Six Anglers, 22 Violations in One BWCAW Fishing Group

Six Anglers, 22 Violations in One BWCAW Fishing Group

I saw this in an email.

Clueless or deviant you don’t know for certain … but a group that size someone had to know it was wrong.

I took my boat out on a metro area lake yesterday just to make sure everything was in working order. I saw 3 different people from shore casting. Two were teenagers and another middle-aged guy that vanished when I drove by.

I think this type of stuff happens in the BWCA and in populated areas all the time.

Poachers busted. Good.

It’s always nice to hear about some poachers getting what they deserve.

They were looking to have a good time, 123 cans of beer!!! He should of written all 22 violations instead of just the 13. Ignorance of the law is no excuse.

To me these kind of reports are good news and bad news.

Good news: 6 perps got busted.

Bad news: With the current miniscule number of COs in this state, I can only imagine how many perps got away with worse on the same day.

Considering our natural resources and heritage, MN has a ridiculously low number of enforcement personnel out there busting their butts and trying to enforce the law. For a state this size, we should have more than twice the appallingly low number of COs we currently have.

As we’ve seen from other discussions this winter, I personally think that poaching is actually rampant in Minnesota. The sad fact is that the low numbers of law enforcement personnel have sent the message that there is almost no chance of getting caught.

Outside of 2 popular and heavily patrolled “resort area” lakes, I haven’t been checked by a CO while fishing in MN for over 20 years either at the ramp or while fishing. While hunting, I have deer hunted one of the 4 most heavily hunted sections of the 100 Zone for over 30 years and I have never, ever been checked or even seen a CO during deer season. For pheasants, were it not for the fact that I know the CO where we hunt near Marshall, and he makes a special effort to “check” us every year, I would have never seen a CO for the past 30 years.

These perps are stealing from you. They are stealing from every citizen of MN.

I would gladly pay extra for every license I buy if I knew the money went directly into an increased enforcement fund that hired more officers.

Grouse