Has anyone tried putting together a volunteer 'fish shepherd' program?

We create a NW wide fishing club dedicated to bringing legal justice to the scum who intentionally snag, litter, start fights, use illegal tackle, fish out of season, and poach in general.

One of our biggest obstacles is information. Who do we call? What do we tell them? Will it do any good?

Well, this group would provide those answers. And more. For every river system, we would determine the best contact for reporting specific fishing related crimes. We could post signs in popular parking spots, hand out business cards - both would have a listing of illegal activities (with associated fines and other possible consequences), and provide the phone number of the appropriate agency responsible. We would also include details on the information that should be gathered if possible: physical description, photos, videos, license plate numbers, etc.
We would get some good contacts in the state patrol, sheriff’s office, and Dept of F&W.

Imagine if you are a snagger heading down to the meat hole this fall, and here are some dudes handing out this kind of information to everyone that walks by. Then right at the trail head is a big sign stating that snagging is a crime, you'll be find $$, you'll lose your gear, maybe your rig, and maybe your fishing license. And you know that everyone down there knows what to look for, who to contact, and what information to provide. You'd be pretty foolish to head down and start snagging...
Now a few are going to go down and snag anyway. They won't be intimidated!! Well, there are a couple fellow fisherman nearby with a video camera out filming him drag a salmon in by the tail. Now this guy is either going to leave (and probably get busted), stick around and probably get busted, or maybe try to come after you (and probably get busted). This is why we would need to stick together, and maybe even pack some heat in case you need to defend yourself.

Well, I'm just throwing out an idea. Anyone have any comments???

To start out, we would just need one volunteer to 'own' a river, or group of rivers (lakes, etc). This person would gather other volunteers and determine the plan of attack: where are the problem areas? who do you contact for this area? and so forth...

-Chad

thats a great idea, i would be first to volunteer my time!!

And those who start fights? What if the guy had it comin' to him? lol

I like the idea, but many times before, an idea like this has been posted about and posted about. Don't know if any real steps or progress was ever made in this area. Thanks for the input.

I'd sign up.

Good idea for the most part. The only drawback was when you said to pack some heat. I personally don't want to be on a river and have a gunfight erupt. Most people haven't had the firearm training that law enforcement has. Would you want to be fishing with your son or daughter and have two idiots start shooting at each other? I wouldn't. Other than that I liked your ideas and think that maybe something like this would work.

I only mention packing heat because I know there are some low life's out there that wouldn't think twice about jumping someone for doing this kinda thing. I hear about guys taking shots at game warden's - I can only imagine that some guys would try to trash your rig or jump you on the trail for sticking your nose in 'their' business...

It's time we stand up and stop whining. It'll only work if we stick together and we have folks who'll take charge and don't take 'no' for an answer.

Just imagine having the meat holes to yourselves because the snaggers are too afraid to show themselves...

If we can't get more enforcement, then we have to apply peer pressure. And we need to be organized.

Or we can sit back and watch our fish get poached, netted, snagged, etc and cry about it on the internet...

sounds good to me,But like posted above I don't like the HEAT factor could turn ugly if you come in contact with the A%%hole we all know is out there somewere!

PhishPreak, did you finally buy a gun? If not, I'll sell you my son's 357 mag. It's too big for him to conceal under his school jacket.

I hope you know I'm kidding.

THe WDFW already has a program in place. It is called eyes in the woods. You can sign up, get training on being a good observer AND you will know who to call (State Patrol for fish and game violations on weekends) Check it out.

The program doesn't focus on confrontation, but documentation.

Andy

Oh yeah, G-man. I suggest a Taurus PT-22, he can conceal it in his backpack.

The first rule of a gun fight is......

Bring a gun! (J/K)

Phish where were you last fall...huge discussion on what to do. I'm still waiting on the costs of my "snaggers are poachers" hats from a certain someone. Next fall is just around the corner...time to organize.

gooose

I think we should organized a few people per watershed and post sighns and reprecusions of poaching next fall. If you dont take the law into your own hands then you wont get hurt. Ive had friends that did the WWF thing and throw snaggers off boulders into the water and get into fist fights, and i'll be the first to tell you... DONT do it. The only way to put the snaggers out of bussiness is to get them where it hurts - loss of $, gear, transportation, and possible jail time.

Well, I was here this fall and didn't hear much exept a bunch of complaining. Eyes int the woods sounds cool. Anyone here involved?

