un-attended lines…OUCH!!!!! $112 BS!!!

We were up on LOTW and had rented 3 houses from Sportsman’s. I went over to the next house to see how they were doing. You
guessed it; all of a sudden literally 10 Conservation Officers showed up
and I got nailed for unattended lines. Apparently they were doing a revenue blitz that day. I was gone MAYBE 5 minutes. We hadn’t caught any fish in 2 hours and I didn’t think anything of it. Apparently you need to be in “plain sight” of your lines. That includes going outside to grab a
beverage or whatever. It doesn’t say anything in the book about “plain sight” or give a distance…200′ for tip-ups but not for angling. I’m planning on contesting it because if I get another fishing violation withing 3 years I lose my
priveleges for a year. Never had a fishing violation in my life! Does anybody have any opinion on my odds?

that stinks imade the mistake of chechking with a warden years ago after i had shot 2 turkeys w/ 1 shot, big mistake i lost gun, both birds,+600.00 woth of fines . went to court, explained what happened, of course the warden was in attendence, judge basically scolded him and threw the case out …..i did not however get the turkeies back

I’ve fished one day in my life without a license, and of course that was the only day in my life i got checked I went to court and they decreased the fine by $20. Probably wasnt worth the two hours i had to sit in the court room.

Good luck jwfilm1, let us know how you come out. I think I would try an contest it to…although I wouldn’t hold my breath for a dismissal.
But I haven’t been through the process.

My daughter bought her lisence on line a couple years ago. She was to keep the print out with her until the lisence came in the mail. We went fishing the next day and she left the paper on the kitchen table.

Yup! With all of her hooting and hollering of catching the first crappie…the two CO’s came over. Once she told them she left her number at home…I demanded that they hand cuff her and take her away…a number of times…
After they refused, I asked if I could call my wife for the number. Which I did. What was funny was they didn’t know you could by them on line…which might have been part of the reason she didn’t get a ticket.
As they were leaving the one CO said in a scolding voice…Next time you might not be so lucky. It’s the law to have your license on your person while fishing….THEN HE WINKED AT HER!

How do you teach your daughter the rules…when a CO winks at her!!!!

They should have just cuffed her and taken her away.

jwfilm1,
my best advise would be to contact briank’s daughter for assistance
cheers

You know…that might work…Have your wife come along and have her keep nagging the judge to toss you in jail instead of the fine…

I dont understand how it is reasonable for a person to have thier license on them at all times. A reasonable person might forget. I know that these laws are based off of what a reasonable person would do. Being a Human I forget as well. This C.O. must have had a bad day.

Compared to a D.L. which would be more important, I know for a fact that you do not need to have it in your possesion. It is an unreasonable expection. Your given 10 days to prove that you have a D.L. or car insurance what is the difference??

Is a fishing license more important then a state issued I.D.??

My advice fight it and state what I wrote. This should help. And then tell them if you get off.

Quote:

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I dont understand how it is reasonable for a person to have thier license on them at all times.

Compared to a D.L. which would be more important, I know for a fact that you do not need to have it in your possesion. It is an unreasonable expection. Your given 10 days to prove that you have a D.L. or car insurance what is the difference??

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Your info is completely inaccurate. You are required to have your DL with you at ALL times… when operating a vehicle. You do NOT have a 10 day period to show proof of a DL. The offense may result in a ticket. You will not win if you contest it.

—————–START REFERENCE—————–

Minnesota Statutes 2005, Table of Chapters

Table of contents for Chapter 171

171.08 Licensee to have license in possession.

Every licensee shall have the license in immediate possession at all times when operating a motor vehicle and shall display it upon demand of a peace officer, an authorized representative of the department, or an officer authorized by law to enforce the laws relating to the operation of motor vehicles on public streets and highways.

—————END REFERENCE————————-

I find it completly reasonable to expect people to remember their fishing licenses. Do you find a way to remember your boat keys? To stop for bait or fix a lunch?

Not to jump all over you about this… forgetting a license is not a huge transgression. But to put off the responsibility as “unreasonable” really caught my attention.

