conflict on the Boise River

[basskikker]

I read an earlier post on this forum that said that it is legal to snag nongame fish. it talked about snagging suckers for catfish bait and a good spot is the Boise river. so i decided to go snag some suckers on the Boise river for some quick bait for sturgeon fishing.

while i was there some fly fisherman pulls out his camera and yells out "Smile for Fish and Game you punk! i hope you know snagging is illegal! I just called Fish and Game on you!" i told him that for nongame species of fish it is totally legal to catch them by snagging. he replied that suckers are gamefish and it is illegal to snag any species of fish in Idaho. i was worried that the post i read earlier may have been mistaken so i left my attempt at getting sturgeon bait in case if i was unintentially breaking the law.
i called Fish and Game when i got home and they told me that it is perfectly legal to snag any nongame species of fish (carp and suckers) in idaho as long as you have a fishing license.
Just so everyone knows... it is legal to snag nongame fish in idaho... so i dont want any more people on the river giving me any more crap about snagging suckers.

thank you everyone for listening to me take out my frustrations on this post. its mostly for my sanity that i write this.
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[windriver]

It is always frusterating when something like this happens. I know I have second guessed myself on rules many times. Even when I think I know them the rules can be very confusing.

Windriver
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[mudsucker]

Now I want to finally order some of these and give it a try. Thanks for the info.

http://www.basspro.com/webapp/wcs/stores...0_100-10-2
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[chrome_junky]

wow thats a crapy way to ruin a fishing trip. i almost got in a fist fight with some guy by the hiese bridge because him and his guide pulled up on the island we were fly fishing on and he started mouthing off about how it was bull [url "mailto:!@#$"]!@#$[/url] that he couldnt even get away from people floating an entire river. well i let it slide then he let his fly come down to where i was fishing and i layed my fly down right next to it. well he came unglued and started screaming at me. so i walked right up to him face to face. i asked him have you ever had your butt kicked by somebody wearing waders? he turned bright red turned around slammed his sage fly rod down in the boat looked at his guide and said lets go. lol my buddy was rolling on the gravel bar laughing so hard.
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[sloppyjoe]

I love hearing stories about people that think they know everything getting shut down. It is too bad people sometimes have bad attitudes. Live and learn I guess.
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[iliketofish]

I feel your pain. I think all of us on here try our hardest to obey the rules, I do always get nervous that I will miss something in the regs and pull a bonehead move on accident. I'm glad your trip ended up legal.
Last fall, I was fishing in St. Anthony and I started back to my car and i climbed up on this marshy bank with cattails and all of a sudden on the other side of the top of the hill was this guy's yard, he came running out hollering and yelling that I was trespassing. He took my picture too, and made me give him my name and address. After I apologized several times and explained that it was an accident he ended up being cool about it and gave me permission to go through his property, but I was pretty sure he was going to call the cops (or whoever you call for trespassing) there for a while. I'd like to say that that experience made me be more careful, but I was careful to begin with so I think it just made me nervous[:/]
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[curt69]

I was duck hunting above Idaho Falls a few years back and a guy came down yelling and screaming he was going to have me arrested for trespassing . So I went over and sat on the bottom step of his deck and waited for the sheriff to show up . His Deck hung way out over the river and I was way below high water mark when he started screaming at me the Cop said I was in the right and even where i was sitting was below high water mark . He asked me if I wanted to press charges Against the land owner because I guess now there is a law against harassing someone who is legally pursuing game . I said no will let him off this time . Some people think they own the river . Curt G.
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[jigs]

i think everyone has had there runnins. i posted one from my trip in stanley last year about a the area my family has collected clams for over 40 years. and someone had bought and posted the land but had not posted the f&g acess point. apparently they have to allow access along the salmon but not to the tributary we were on. the guy was a rather hard &#S about it until we showed him were we had gone and the sherrif explain that we had gone in at a perfictly legal spot.
I had a run in below the damn at palaes with a couple of guys who were stoned, drunk or both. they were running up and down the river across everyones lines with every fish they had. finaly the guy i was with asked him "rocks or river" the guy asked what do you mean. my friend replied "next time you come by me. your ass is going into the the rocks or into the river." the guy was so flustered and suprised he didnt know what to say but luckly he mellowed out. didnt hurt that we had a police officer with us. sometimes you just never know what ppl are thinking when they are messed up like that.


i read a post last spring about a guy talking to some kids who were trying to snagg steelhead and just explained what they were doing is ilegal and unsportsmanslike. the kids seemed to be very undeerstanding and allowed him to show them how to fish correctly and from what it sounded like enjoyed themselves. it just goes to show sometimes taking the extra time to see what there doing or try to explain goes along way.
now i can imagine that flyfisherman probly thought you were doing something ilegal and probly still does. but if he had just taken the time to ask and give you the opertunity to explain it may have saved both of you alot of hostile feelings
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[AverysAdventure]

