The fish gods have been good to me the past 2 days. Yesterday I lost a fly box and found it floating in the river 50 yards away. Here's what happened today.
I was fishing upstream from 4 guys; one was solo and below him were 3 buddies. I struck up a conversation with the solo guy who mentioned he wanted to try fly fishing sometime. I gave him a few pointers and later he photographed me with a nice hatchery buck. I then gave the buck to one of the other 3 gear guys.
"Solo" and I talked a bit more, and when he snagged onto a fly that I'd lost, I gave it to him as his first fly. He then asked me if I'd noted on my steelhead card that I'd kept a fish. I've never kept a steelie, so doing that never entered my mind. I then said that the guy I gave it to had actually killed and kept the fish.
"Solo" replied, "I'm an undercover warden, and you seem to be a nice guy. Would you log that fish in, and would you not talk to those other fishermen, for me?"
Damn right I would. He then said that I'd been responsible for the fish being kept and mentioned that he didn't know how many fish the other 3 guys had kept. He then left. In a few minutes, 2 uniformed F&G wardens showed up and checked the gear guys.
Later, in talking to the guys, the one I gave the buck to said his heart was pounding hard when the wardens talked to him, but luckily he'd logged in the buck on his steelhead card. One fish and 2 log ins? That doesn't seem quite right.
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