Well this is true and I have read
Minnesota Statutes 2005, Table of Chapters

Table of contents for Chapter 171

171.08 Licensee to have license in possession.

In the real world where I live, work, fish and hunt, I would never believe that is “Unreasonable” for a reasonable person to remember everything at every moment in a person life.

If you disagree that is great. America at it’s finest. You must not forget that law enforcement officers have a great tool called DISCRETION. And if a deaprtment were to waste thier time writing such a ticket I am sure that they would give you a certain time frame to come in and prove what you need to prove.

DISCRETION is the key. The law you stated is the truth but it is up the person writing the ticket to decide all the gray issuses.

Also in this country you are innocent until proven guilty.

Yes, enforcement officers do have a degree of discretion at their disposal. On this we agree.

I disagreed with you stating as fact that a DL was not needed on your person when driving. I still disagree with your assessment that it is unreasonable to expect people to remember their license when they go fishing.

On this we can agree to disagree.

No problem, I just fight for the little guy.

Mr. Holst, what do you think of the un-attended lines scenario? Do I have a chance at getting it reduced or possibly thrown out?

I would contest it also and think your chances to see the ticket dropped or reduced would be good if you have a clean history.

The one expireeince my buddy has is that he forgot to buy a license, it was opening day and just plain ol forgot. When the CO came up he handed the pole to his rather young girl friend, who was 15 at the time and tried to make it look like she was fishing. Im not sure if the CO caught him doing that but he hassled us and left.
My buddy realized that is was his fault and got one the next day.

If I were you, I would also contest. Whats the worst that will happen, you will get the fine. There is no fine for contesting, but Im on your side with this one.

I agree that the COs on the original post might have taken the law a little too literally…but did they see you just leave your fish house?

The one time this sort of issue came up for me, I drew a CO who took a very lenient view of the law. I had just put my boat out on Lake Macbride, a reservoir in southern Iowa, when the local CO pulled up and checked my license. That happened to be the one of those days I left my fishing license at home! He did not ticket me, and just told me I had to leave the water if I didn’t have my license with me. So, I went home, got my license, and went back out. This was a pretty generous act on his part, considering that I am a Minnesota resident, and have Minnesota tags on my boat. I am pretty sure most COs would ticket a person with out-of-state tags for fishing without a license on them.

One thing to keep in mind is that experienced law enforcement personnel develop a very accurate BS detector. In other words, they are good at spotting someone who made an honest mistake, and at spotting someone who is knowingly violating the rules. In my case, I thought I had my license with me until I went to look for it, and I think he picked up on that. I was also telling the truth when I told him I had an Iowa license, and had just forgotten to grab it on my way out the door.

That is what this whole topic is about common sense!! Laws are laws. We must inforce them but to what extent? Some people believe that you must follow them to a T. Whatever we are humans not robots. I agree with you 100%

Good post!

I was gone 5 minutes TOPS and I was only 10-15 seconds away on
my snowmobile. He was awfully nice and actually joked with us. When it was all said and done I thanked him for being reasonable. He said “I don’t know about THAT”. Makes me think under normal circumstances he would have let me go, but I think the 10 CO’s were given a “pep-talk” on shore to give citations no matter what. Just my read on the deal.

Hey jwfilm1, We were just up at LOTW the first week in Jan too! We had 1 CO stop at our Zipple bay rental shack while I was at my truck 100′ away getting a case of beer(since the fishing was lame). 2 of us were outside 2 were inside with the door closed, we all had our lines down. After checking both of us outside he just pulled the door open and said “Hey guy’s I’m a CO can I see your licenses?” He can’t do that legally either I don’t think?

Lucky for us we got a different guy than you did, he was nice and BS’ed with us for awhile. Then 2 other CO’s went snowmobiling by and I made a comment that I have never seen 3 CO’s at once and he said yep were out here in force today! He was on a super quiet Artic Cat 600 4 stroke.

We were also stopped the day before on Winni by a CO on a sled. He was another nice guy. Sorry to hear of your ticket he must have been the CO who stops people at the Kinni on the Croix!

Later,
Ferny

While I know you cant lock your doors from the inside on shacks (In WI), so I’d assume they can just open it and all.