DWR - taking care of business at Strawberry

[fishnotphish]

I trolled Strawberry out of the bay on Saturday. Fishing wasn’t great, wasn’t terrible. A fair number of boats but I’ve been there on busier days. The wind was fighting us right from the beginning and we headed home just after noon. On our way back to Highway 40 we encountered a full blown DWR checkpoint with a massive officer presence. All cars were diverted into a pull out and into one of three lanes. We had to wait a few minutes to get checked, and we’re just watching DWR officers walking by with handfuls of slot cutts they are finding in the cars all around us. They had at least one of their K-9 units working the cars as well.

They spent about 30 seconds checking our fish and moved a few cones so we could head out and around the SUV in front of us packed with fishing poles and at least one illegal fish that we could see. 

Big thanks to the DWR for their efforts! I don’t know if they were writing tickets or just warnings, but either way, I’m sure many people were educated. I’m sure it’d take 100 more days of running checkpoints to really get the point across, but maybe word will get around. I don’t know if they continued their enforcement actions Sunday and today. 

[Kent]

We came through the same checkpoint a few hours after you did. An officer told us that they had encountered a record number of violations that day. I hope that they have many more checkpoints.

[catdaddygar]

Good to hear they can t get all of them but it all helps.

[BYUHunter]

I drove by with my boat load of Kokes as they were setting up. Amazing how many slot cutts are cleaned in broad daylight at the cleaning station (when it's functional).

[PACMEN]

Thank You for cracking down a little bit.  Keep it up.
The regs. are there to help the overall populace but at times I guess we each think we are entitled.

I hope tickets were being issued rather than warnings.  You can say I'm cruel but IMO most of the people know the regs. but don't really care.
If there is any question about a fish in our boat it goes back.

[dubob]

BIG Kudos to the DWR.  I hope EVERY one of the violators got a pay a fine ticket.  Most, if not all, violators knew they were in violation.  But even though a few didn't, ignorance of the law is not acceptable to me.  Let the judge decide as to guilty as charged or not.

[MrShane]

BIG Kudos to the DWR.  I hope EVERY one of the violators got a pay a fine ticket.  Most, if not all, violators knew they were in violation.  But even though a few didn't, ignorance of the law is not acceptable to me.  Let the judge decide as to guilty as charged or not.

Just think of how many fillet knives could have been confiscated that day!

[Panchodog]

Now if the Forest Service would start enforcing the stay limit.........

[Therapist]

The only thing Forest Service will enforce are the FEES!!!

[lovetofish]

All I can say is IT'S ABOUT TIME. I wish they would do it ALL THE TIME.

[EyLayo]

I wonder if the fisher folk that moan about incidentally catching too many Cutts, secretly let out a smirk when they see someone illegally harvesting slot fish? I mean that's a few less "undesirable"

[Kent]

A quote from an email that I got yesterday from Alan Ward,

"After I emailed you yesterday, I spoke on the phone with the officer in charge and he mentioned that they only confiscated 24 fish all day (it is typically double that), and some of those were overlimits of rainbows. We both discussed the idea that fishing is good right now, and the people prone to violating the rules (such as the slot), did not need to because they had plenty of non-slot fish (kokanee and rainbows) to harvest. Overall resource compliance was nearly 99%, and it is usually around 97% for these roadblocks. My guess is that you either had a newer officer that you were talking to, or they were caught up in the moment, and really had no time to reflect on how many violations had been written up, nor did they have all the data yet to put it in perspective.

I always caution my employees to not jump to conclusions before all the data is in hand. We often tend to focus on the worst aspects, ignoring the good stuff. Once you have all the data, then make a table or graph to summarize it, and you get a better picture of reality."

[PACKFAN]

BIG Kudos to the DWR.  I hope EVERY one of the violators got a pay a fine ticket.  Most, if not all, violators knew they were in violation.  But even though a few didn't, ignorance of the law is not acceptable to me.  Let the judge decide as to guilty as charged or not.

Kind of like alot of people not following local regs on watering lawns during the drought, i see some lawns getting watered 3 or 4 times a week and the no watering between 10 AM and 6 pm is being ignored as well. Makes me sick. i say warning 1st time, fine 2nd time and no secondary the third time.

[GrandpaD 2020]

The only thing Forest Service will enforce are the FEES!!!

Last week I drove up to the Marina at Strawberry.
We say a dozen or more RV's in dispersed camp sites on the West side of the road but nobody there with them.
Not even a parked vehicle.
These people were putting their RV's in their spots for when they do come up to camp
They were holding their spot so nobody could pull in and camp there..

This made me think about the rules about how many days you can disperse camp.
If your RV is parked in a camping spot but you are not there camping, do these days count against your total camping time?
It should but I don't know if it does.

[mtncat1]

The only thing Forest Service will enforce are the FEES!!!

Last week I drove up to the Marina at Strawberry.
We say a dozen or more RV's in dispersed camp sites on the West side of the road but nobody there with them.
Not even a parked vehicle.
These people were putting their RV's in their spots for when they do come up to camp
They were holding their spot so nobody could pull in and camp there..

This made me think about the rules about how many days you can disperse camp.
If your RV is parked in a camping spot but you are not there camping, do these days count against your total camping time?
It should but I don't know if it 

 any thing in the national forest has to be moved every 14 days ,even if it is not occupied .

---

A quote from an email that I got yesterday from Alan Ward,

"After I emailed you yesterday, I spoke on the phone with the officer in charge and he mentioned that they only confiscated 24 fish all day (it is typically double that), and some of those were overlimits of rainbows.  We both discussed the idea that fishing is good right now, and the people prone to violating the rules (such as the slot), did not need to because they had plenty of non-slot fish (kokanee and rainbows) to harvest.  Overall resource compliance was nearly 99%, and it is usually around 97% for these roadblocks.  My guess is that you either had a newer officer that you were talking to, or they were caught up in the moment, and really had no time to reflect on how many violations had been written up, nor did they have all the data yet to put it in perspective.

I always caution my employees to not jump to conclusions before all the data is in hand.  We often tend to focus on the worst aspects, ignoring the good stuff.  Once you have all the data, then make a table or graph to summarize it, and you get a better picture of reality."

kent i don't know what happened saturday but i have been through that same check point at strawberry where there have been multiple 5 foot coolers filled with illegal fish and fileted fish which are also confiscated . i do not for one minute believe only 24 fish were taken at the check point saturday