darn tourists

[Browningmirage]

So we were coming in from fishing on Saturday, 2 decent springs on board, pull up to the launch, and there was another boat on the other side of the dock. I hop out, after tying on, and take a look, in the bottom, there are 4 fish, 2 of which were alright springs. I say nice springs, one of the guy says "oh yeah...guess how big, i say 24, he says 22, pretty close"

Now with formalities aside, he asks me, do you know what these fish are?, i respond, yeah, do you? He says, no clue (southern accent), so i say move that one there, and ill tell you; turns out he had 3 springs (2 liscences in the boat), and 1 pink, but he had no idea which was which. The smallest spring seemed about 4.5 pounds or so, and looked waaaayyyy undersized, but i didnt push that matter, as i didnt have a measure on me, and it was skinny (but i would say undersized for sure). I ask, if they had them recorded, they had no idea what i was talking about, so i told them to look on the back of their liscences, and told them that after catching a spring, before fishing starts again, they need to be recorded, and each instance is a 150$fine. They fumbled with their liscences a bit, but never actually wrote any of this down in the time that i was there.

in the end i counted 4 contraventions

They thought they were over their limit the whole time, and said so, i asked why they kept fishing..."mumble mumble mumble"

On top of it all, they thought i was jerking their chain, i asked if they had a sportfishing guide, and they said yeah, i asked if they read it and they started mumbling. They were going out for halis the next day, so i told them that they should read it over, and remember their hali limit is 2 each.

itd almost be worth it to make a manditory course for regulations before anyone can go fishing. i couldnt believe the utter ignorance for regulations that these two displayed

DFO/coastgaurd was at the top of the ramp, and i told them something was up, so im hoping that something was done, god know something should be done

[elkdom]

I have seen much the same senario up north here, thousands of tourists, thousands of lakes and rivers , and only a couple of CO's, nothing burns my butt like releasing my fish while some 'motorhome dwelling GOOMBAH' is loading his deep freeze with trout and walley!, and I am eating canned sardines! PEE's me off BIG time!

[steelheadSABO]

i have seen two chinese people at the chehalis river catching chum with dip nets and filling garbage bags with them and i went over to ask what they where doing as they where loading their car full of about 20 chum salmon still flopping in the bag and they said that they were not full of fish when we where watching them for about an hour and then we called a co and nobody even came.ive never seen a co while i was fishing in my life.

[Tarp Man]

Please make sure you report stuff like this. We need to make sure to provide as much help to CO's as possible. If you are unaware, they are WAY understaffed and underfunded. RAPP is the best tool we have, so make sure there time is efficiently used. Take license numbers, vehicle ID, descriptions, all details you can, and photos (don't forget even if you have no reception, your camera phone option still functions!).

[One Shot]

The same senario plays on both sides of the border. I went back to MT and few other states for a while. Along a fly fishing only river which was well marked, were 4 Albertans gear fishing within 50' either way of two "Fly Fishing Only" signs at a fishing access pull out. The hwy is well marked for miles with the access of flyfishing only signs. The thing is there are poeple every where who have it does not apply to them attitudes. I politely told them to stop fishing, get off the river, get licences, regs and the proper tackle. They obliged very quickly, I think the gun I was wearing scared the shit out off them a bit as one guy wouldn't stop looking at it even while he was leaving.

[hunter1947]

It would steam me to no hell to to see something like this.

You did the right thing saying something to the FO ,I hope they both got nailed ,like elkdom said you obey the BC hunting and fishing laws and some clowns like this have no idea what they are doing and most of the time get away from getting caught http://www.huntingbc.ca/forum/images/icons/icon8.gif.

[johnes50]

I agree about dumb tourists not having a clue.

But the Fishing and Hunting Regs can be very confusing even for residents. If a person fishes & hunts a lot then they probably know the regs inside and out, and they should. They probably know it so well that it seems easy to figure out to them. But if someone is just getting back into fishing & hunting or are from out of province then the regs can be confusing until they read it a few times and have read all the fine print. It seems that the beauracrats and lawyers got together to write the darned things...

I think the Ministry is partly to blame for not making the regs easier to figure out for everybody. If I remember correctly, Fish & Wildlife even admitted that they want to simplify the regs so people can figure them out easier.

It's still the fisherman/hunters responsibility to know the regs and any kind of poaching should be dealt with severly. Some simplified brochures with the real important information on it written plainly would be helpful for tourists to do the right thing. Big red lettering with arrows and skulls and crossbones might help.:grin:

[kastles]

i was just reading an article about this in field and stream. poaching. ignorance is no excuse. and if they are tourists it is more money comming into the country. my $.02

[rishu_pepper]

RAPP is your friend.

[huntwriter]

itd almost be worth it to make a manditory course for regulations before anyone can go fishing. i couldnt believe the utter ignorance for regulations that these two displayed

DFO/coastgaurd was at the top of the ramp, and i told them something was up, so im hoping that something was done, god know something should be done
Good on you to talk to these folks and report them. Having said that. It’s not only tourists poaching out of ignorance. There are just as many, if not more, BC residents that poach and KNOW the regulations.

Mandatory Fishing Education Course!!!!:shock: This must be your understandable anger talking. Such a program would do the same as C.O.R.E. does to hunting. Nothing!


Slobs will be slobs and poachers will be poachers. The only “weapon” against these types are people like you not afraid to confront these people and report them. R.A.P.P.

[island grown]

hard to deal with the gorbies after i awhile i know, i'm from bamfield and have worked as a fishing guide, crazy tourists trying to follow me 25 miles off-shore in thick fog. makes ya want to turn your boat around and have a little chat about there competency running a boat. i know the reg's can be a little vague , but thats no excuse. i feel that if you want to fish on the west coast you need to know how to run your boat and electronics and know the regulations. sorry about the rant, i sure do love watching the gorbie's park their boats though.

[Edward Teach]

Friggin gorbies...
The best revenge was when there was a bunch of shrimp in the ditch outside Ukie and a bunch of us were dragging back and forth in it. Well when the gorbies saw that they came roaring out and were perplexed as to why they weren't catching anything. A few lost gear on our towlines too...

[happygilmore]

Along a fly fishing only river which was well marked, were 4 Albertans gear fishing within 50' either way of two "Fly Fishing Only" signs .

Maybe they couldn't read american:shock:
When I was a kid we had a couple yanks pulling a couple sleds pull over and ask us where the snow was?, "Its been 3hrs since we crossed the border, and still no snow!" we told them they still had a ways to go since it was the end of June! I'm sure they must have wondered how our igloo's held up in the heat!

[happygilmore]

If out of province hunters need guides/relatives to take them out why not fishing?