As teenagers we use to float the river with snorkel gear and spear the suckers for bait. On more than one occasion people called the cops on us. The cops would hold us until the fish cops arrived. They'd explain to us we were within our rights but we should practice our sport somewhere else. And we would jump back in the water and start spearing again. It was good times and it keep us out of real trouble.
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[cpierce]

Mudsucker, I had to laugh when I saw Bass Pro's hooks. How big are those? They look like someone has welded some saltwater hooks to old beer bottle openers!!! Creativity and ingenuity at its best! Two uses??? If you don't snag anything you can drown your sorrows. [laugh]
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[STEELHEADKID]

I think I totally know the fly fisherman your talking about. I would love to see what F&G says everytime that guy sends a picture of me in with a snagged sucker. You were in the right obviously, next time he starts taking pictures and yelling at you call the cops and say some dude is harassing you at the river. That will soon take care of his problem.
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[mudsucker]

I have no idea on the size. I always wanted to try snagging suckers and now that I know it's legal, I'll order some. Even with my wife's favorite little 25 lb bow she shoots carp with, the rocks in the river are pretty tough on the fish arrow points for shooting suckers.

Trouble is, around here we got all these silly steelheads people will be accusing us of snagging.
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[X2FSH]

You should of thrown out " Do you know who I am?"..."I'm Chrome Junky, mess with me and all your posts will be deleted"....that would of been end of story!![]
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[cpierce]

I know that hindsight is great after the fact,--- but next time maybe those that are snagging should carry a copy of the rulebook. Maybe even just the page concerned.

Thank the guy for caring about the fishing, invite him up to see what you are doing. That it is completely legal, and that it really improves the fishing for him, because it removes a species that is somewhat detrimental to the game fish.

I wouldn't have known that it isn't against the rules, because I haven't looked it up. So never having done it or thought about doing it, I would have probably thought it was illegal myself.

Then next time you or someone else encounters him he won't waste F&G's time or yours. You might even make a new fishing friend or tell him about BFT. [cool]
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[scorsi]

[quote jigs]apparently they have to allow access along the salmon but not to the tributary we were on. [/quote]

So my understanding is that if a water is navigable you can use it. This is just something I've heard is that if it can float a six inch log during high water it is navigable. Is this the case? So almost any stream with fish would be navigable. So my second question is this: are there some exceptions like this case where they can block access to a stream? I mean totally like not let you walk on the river bed.

I hate the attitude some people have that they are the only ones who should be allowed to fish or use the river or think they are smarter than everyone else and that everyone else is destroying the resource.
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[jigs]

scorsi i thought that the tributary was ok for us to navigate also. sense we were clamming we were int the water except for areas were trees were in the way or other obsticals. but from what the forman of the land told us the owner had a claim on this creek, which ment we couldnt. i looked this up a bit after and it seemed that if a creek begins on your land you can put a claim on it. now i realy think if we had gotten tickets we could of fought it and gotten off but i honestly dont know and i think you could get diffrent stories from about any law officer you talked to.
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[StacyR]

Thanks for posting your experience. I'm the one that asked the question about the suckers, but I haven't had a chance to get out on a sunny day and get some.

Did you end up getting any for bait?
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[MMDon]

[quote scorsi][quote jigs]apparently they have to allow access along the salmon but not to the tributary we were on. [/quote]

So my understanding is that if a water is navigable you can use it. This is just something I've heard is that if it can float a six inch log during high water it is navigable. Is this the case? So almost any stream with fish would be navigable. So my second question is this: are there some exceptions like this case where they can block access to a stream? I mean totally like not let you walk on the river bed.

I hate the attitude some people have that they are the only ones who should be allowed to fish or use the river or think they are smarter than everyone else and that everyone else is destroying the resource.[/quote]

We fought a case based on the law of navigable water to fish the Gem Lake Pond in Idaho Falls. Several conditions must be present to allow you access. The navigable water must be part of water that flows to or from State or Federal Waters. As you described it must be about 6" to float a log or canoe. You must remain below the low water mark. I believe Mr. Beck was very unhappy at our success! My hat is off to Tom who did most of the leg work back and forth between the Irrigation District Rep. Mr. Rigby, The F&G office in I.F. the Idaho State Attorneys General and the Sheriffs Dept. Access was upheld all the way to Boise! The effort now allows for our continued access to the Gem Lake Pond!
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[Belasko]

I still love that ruling!
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[X2FSH]

Is "Mr.Beck" the fellow that was throwing ice melt onto the pond earlier this year to keep ice fisherman away??
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