Follow the regulations in Idaho or else...

[BrianID]

I saw this story on the F&G website.

$894 in penalties, fines and court costs and he will not be allowed to hunt or fish in Idaho for 3 years. I would assume that he will also lose fishing and hunting privileges in all of the states that Idaho has a pack with.
Judges are getting tougher on guys that blatantly break the fishing and hunting regulations.

Here's a link.
[url "http://fishandgame.idaho.gov/apps/releases/view.cfm?NewsID=3288"]http://fishandgame.idaho.gov/apps/releases/view.cfm?NewsID=3288[/url]
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[JoyRide]

This guy was begging to be busted. Would have to be a blind fish cop not to see him from a long ways off. Glad they hit him with the book.
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[catchandrelease]

It pays to just follow the rules. It's not nearly as much fun looking over your shoulder for someone watching you. However, there are a few COs near the Preston area that have it out for people. One guy we fish with was cited for catching too many fish while ice fishing....the CO hid in some trees with binoculars....

One of my good hunting buddies was cited for hunting in Idaho without an Idaho liscence near the Utah border. It was the first time he hunted with the people he was with, who hunt the area every year and know the landowner who thought his land was in Utah. He arrested everyone and made a big deal of it....

It was too bad...but it is just better to be well within the limits....
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[lunkerhunter2]

I'm glad he got what he did. There is a guy that i work with that blatently breaks the laws down here(Utah) and up there all the time. I am waiting for the day i can prove he is doing it. I hope i witness him shooting a moose or elk out of season. Well i don't hope for that but you see where i am coming from. They need to learn! Good job IDFG!
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[BrianID]

Catchandrelease,

The F&G hide in the bushes with binoculars and spotting scopes all of the time. Guys that choose to break the rules will eventually be caught. When they get caught they will get much more than just a slap on the wrist.

There is nothing in the regulations against catching too many fish. A F&G officer can’t cite you for catching too many fish. If your friend got a ticket for catching too many fish I hope he went to court and fought the ticket. If your friend got a ticket for keeping too many fish, I have no sympathy for him.

I do know what it is like to be treated like a criminal when I haven’t deserved it.

I had a Yellowstone park ranger open and search our packs in a backcountry campsite. When we caught him in the act he said he was checking to see if we had any food in our packs??? Of course we had all of our food up on the bear pole as the law required. Another park ranger in Yellowstone was a total jerk to my brother and I when we were catching (and releasing) a fish almost every cast. He rudely pounded us with questions and checked us up down for several minutes until he finally realized he couldn’t give us a ticket for anything. I think some Yellowstone Park rangers tend to be rude to fishermen because they believe it is immoral to fish. I’m glade I haven’t met any Idaho F&G officers like that yet. If there is a F&G officer around Preston that treats law abiding sportsmen like dirt then he won’t last long.

It sounds like your hunting buddy made an honest mistake but I don't think there is any excuse for hunting in the wrong state (or unit). I have a hard time believing someone that owns land doesn't know what state it is in. It seems like the land owner would know which state he had to pay property tax in??? The F&G officer did his job by arresting everyone and making a big deal about it. If your buddy and the guys he was hunting with didn't get more than $1000 in fines and lost fishing/hunting privileges for a couple years, they got off too easy IMO. I’m sure your buddy got off easier than the owner of Berry Game calls did last year.

The only time I’ve seen an Idaho F&G officers act like jerks is when someone is breaking the rules, doesn’t cooperate with them and/or is a jerk to them.

The guys that break the rules are stealing from all of us that choose to follow the rules. The fishing in Idaho wouldn’t be as good as it is if the F&G and judges weren’t so tough of the law breakers. Might be one of the reasons so many guys come to Idaho to fish instead of fishing in their own state. If you only got a slap on the wrist every time you were caught breaking the rules, it would be cheaper and easier to not follow the rules.

If you get caught bending one of the small rules expect a ticket instead of a warning. I'm not perfect myself. When I was a teenager I picked up a couple $25 dollar tickets. If you fish and hunt in a wide variety of places it is hard to keep track of all of the rules and regulations. However, if I get caught inadvertently breaking a rule I won’t blame anyone but myself.

I wasn’t trying to step on anyone’s toes with this. I hope I didn’t come across that way. I just get upset when people blatantly break the rules.
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[catchandrelease]

Oh heavens no harm no foul. I wasn't there on any of the said experiences that is what they said to me. So, if they get caught and they aren't guilty they fight it.

