I'm envious of the many of you that live within easy access of good fishing spots. Living here in the Chihuahuan Desert, the closest fishing is the Rio Grande River and it's associated net work of dams.

I was always more of a hunter than an angler but enjoy wetting a hook now and then. I like catching channel cats in the river and practice catch and release.

The other day, the wife and I were alone on the river bank. I was fishing and she was sitting in a lawn chair, twenty feet behind me, reading a book.

Any time I leave the house, I'm carrying. I carry a S&W 442, right side appendix, in a inside the belt holster. On this particular day, my EDC was printing under a tight shirt but I didn't care as we were alone on the river bank.

I was concentrating on my fishing when I heard a man's voice questioning my wife. I turned around and saw a game warden talking with her.

He then approached within ten feet of me and asked if I had caught any fish. I set aside my rod and turned towards him and answered. He then asked if I had a fishing license on me. I answered "no" but that I had one in the glove box of my truck, the only vehicle around and maybe 100 feet away. I asked if he would like for me to get it. He nodded yes and turned in the direction of my truck, then stopped and asked my age. When I responded, he said he didn't want to see my license. He asked if I had seen anyone else around. When I said "no", he said "have a good day" and walked off. Don't know where his truck was parked, he just walked off into the brush.

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Game Wardens have just appearing and disappearing down to finely tuned skill.

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C & L

Sounds like a wise Game Warden.

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Ad Astra Per Aspera

I was fishing a few weeks ago on a relatively small public lake. I had pulled into a cove to get out of the wind. No sooner did I make my first cast when I heard a voice say " Have you caught anything?" I turned and saw a boat coming straight at me with two guys in it. Turns out it was the game warden. I have been fishing on this lake countless times over the years and have never even seen a game warden. I started to get my fishing license out of my wallet when he asked me how old I was. I told him 61. He said "You're almost there", looked at my license, handed it back and said "Have a good day". I can only guess that in Alabama fishing licenses are free when you hit 65?? Who knows.

At 65 I got a free life time fishing and hunting license.

Sent from my LGL52VL using Tapatalk

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Don

Moose and Goose aren't quite that sneaky here. They do wear plainclothes sometimes on restricted waters. License cost here is $1.00 for those over 64. Nice looking fish.

Yes, as a teenager you must have a hunting and
fishing license and all game wardens look like
girls' fathers.

Well Chief , you were very suspicious looking with that fishing pole in your hand . I would think an old salt would have had enough water over a career in the navy to last a life time .
Semper Fi

every encounter I ever had with a game warden I felt like I was dealing with an Indian, wondering where the heck he came from.

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Expert at not being an Expert.

Several times while trout fishing I have had Wardens sneak up on me in the stream to check to see if I had a license and to check if I was over the limit.

They just pop out of nowhere, surprise I never had a heart attack.

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Doesn't hasta call me Johnson

I have heard MANY interesting tales of interactions with DNR and game wardens or whatever your locale names them and some interactions of my own as well. Most of them are similar in that these folks are very practiced and skilled at being cordial, friendly and also (seemingly!) quite "unofficial" where it seems like they open conversations and continue conversations like a regular Joe just passing the time -- until it is time for business.

These folks have one agenda beyond all others (again, in my experience) and that agenda is REVENUE. They take their jobs very seriously, as they should and they enforce every detail of the revised code and often... they generate revenue.

Along the way, the laws get enforced and the agency stays healthy and relevant and the goals are met, but revenue seems to be the means.

Not saying that it shouldn't be, but there aren't many "friendly warnings" in this game like you might get for 5 MPH or rolling through a stop sign.

I was on my land in vt when two game wardens pulled up. They got out and looked nervious. We had rifles in our hands. I told my son to put the guns on the ground. Then the situation was cool.

Must be a descendant of Marshal Wistful McClintock.

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Can open, worms everywhere.

I’m an avid angler and hunter. So, i’ve Had plenty of first hand experience with them. I would think all like-minded folks have. What you say about revenue is completely true. They’re not there to be cutting anyone any ‘breaks’, to be sure. They’re on top of their game and it’s up to you to be on top of yours. That means KNOWING the regs for whatever you’re doing, wherever you’re doing it, and observing them to the letter. I bet the warden in this instance could have cited the OP for simply not having his license on his person while having a line in. He didn’t: nice gesture, not to be expected. All that said, the vast majority of my interactions with them have been positive and painless. If you’re doing everything right, the ‘business’ part of the interaction ends in a few minutes, and often returns to “regular joe” stuff, and at that point, I frequently get to pick their heads about current fish and game movements, successful tactics, etc. And more than once this offered ‘intel’ has directly resulted in me putting game on the ground or fish in the net. In fact. Just last weekend on an annual LL Salmon & Brook Trout trolling trip, we got reg pulled over and reg checked within minutes of splashing the boat. Everything was in order. I then asked them how other boats were doing, where on the lake and at what depth the fish were coming. Depth is huge factor in this game. He said 30 ft plus or minus, troll slow, and gave us an indication of which part of the lake was putting fish on the boats. Followed his general advice and limited out every day we were there. Thanks, buddy.

