I've run into a number of people this season who just don't seem to care about the law, fish, land, you name it.
First I ran some guy out of closed waters (I told this story some time ago).
I also came upon a fella standing atop a log jam with a huge treble hook wrapped with lead. I asked him, "You tribal?" He said, "I don't have to be tribal to use this." I said, "Oh, yes you do." Apparently that's all it took as I never did see him drop that hook in the water and he and his buddy left.
Next was the fella (this guy was huge) who drug a silver up on the beach next to me by the dorsal fin. I said to him, "You gonna bonk that fish?" He said, "Yep." and did. I just shook my head and went back to fishing. About 15 minutes later I foul hooked a hen, got her into shallow water and released her. Ten minutes later this big guy hooks a hen and she's foul hooked as well. I'm expecting the "bonk", but instead the guy carefully released her without beaching the fish. He fished a while longer and left. Curious, but I liked it.
I've also yelled at guys throwing rocks to scare fish, saying, "You know that's not OK!" and they stop.
Do you think that just saying something to people who are out of line is a good thing? I personally think it is......and I also believe that some people will do as they please unless someone else tells them that it's not OK.

possibly a little risky this day and age, allthough i do agree with you.

I think it is everyones responsibility to tell someone they are breaking the law. Although I also think this could be quite dangerous now days too.
I seem to remember a story a couple of years back about a guy who took a gun away from someone at reiter and proceded to thump him. I'd opt to just use the old cell phone and let the guys who get paid for it take care of the problem.
This brings up another subject too. The WDF is always complaining about the lack of funds, but why aren't they out writting tickets to these people and generating revenue. I'm sure they know that the fall salmon season brings out the crackers.
Just my .02$

My suggestion for raising revenue is as follows:

Keep fines reasonable so first time offenders who may be in violation due to sheer ignornace aren't hit too hard.

Fines should be squared for a second offense, and cubed for a third offense. Repeats and three-peats have NO excuse!

i've learned almost anything can be said to almost anybody if you do it with a true smile on your face and goodwill overtones in your voice

not counting the i-net keyboard:)

kinda like telling dad "after he taught you how to fish" that his chromer has a blush and it's a 2 mile hike out while she's dropping egg's already and there is still 2 year old venison in the freezer and how that ride in his truck home sure beats the hell out of walking in water gear 300 miles home

if you get my drift

let's not even start on splaining to the wife:(

bottom line

it's in how you say it
btw they listen and some even understand

I obey the law and I speak my mind when others do not. I'm pleased that Oregon allows a concealed weapons permit, as I love my glock sub-compact .45.
MH

You're a wise man, fuzzy.

In my experience it's always worked best to act like you're educating them as to the laws rather than accusing them of purposely violating them, especially in front of other people.

I had a situation last weekend where I could've let a guy take his lumps.
I went to hunt one of the pheasant release sites on the Snoqualmie and chat with a guy in the parking lot who invites me to hunt with him over his dog.
Out of courtesy, I let him have the first shot and in casual conversation, I ask what loads he's shooting.
He says 7 1/2's and I ask if they're lead and he says yes.(illegal)
I don't say anything more and we split up on the way to the exit.
I get to the parking lot first and see DFW writing tickets to two guys and confiscating their shells (lead violation and also hunting on even with odd license).
I grab a fistfull of my steel shotshells and walk back to the gate to intercept this guy and quietly hand him my steelshot and warn him that officers are in the parking lot and get the lead out of his gun.
Did I do the wrong thing?

Fuzzy, You're absolutely right, you can say anything with a smile. With the sheer number of regulations we have for fishing in WA, educating the fellow fisherperson is the way to go. But there are also the ones who are blatantly breaking the law, and deserve to be told so, then call the fish police.
Never hurts to have 10 round of .45 backing you up either.

Hmm I don't think so, if you contexted the warning as a word for the wise i.e. don't get yourself in this situation again then I don't see a problem, but I am sure there are guys justly so claiming that you diverted the system from making an indention on a mind in the need to know. He hooked you up with the dog hunt, and you hooked him up with the warning, if he chooses to be an idiot and conitnue to hunt out of the reg's than he will sure enough down the road of life get hit with what was coming to him when you were out in the filed with the guy. My two cents are spent.

