Where are the Wardens?

[ripdlip]

I watched a couple of "fisherman" today that were snagging salmon, pulling them onto the bank cut them open and take out all the row. After doing this they would slide the fish back in the river. (This was at the basin) I called DFG Caltip and the women there said there were no wardens in the area and would'nt be for most of the day. I gave her a discription of the folks and there licence plate number. They continued doing this to about 6 salmon before I had to much and said some VERY not nice things to them. I said I had called the police and they left in a hurry. Why were there no wardens in the area? How can this happen 200 yards from the DFG office? It is like being beat on your home court. Sometimes caltip works and then this. Help. :(

[Eyecatch Tinytrout]

Disgusting.

Some people have no concience. Such waste... Good job ripdlip, for standing up to them and telling them off. What did they want with the roe, anyway?

[Darian]

Good job Ripd.... :D Tho, I'd like to give DFG some credit here.

Salmon Snagging for roe in the Nimbus Basin area is common :( and DFG Wardens do enforce there. 8) However, they tend to do so en masse and during a definite period of time. In doing it that way, they guarantee issuance of a number of citations and gain beneficial media coverage every fall... 8) After that time, enforcement becomes spotty above the weir. :? In my mind, I think this is the best way of doing their jobs (given DFG funding restrictions). 8)

I'd bet that of the number of fish above the weir, only a relatively small amount spawn successfully. The balance of them abort and are wasted or snagged and used other ways (eating :?: ). I'm not condoning snagging in the basin but I'd rather have DFG spend their scarce dollars having the wardens protect areas where Salmon/Steelhead spawn successfully. In the American, that would be from the weir downstream..... 8) 8)

Also,.... If I were you, I'd exercise some caution when confronting people at the basin. 8) Assaults do occur up there and I'm aware of at least two instances of a firearm being drawn to settle whose fish was being landed. :shock: Fishin' in the basin ain't for the faint of heart.

[OregonSalmon]

Some people are just destined to go to hell. Instead of "snagging", let's call it "sataning". Sum-bitches.
One plan is to outlaw roe. Quite a few people here fish just to "egg hunt". Sataning on redds for eggs for steelhead fishing. Truly a disgusting and vicious cycle.
On game wardens: we had a great one retire a few years ago. Norm Maclaren. He got everybody (not me, I'm a saint) thus putting the fear of God into lawful fishing. He even wrote up his father in law for not tagging a steelhead in a timely manner!!! No favorites in Norm's World.

[Darian]

Ol Norm kinda sounds like the relentless French police inspector in "Les Miserables"..... :lol: :lol:

[jbird]

Darian

You are so right about excersizing caution when your blood boils in todays age. Gone are the days when the worst someone walked away with was a black eye and a broken spirit. People have adopted a total disregard for human life (including their own). Unfortunately, salmon tends to bring out the worst of the worst. It can be hard to stay quiet when you witness such atrocities, but more and more, the dangers of openning your mouth are getting very real. I have a terrible problem with my mouth LOL. No matter how hard I try to keep it shut, it sometimes "fires at will" lol I've really got to quit that because the dangers are real.

A testimony to how salmon bring out the creeps of society is here in the rogue valley. A few years ago, the DFG openned the hatchery hole to fishing for the first time in the hatcheries history. This is the very top section of the rogue as it enters Cole Rivers Hatchery. The fish get stacked like cordwood in there. The freaks now line up well before daylight, shoulder to shoulder, waiting for dawn to start the flossing brigade. The local police department love the addition of this new fishing grounds for a particularly interesting reason, all the "rogue valleys most wanted" gather there to snag meat during salmon season. So the law enforcement has what you might call a captive audience.
And if thats not enough, they have put a law in place in june and july (spring salmon season) that prohibits fishing there after 7pm, the reason? to curb "drunken lawlessness" LOL

We have a little joke in these parts that goes something like this. " What do you call 32 salmon snaggers at the 'wellfare hole?'" " A full set of teeth" :wink:

I took this picture at the famed holywater a few years ago. Which is immediately upstream from the hatchery and is flyfishing only trout water.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v283/jbird35/DSC01026.jpg


I guess the bottom line of my point is. The river can be a dangerous place in many ways. Be careful out there.

Jay

[sculpin]

Jay I have to agree with you about salmon bringing out worst we have to offer. I also agree opening the Welfare Water (local name)is a good way to keep a lot of the trash in one place. I used to love salmon fishing . Now it's just a slug fest of Morons and very hard to find a place to get away from them to fish and not floss. At least in our local area a lot of water is closed to fishing to allow the fish to survive. I have never understood why anyone would want a salmon remotely nearing spawning. There is no way to make them edible.
It's an impossible job for the enforcement folks to be everywhere at once. I also think there are less of them today than 20yrs ago. At least I see them less often than years back. I guess all we can do is keep calling when we see people ripping the fish.

Mark

[Jgoding]

I only went out a few times chasing steelies but I've been lurking in the Sniffer forums and a lot of guys will only keep hens just so they can get all the roe for either steelhead or sturgeon fishing.

Flossing just plain sux in my opinion since it appears most of the time the fish doesn't even take the bead either. Just gets line caught in the mouth and then gets "flossed" for the hook up. Pretty much BS fishing in my opinion but it seems that this is the "only" effective method for bank fishing for most of these guys or so they think.

A new leader restriction for salmon might go into effect next year. DFG wants to limit leaders to 4ft. Most of these guys are using 9-12ft leaders. I was like WTF do you need a 12ft leader for?? Something about the drift they say... I believe it kind of, but if you know how to set up ur damn drift, I don't see why you would still need 12ft from weight to hook....

Anyways, once salmon are on their redds that area should be closed or if any redds are around those areas should be closed. It's sad to see fish taken like that. Personally, I'm going to start beating people down when I see that crap.... I'm tired of people having no respect for nature, it's freaking pathetic nowadays. Really though, I won't beat anyone down but it's time to start organizing ourselves and doing the right thing. I'm up for getting together with people and to start patrolling for this crap and either calling dfg or telling these people to F$%^ Off and that we're not putting up with this kind of crap anymore.