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Oui Chef!

You probly don't get ID'd much for buying beer either. My ID is the vast expanse of bare scalp on top of my head.

He better be while patrolling the Rio Grande...

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Centennial Every Day

I've had a few interactions with game wardens here in Texas. None of them have been anything but positive, but I know if I were breaking the law that would have been a different story. One fellow I fished with a few years back told me he once kept a bass that was about half an inch under the then legal length limit of 12 inches. Said he figured it would be okay since it was so close. Wouldn't you know that was the day the warden asked to see his catch. Thinking that one was too small, the warden measured it and issued the guy a ticket.

He said he went to court, plead guilty, paid the $250 fine, and thought that was the end of it. A few weeks later he received a bill from Texas Parks & Wildlife for the fish - 11.5 inches at $50/inch.

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Or something like that . . .

Had a friend of mine relay a story about an encounter he had with a wildlife officer. He, and a friend, were bank fishing in a wooded area. Game warder appeared and my friend took off running. The warder was hot on his tail. After about a half a mile, my friend stopped and the warder caught up and asked for his license. He showed it to him and was asked why he ran. He replied, my buddy didn't have one and I knew he couldn't outrun you.

Over the years have fished in a number of states, and had only one experience with a Warden. And that was with a tribal ranger at Pyramid Lake in Nevada. Nice guy to talk to.

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Peace was my Profession

Statistically, as far as the risk of death or injury in the line of duty, outdoors LEO jobs like game warden, park ranger, and Forest Service LEO, are reportedly the most dangerous law enforcement jobs in the US.

Not surprising if you look at the work environment. You’re out there by yourself, and back-up, medical as well, can be miles of dirt road and hours away. Add to that antiquated radio equipment that frequently doesn’t get through (as I can attest from personal experience having worked with some of these agencies in Oregon and California).

At least out here in the Western states, more deer are taken illegally than legally. Most by meat hunters who wouldn’t start a shoot-out to avoid a citation, but as a F&W officer, you’re still dealing with armed folks all day. Besides the good people, there are a lot of weirdos out there, and as a long-term hunter in the Oregon woods, I can tell you it doesn’t take a lot of turns off the highway before you’re in “Deliverance” country

Working that type of environment alone, and actually having to approach people on a regular basis, requires a certain level of skill and no-nonsense attitude, and very good judgment.

I've been fishing and hunting in 3-4 western states for 65 years and never encountered a warden. I always had a license when one was required, never over the limit or illegal game. Years ago, a Colorado G&F hassled my 70 year old mother on the Poudre River because he thought my dad was working on her limit. She was wearing hip boots, holding a rod, but sitting on the bank while Dad fished. Neither of them had more fish than allowed. Guess he was having a bad day, but seemed over zealous to me.

Most of the DFW types I've met are not interested in the least in the revenue portion of enforcement. They are very dedicated to the biology and wildlife management aspects.

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NHI, 10-8.

Preaching to the choir here, Doug. I have a profound respect for the work our fish and wildlife enforcement officers perform.

I've never met one here who wasn't professional and courteous, and devoted to maintaining healthy fisheries and game populations.

They have to take a lot of guff and unreasonable complaining and lies, like any LEO. They have to be out in the field at all hours and in all kinds of weather. The one I knew best was a neighbor and became a friend. I know he often had trouble keeping a schedule of time with his family.

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Oh well, what the hell.

The only interaction I've had with a game warden was when a couple of them came to our dove shoot checking licenses and shotgun plugs.



One asked if I had a plug in my gun. He was taken aback when I said no. I was shooting an over/under and had no idea where a plug went.

When a young'un in 1982 I was duck hunting in the South Platte river. 2 Officers showed up on the opposite bank & asked for my license. I replied I would be glad to show it to them but the water was too deep to wade across & I wasn't going to swim to them. 1 Went upstream & the other downstream until they found a shallow spot I could cross. They weren't real happy, but took it well & admitted they wouldn't have tried to cross either.

I heard a true story about a game warden decades ago knocking a guys eye out when he hit him. The game warden went hunting and was never seen again.

That's an old-old story. Truthfully IF that ever happened that fellow could go to jail.