As for watersheds, I'd be happy to cover the Snoqualmie, including the upper forks, and lakes from Sammamish to Rattlesnake. Plenty of poaching going in just these areas to keep me plenty busy - posting signs, educating folks, and taking down plate numbers...

I don't think the confrontational approach is best either. But if they're waiting for at the truck... Well, just don't go out and do this alone.

I'm with ya fellas. No excuses next fall. Instead of whining, I want to hear about the jerks you helped bust.

So who out there has experience with this? Who do I contact for poaching activities in East King County?

We should all have pen and paper as wel as a cell phone in our vests - and we need to have numbers to call.

I like the hat idea, but I'm pretty picky about the kind of hat I wear. Plus it mike look alot like a target to some folks!!

Reality check time:

#1: Make sure that your handouts are biodegradable, as they would likely end up on the trail floor within 100' of where you gave it to them.

#2: Most people are gung-ho about doing this until they are asked to give up prime fishing time to do it. If they could only do it when the fishing wasn't so good...

#3: If your cell phone would work in some of those areas at all, you'd be risking your azz bringing out a cell phone anywhere near blatant snaggers. If they'll draw on a uniformed and badged officer of the law they'll bead on your wadered azz without a second thought.

Sorry everyone, it's a noble cause and all but taking a few minutes out of your day to biiatch about it on the Internet anonymously is always easier than taking a prime fishing day off to dodge bullets.

Current regulations give the following numbers for reporting poaching activity:
Incident Hotine.....1-800-477-6224 (M-F, 8am-5am)

For reports outside the hours above, call the nearest State Patrol Office. The Seattle region phone number is (206) 464-6610. Other WSP numbers are on page 7 in the regs, or listed in the gov. section of the phone book.

If the incident is ongoing, you might want to report it to both agencies, and hope someone responds in time to catch the culprits in the act. It doesn't "take a village" to cause poachers some grief, just an irate individual with a phone. I've made the call twice, and in both cases, the violators were cited.

It would take about 100 volunteers JUST to patrol the Quilcene during the silver run.... and the snaggers would still outnumber use 10 to 1

DAVE JACKSON,S reality check , i got a kick out of it .

Once again great idea,
I'll take the Nisqually,
the only real problem would be one of those Camo Wearin snaggin *&$# Boys from "Back Home" might go back on base and get his Tank ....Os

Dave's assuming we'd rather take the easy way out... How about giving some suggestions. We can all come with reasons why we shouldn't do it.
I like the biodegradable suggestion.

Also, for the quilcene and other rivers with high counts of snaggers - if we apply just a little pressure and force them to do their own reality check - I bet we could elimiate 90% of them. Most of these guys think - hey everyone else is doing it, or I can just play stupid, or no one really cares anyway, or who's gonna find out, etc. Show them that someone is watching (maybe the guy standing next to him) and post the regs where they can't play dumb, and watch the numbers start dropping. Then the game wardens can start cracking down on the hard core snaggers and not the sheep following their lead...
And think of the guys going down there with their kids. "Dad, is what we're doing illegal??" It won't detour all, but any impact is better than nothing.

As for me, I think heading down to the meatholes during the night and posting a few signs would be no problem at all. Then when I go down to do my fishing, I'll bring some new replacement signs for the ones the get ripped up, and bring my trash bag to pick up the pieces.

One or 2 of us won't be able to do too much - but many of us together can. Just WANT to and take a FEW steps in the right direction.

How cool would it be if you're fishing in a popular spot, and some dude snags a salmon or lands a nate steelie (during wild release) and the guy next to him says - don't even think about bonking that fish. Well who's gonna stop me? He says, smirking at his 2 buddies. Then the other 10 guys in the hole put down there rods and stand behind him - we will...

That is pretty far fetched, but at least we could report the incident and hope the guy gets busted...

Anyway - if we can't manage the white trash who insist on poaching and snagging, we should keep our mouths shut about things like indian netting...

-Chad

"Well sure you have a gun, but there's only six bullets and ten of us!"

"Yeah, so who wants to be shot first?"

Honestly, I'd like to see this work. I just know that the nature of the average outraged American is to piss and moan about the problem, in hopes that someone ELSE will take the lead and fix the problem.

Go ahead, prove me wrong. Trust me, I WANT you to prove me wrong.