. Without getting into any right or wrong talk, that is the reality. Getting all worked up and crying for the harshest punishments possible and claiming that these angler’s behavior will ruin the lake in short order when the lake is being gill netted seems awful silly to me. It seems like a drop in the bucket when I look at the big picture. A very small drop in a very big bucket.

It seems similar to punishing a guy for playing with matches when he is in the midst of a forest fire…….

Gill netting is legal, per our legal system.

Poaching is illegal, per our legal system.

While we agree on the morality of gill netting, facts are they have zero to do with this post. That was my only point.

Agree w/ Brian- The little drop in the bucket will turn into a big drop in the bucket when a bunch of people are willing to risk a small chance at a $900 fine for keeping 40 extra fish. The point of this is that this crime needs to scare the h*ll out of the other wannakeeps and I dont think it will, so it will keep happening. Either jack the fines way up and put the money back into the resource as the DNR definitely needs it, or take the guys out of the system for 5-10 yrs as that is what it will take to recover the resources they have consumed. God knows they do it everywhere else they fish as well.

Using netting as an argument will never help as it is someone elses law. (its the same age old argument as shooting a little buck because you “know” its going to get shot when it leaves your property to the neighbors anyway.) I guess the way I perceive both of these arguments is that their slim chance of survival has just been cut in half with that thinking. The only way to better their chance of survival is work together and I think the two controlling parties on Red Lake are trying very hard to do that.

In my opinion netting has little to do with the illegal harvest to of walleye by sportsman or some misguided individuals that attempt to call themselves sportsmen.

As for the fines I think we could use a increase in penalty as an alternative to the under budgeted law enforcement sector. Conservation Officers are already battling tightening restrictions on mileage, equipment expenses and even payroll. I say crank the fines up a bit and increase the recycle factor. Warden catches a boat with too many walleyes, oop looks like that warden has a new patrol boat, warden catches a new truck with a poached deer in the back, oop that warden has a new patrol truck, warden confiscates a bunch of gear oop that warden gets the auction proceeds towards his/her gas bill. Granted it already works that way to a degree but bet if we cranked up the fines used it as a per badge performance reward the poaching would slow and officers would get more then just a paycheck for working a case. Also just think how much more effective the enforcement would be with a increased budget…and just imagine shame of the warden pulling your boat with your truck while you sit at home without a license because you got greedy. That is priceless.

While much of the poaching is non resident it is far from the majority. It rolls back to the pre catch and release days when everything you hooked you kept. I’m thinking a majority of those now caught are 50+ in years of age and some younger that happen to be fishing in the group. Sad thing is most times the 50+ can afford the fines. But, can they afford the public embarrassment? That’s why I would like their names and photo’s published. Web sites, billboards, sporting newspapers. I’m thinking the last thing they want is to see their 12 year old grandsons & daughters looking at their picture posted because of poaching.

In addition the fines, license suspensions & public service should also go into it.

I don’t think we can come down to heavily on GROSS poaching punishment.