I had an experience like yours Brian, in my own state with a rather rude officer. While duck hunting one night in my teenage years I shot at a black bird at the end of shooting hours. There wasn't anything else flying and being 16 or 17 years old hunting isn't any good unless you shoot at something. I picked up my decoys with my hunting partner and looked at my truck that was parked about 200 yards away and I saw an officer parked there. I went down to the truck and he proceeded to ask me questions about all sorts of things...he then asked if I had any lead shot on me. I didn't. He asked if I would unload my gun and all of my shells, decoys, ect. I did and he couldn't find any lead shot. He asked if I had thrown it all away in the pond. He had been watching me for some time apparently. I had been throwing cattails and my hunting partner out of boredom. I told him and told him again that I didn't have any and he asked if I had some in my truck. I said, I don't know. He gave me the answer that he wanted by saying by the dashboad there was a box of lead shells. Well, I had been hunting grouse the previous evening and must have forgot to unload the shells from my truck. He loooked and looked and gave me a warning citation for some bogus things and then told me he could have taken my truck and everything else. I hadn't broken the law and I knew it and he just tried to get something out of me. I was very cooperative with him until he admited that he opened my truck and looked around. I got less nice after he told me that. He asked my why I was acting nervous....I said "you're talking to me...wouldn't you be nervous if you were getting interrogated for nothing?"



I haven't ever personally got a ticket for anything but one speeding ticket so I'm all for following the rules. It's easier to do that than look over the shoulder.

In response to the landowner issue, he has land both in Idaho and Utah and wasn't particulary sure where the state line is. So, if the landowner didn't know then how were the hunters on his land supposed to know? These guys aren't crooks, in fact, all of them are commercial pilots who have to have clean records to land or maintain jobs...they are good citizens. Oh well.

I do, however, find it too bad that people from out of state can be and probably are targets for the F&G. I feel like Idaho F&G are a little more, shall we say thorough, with out of staters. It's the same on both sides of the border so I'm not saying that we're getting picked on. I've seen people that had in state license plates that were a little liberal on the interpretation of the regs and out of staters that were following the regs when checked by F&G had to prove their innocence rather than a regular check from the F&G.

If you're breaking the rules then your breaking the rules and there should be fines for it. I'm all for it, but I think that out of staters get tickets easier because the propensity to pay the ticket rather than actually let the system work is much higher. Thus, less court costs and more revenue for the state. It's the same with Cops and most other things. Just kinda the way it is....

The moral of the story is that there are plenty of people breaking the rules all of the time. It leaves a bad taste in my mouth when I get treated rudely by any officer in any state. We follow the rules and it's easier that way...I was just saying in the last post that there are enough major rules and regs being broken blatantly that I don't think there is much of need to go commando to try to trap unknowing sportsmen to give them a ticket unless there have been reports or tips given by watchful sportsmen.

No one likes being treated like a criminal and it never leaves a good taste in anyone's mouth from any state to be raked up and down the coals by an officer trying to find something wrong that you have done. That's harrassment in my book. We don't need to be harrassed by over zealous officers trying to give tickets to people who don't deserve them. I'll get off my soap box now....
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[BrianID]

I read my post again. I came across harsher than I would have liked to.
While hunting or fishing I've been run into close to a dozen different officers over the past five years. All of them have been kind and have been a good source of information.

Catchandrelease,
I would agree that I can stand it when an officer has the guilty until proven innocent attitude.
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[EvilAsh]

Being from Utah, all I have to say is he deserved it. Second the author of the story has it wrong. Non-resident license ain't no $26. Try about $85. I'm glad he got caught.
Six or seven years ago, we were at Henrys. Just about ready to launch from the cliffs and a small 12' aluminum boat comes cruising in. Two locals had a couple of stringers of some of the biggest fish I've ever seen and the bottom of the boat was literally red with blood. They beach the boat, one guy goes and gets their truck, drives it down and they throw the stringers in a couple of coolers. Load the boat on the top, strap it down and just get about to where they now have the porta johns and this DWR truck stops right in front of them. Apparantly he had been watching from on top of the cliffs and saw it all. BUSTED. Quite a few people at the launch started to clap. Joni and I were among them. Made me feel good there is justice in the world. What goes around comes around.
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[PACKFAN]

Even though this guy was stationed at Hill AFB here in Utah he must have been a resident of Idaho, as the price of the license he did not purchase was for an Idaho resident. Must have been fish'n his home turf. [cool]
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