sure Pops!

You Catch 'em, I'll clean 'em and SD can put the heat to 'em   We'll give the first plate full to the game warden.

MT, we have to get together and go fishing sometime...

Right on DB,

I must be in a story telling mood as that reminds me of a happening some time ago. (And here I thought only old people told long drawn out tales............Oh, wait,......... nevermind  .)

I took my Father-in-law to fish on the Detroit river and had always thought the middle of the shipping lanes were the demarcation line. Well up out of nowhere the Canadian warden shows up and writes us both up. Fortunately he didn't pop us for the cooler of fish as well but I digress.

On the appropriate date I showed up in Windsor to take my whoopin having convinced my Dad to stay home. After watching the room full of other violators try and claim ignorance I quickly ascertained that was a failing strategy.

Upon my turn not only did I accept responsibility for my ignorance I told the judge that I was also responsible for my Father-in-laws ticket as well since I had been Captaining the boat. The judge and prosecutor turned and looked at each other with that easy familiarity that comes from working together a long time. "I wouldn't want to get my Father-in-law a ticket would you" the judge asked the prosector. Long story short my Dads ticket was dismissed.  

A friend who doesn't fish went up to someone's' cabin for the weekend and got talked into going fishing one afternoon. Got caught, tried to lie, officer rephrased the question, friend came clean. Small fine.

Different friend, a farmer/hunter/trapper got caught with a pole shed filled with an incredible number of deer... I believe that resulted in some jail time as well.

Intent matters. We humans get it right sometimes too.

Preacher wrote on Nov 17^th, 2010 at 10:23pm:

The officer most assuredly recognized the off dialect of the Illinois fisherman.

-YB

If he didn't lose his boat, trailer and gear he got off easy.  MN would not be so generous.

Count me in with the Preacher.

The officers have broad leeway. 

I've seen them catch people for whom English isn't even a 2nd language and explained that a fish caught out of season must be released.  The fish was released and no fine/charge.

Considering the offender has been playing this game for 17 years, he got off easy.  3 counts of a bogus licence?  Should have been 17, one for every year he wasn't an Ontario resident.

Ontarians pay less for licences because our tax dollars already fund the ministry.  It's not unfair that non-residents pay more because they're actually paying less once all the revenue sources are counted.  Maybe not less, maybe on par, maybe a little more.  Membership has it's privledges.

When I was in Boston for a summer I had to pay more for my fishing licence as a non-resident.

Geez, seems sorta steep.

I wonder what the fine is for fishing the day after your permit has expired :question

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A Chicago-area man posing as an angler from Mississauga has been fined $5,000 for fishing illegally in northwestern Ontario this past summer.
Tim Neidenbach, a Ministry of Natural Resources conservation officer, approached the man on Lak Seul, about 300 kilometres northeast of Kenora, on Aug. 20, and asked the man for his fishing licence.
He handed over an Ontario resident’s Outdoors Card and fishing tag, said he lived in Mississauga and cited that city as his hometown on the licence.
...the astute officer called his bluff, asking him to identify the mayor of Mississauga...

Wojciech Rzepka of Park Ridge, Ill., was fined $3,300 for three counts of possessing a bogus fishing licence. He was also fined $850 for fishing without a licence and $850 for making a false statement.
Using a fraudulent card probably saved Rzepka $800 or $900 over the past 17 years, Neidenbach said, “but now he’s having to pay out $5,000.”




Hazel has been the Mayor of Misssissauga since 1978.
They should have taken everything related to the offence too.  They can take your boat, your fishing gear, your car - anything related to the offence.