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S&W Accumulator

Many years ago I and my B_I_L were anchored down in an eddy spot on the Edisto River. Two game wardens came by and stopped their boat aways from us. They ask "how are they bitting?" And if we had life jackets. We held them up and they said "OK". We were both wearing sidearms(legally) and were sitting sideways in the boat where both our guns were visible. They never acknowledged our guns and said "Have a nice day" and they motored on down. Several bends down the river a friend and his son were fishing. When the GM's got to them they checked their license/life jackets(one was still in the plastic sleeve and he made him take it out of it). They checked their fish. They were GTG. When they came back up river they just waved as they passed......Guess we didn't look guitly.

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S&W Accumulator

Night fishing with my brother just outside Boston Harbor in his 19' Mako when a booming voice startled us. The Coast Guard had slid up next to us in much bigger boat and we never heard them coming. They checked us for PFDs, asked a few questions and wished us good luck.

Saw a game warden cuff a guy after measuring his fish and take him
away .. Everyone thought well he's gone now and another guy caught an illegal fish by snagging it and took it up to his car and put it in the trunk ..

Bad idea as there was another warden that had been fishing and he arrested that guy and his car was towed .. and that all happened in Alaska on the Russian River ..

Very doubtful if the first guy got his truck back and the 2nd man his car .. strictest game laws I have ever seen !! I always fished and hunted legal up there !!

We were hunting bear over a moose gut pile about 8 miles off road and another mile off trail when a game warden scared the bageebees out of us .. he was riding a horse and we never hear him come up behind us .. also in Alaska .. asked if that was our camp a bout a mile away and we said yes and he checked our permits and what we were shooting and told us to have a good day and good luck .. did ask us if we had seen anyone else and said there were 2 more groups of hunters within about a 5 mile radius .. how he knew I don't know because you don't have to check in anywhere .. never heard any gunfire or saw smoke of anyone's fire and was cold enough to need one .. ..

For many years our extended family went fishing at a camp outside of Laneil, Quebec. For years we never saw a hint of a game warden. But one year, I was fishing by myself on the dock and a game warden came out and checked me for a fishing license. Since I'm a stickler myself for paperwork, I had the proper license and everything was fine. It always helped in Quebec that for a long time I was the only one on the trip who could speak and read French because one year the provincial fish and game department forgot to send up the regulations in English. I would read the French version just to make sure that there wasn't something different in the translation. We never saw a warden ever again.

Sorry about your friend, but I sure wish the GW's in my region would crack down on all the people with undersized catches. I regularly see guys filleting 8 inch Crappies on the ramp when the minimum size is 11 inches. It is quite common for people to fillet fish on the ramp and pitch the carcasses over the side. I can tell just by sight that they aren't legal. They don't seem to care, nor appear worried that someone will see them. There's never a GW around when you need them. IMO they're too busy enforcing non-game laws like BUI's....also an excuse to "girl watch" all the bikinis through binoculars on crowded weekends such as this one.

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Smith. And Wesson. And Me!

I think they kind of dial in on whatever the biggest/most common violation is; per season, per region they are operating in. So in spring it’s one thing in the field, and something else on the water. Summer, fall, winter, etc.

I fish a lot on a big lake in NH where the LL salmon are protected through the ice. Can’t keep them, closed fishery for the ice season. Lake Trout, rainbows, anything else that swims is fine. And that’s I/we are after. And for a reason. Without getting into the nitty gritty of it all, the reason is revenue, and the value of the LL salmon, and that they are simply just too easy to catch through the ice. Literally. Drop a live smelt 1 to 2 feet beneath the bottom of the ice, anywhere on the lake, over almost any depth, and you have about as good a chance at catching a LL salmon as anything else in the lake. Not good, considering the expense to stock and sustain the population is an uphill battle with only minimal natural breeding happening. Anyway, besides yahoos and greenhorns who literally cannot ID a salmon from a rainbow, a Laker, a brown, etc etc., you get alooooot of otherwise reg abiding sportsmen who, after potentially hours of fishless activity in pretty brutal conditions, finally see that flag flip, get the fish to the hole after an amazing fight and low & behold, it’s a really big LL salmon. The temptation has proved too much for many. I would be lieing if I said I hadn’t thought about it myself. Here’s why I don’t ....

So this semi legendary C/O who just happens to work the part of the lake I fish, trains his dog (lab) on his own time, to sniff out LL salmon. No joke. Not FISH, specifically SALMON. Always thought it was an urban legend until I met a guy who got busted by The Dog. Long and short - warden sees some tiny fish scales around a hole that his trained eye can identify as salmon. “Sir, You pull any salmon through this hole today?”
“Nope. Cut one loose. Released a couple short Bows.”
Dog thinks orherwise and is soon straining at the leash, following scent in the snow on the top of the ice where droplets of water fell from the fish as the poacher carried it some 150 yards from his shack to the trunk of his car.

