You should be more concerned for those in the boat, that you are driving towards in the dark, to scare them. LOL.
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You should be more concerned for those in the boat, that you are driving towards in the dark, to scare them. LOL.
Yes, some people never want the police around....until they want the police around.
Your missing the point all together - keeping a fish 3/16 of an inch over or under hurts no one - for a CO giving a 175 dollar fine for that is what I call petty - completely uncalled for - because measuring anything is never 100% accurate - for those of you who think that the guy should have got a fine think about this - your driving down the road in a 55 mph speed limit but your going 57 mph - you get pulled over and fined 100 bucks - don't tell me that your ok with this - the first thing your gonna say is - holy mackerel officer - I was only going 2 miles over the limit - the intent of any fish law is to keep people from harming the resource by keeping too many or by preserving fish of a certain size for reproduction purposes - keeping a fish hardly out of a slot limit does hurt anything
I remember many years ago I was fishing here in Pa. with my brother - to keep a walleye it had to be 15 inches or over - well I catch one that is around 14 and 3/4 - I was using a night crawler and the fish was hooked pretty deep - I put the fish in the water and it lays on the surface - no doubt it wasn't going to make it - so I kept it - later on a warden comes along and wants to measure the fish we had - they are all ok except for the one - I explain that I put it back but it was dead - well he tells me that if he lets me go he would have to let everyone go - so he fines me - I don't remember how much at the time - I could either pay him or get a fine in the mail
Well a week or so later I get this letter in the mail that I need to pay so much - I just ignored the letter - weeks later a warden shows up at the house looking for me - my brother tells the warden that I was on leave from the army at the time and am now in Greenland - the warden mumbles something about guys being on leave and not following the rules - never did pay the fine - figured I almost got killed in Korea fighting for my country and no way was I going to worry about some stinking fish
So if the limit on fish to take home is 6, then with what you are saying 7, maybe 8 is ok, because it does not hurt anyone. If that 15in minimum fish was actually 6 fish at 14in then are they still ok?
The fact is that the law was broken and everyone knows the law. If you are not sure about your measurement then it is up to you to make sure that you do not keep anything outside of the allowable limit.
If I were pulled over and given a ticket for 102 Km/hr on the highway when the speed limit is 100 km/hr then so be it, I was doing something wrong and I should accept that.
No license then get a fine for not having your license, next time you might bring it with you.
I don't get how so many people say it is not a big deal but then freak out when the next guy has an extra line out when ice fishing or shoots 5min after the end of legal shooting time, you cannot have it both ways, either we accept the consequences for our actions or we don't, I was taught to accept what you did, good or bad.