Busted.

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Oui Chef!

My Grandfather in all his wisdom, probably saved me countless tickets and fines....also renewal fees. On my 16th birthday he gave me an Alabama lifetime fishing license followed up with lifetime hunting for my 17th. By far the best and most meaningful presents ever received.

I have never been fined for a Game or Wildlife, but have paid some equipment tickets.

Sure. Worst I heard was for A.) not having an distress signal on the boat - (Horn, whistle, whatever). B) not having the fishing license “secured” on his person (had license, valid, in the boat, in a console, not “secured” on his person. Witnessed that one first hand. No other infractions observed either. Wasn’t a ‘stack-on’ situation. So, take from that what you will.

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Oui Chef!

Here in metro Atlanta game wardens will yell at people along the Chattahoochee river to hold up their fishing license, and view them with binoculars. The wardens might be on the shore or in a boat. Failure to comply brings them right to your face. My vision and hearing aren’t that great, so I generally get a visit with an attitude.

I will say this, when you are asked for I.D. Do not stare at your reflection in the water and point, and reply “yes, that’s me”.

The Game Wardens I've dealt with have always greeted me with "How ya doin?"...during every single encounter. That annoys me, because I know it isn't genuine and that they could care less. To my ears, "how ya doin?" translates to "I need to see your license."

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Smith. And Wesson. And Me!

There used to be a warden around Green county who would lock the gates in Redlands WMA. Locked gates kept folks from driving way into the area with their dogs to hunt quail. It was like his private preserve.

Used to go fly in fishing on a little Ontario Lake near Ear Falls named Dead Dog Lake. We were cleaning fish when a OMNR helicopter dropped out of the friggin' sky and checked licenses, measured every fish, checked that each filet had an inch of skin left on it; took about 90 minutes. they were toting model 10s, and had a 870 mounted barrel down in the chopper. I don't think they said 100 words during this time. They said good day, and good luck, and flew away. Have to do everything by air up north in the English River and Rainy Lake drainages.

For about 50 years of fishing I never saw a game warden or park ranger.
Then I had a friend visit from out of state who wanted to fish one day; I told him we'd have to stop and get him a 10 day non-resident fishing license, which he pooh-poohed. I insisted, we got the license.
We rented a boat, got no more than a quarter mile up the lake, another boat appeared out of nowhere; surprise, surprise; it was a game warden, checking licenses. Do licenses or the lack have a scent we mere mortals can't smell; does even the thought of fishing without one emit brain waves they can sense and read?
I think game wardens are actually hybrid creatures of the wild and therefore blessed with extraordinary senses and abilities - eyes of an eagle, sense of smell like a bloodhound, swim like dolphins and navigate the woods like a 1700's native American.

Master Chief- you might want to keep just one the size of the fish in the first pic. Skin it, gut it, roll it in flour and fry it. Channel cats about that size are delicious.
OTOH, is the Rio Grande too warm to produce tasty fish?

Haha, I loved your detailed description of a game warden. But I wanted to reply to this part:
Ugh, so conflicted. On one hand, a friend that doesn't agree with staying legal and getting the license is either begging for some damn discipline and adult discussion on the importance and impact of conservation and simply being a stand-up guy or he isn't my friend.

On the other hand, maybe even better if you let him do it "his way!" and let the warden teach him. It would make for an interesting day for him and maybe a period of growth.

Doing it at the ramp???

Patrick McManus wrote a great story about when he was a kid & his encounters with the local game warden named Sneed. Still laugh whenever I read it.

I had almost daily interactions with game wardens for many years. Guided waterfowl hunters on the Eastern Shore of Md for 35 years..dealt with state and federal wardens. State guys were generally decent..Feds were sometimes terrible. Had a fed threaten me with a handgun...over nothing within his jusridiction. it really did not go well for him. Never been cited for anything in all my years hunting and fishing...and don't intend to change that record. The forest service people here sometimes lock gates up in the national forest...mainly so they don't have to go help pull out stuck vehicles

For your information, upon reaching 65 years of age in Alabama, if you are a resident ( have photo ID in pocket which for all normal people will consist of a valid drivers lic with your address noted), all fishing and hunting is granted without any purchase of license. With the new law on deer and turkey harvest, you are required now to obtain a PIN with Fish and Game for reporting harvest of deer or turkey. Welcome to Alabama where the love and use of the outdoors is appreciated by those in Government.

LOL, also found out when you're crossing over from Mexico to US and Mexican officials ask your nationality, don't say "TEXAN", (they don't like that).

Yes, Here in Alabama if age 65 no hunting or fishing license is required.