Gofor....I think you did the right thing. Sometimes the right thing and the legal thing don't equate. AS for carrying a gun.... while fishing...each to their own. Unless I'm fishing some zipperlip in the hilltop, I'm not generally packing. I'm a pretty big guy and still don't get into much trouble with folks because I'm not a bully.
Think about it this way....if you use it to defend your life or another's....it's probably justified...If you start a confrontation with some violator and it turns violent and you shoot and kill him, can you live with that?

I don't think I could ever feel good about fishing again if I had to kill someone over the breaking of the rules.

We get the Russian and Ukraine immigrants snagging Chums on the Snoqualmie they could care less what you say until you say the word police then they start running. I just tell them the police hide in the bushes and arrest snaggers and they leave. The bigger issue is people fishing bait in the closed season. It is stopping the trout #'s from getting as big as they should be by now.

I floated from Maxfield to Witcomb Dimmel on the Sol Duc last Saturday. The Iverson hole had four or five of PA's finest blatantly snagging silvers by throwing heavy spoons with trebles into the middle of the fish and pulling hard on the rod three or four times every cast. In the fifteen or twenty minutes I could stand to be anchored there, they had fish on constantly, every one of which was drug in by the tail or dorsal fin.

I don't much care for the "technique," if you want to call it that, of jigging silvers with small lead headed jigs either. About half of the fish hooked in this method are either snagged in the body or outside the mouth from being flossed. If you can't get them to bite..........leave them the #$%@ alone.

This has been a debate for as long as we've fished. I DO NOT participate in snagging but don't feel the need to play police.
If you don't like it don't do it. Does it bother you that someone else is bringing home fish and you're not??
As far as I can tell most on this site are excellent fisherman and catch their fish.
Do you feel the need to roll down your window and yell to a speeder to slow down? Tell a guy not waring a helmet on abike to get one or else??
Just my thoughts. These guys just make me laugh. It's not hurting me. The gill netting, now there is an issue that affects all of us!!

i probably caught 60 silvers last season with that "technique" as you call it....And yes you can call it that..... and not a single fish was foul hooked.... snagging is snagging.... and jigging for silvers is just that... jigging for silvers

i do open my mouth and tell snaggers to beat feet or get beat. its not cuz i think i am bad ass or think that i am the law.... its cuz its the right thing to do....

but just as fast.... i would give some "cracker" a mouthfull if he accused me of snagging while i am jigging silvers. if you dont know how to hook em up with that method, then fine... but dont go calling people snaggers that arent snaggers. this gets re-hashed every silver season when you get new members whose mouths preceed there learning curve.

hey you better watch yourself sol taking a shot at PA like that.....

Schwic: I generally just move on and say nothing. I've learned saying something to someone who is deviant enough to snag fish is a waist of time breath anyway. But I disagree with your speeding/no helmet analogy. Someone who breaks the law on the highway is not around very long. The river environment is much more intimate and those that choose to break the law there are intruding on YOUR space too. Much like a loud obnoxious jackass in a movie theatre or a restaurant in which you've paid your hard earned money to be present for a period of time.

Report these people if you have cell coverage. Just use the poaching number in the regs.

Over the years I've become pretty adept at avoiding these situations. Snaggers seem to have only enough energy to walk a quarter of a mile or so. Find a hole a mile away from the parking lot and you just don't see many snaggers.
If I do run into snaggers and feel the need to say something it is usually a shameful one liner as I'm walking away!
I also carry a .357 to defend my life and property. No snagger/Coho is worth a manslaughter (or worse) rap! WALK AWAY!
Just my .02.

First off, let's just be happy that salmon season will soon be over and many of the meatheads will soon be putting their kMart specials away for the year. Salmon season seems to being out an element of the fishing crowd that fortunately only comes out for about two months a year ... I'm happy to see them crawl back under their rocks

Secondly Sol ... I think you might need some lessons in swimmin' jigs. While the retrieve rate will result in snagged fish ... I've watched plenty of them chase it down with reckless abandon to grab them. Not flossing The most suicidal fish I've ever seen was a few weeks back chasin' down a black squid and actually rooting around in the rocks alongside the boat trying to find it when the client dopped the rod too far and set it on the bottom next to the boat. When he lifted the jig back up off the bottom the fish grabbed it and ...

I've seen dozens of silvers over the years chase down spinners and slam 'em near the boat. But I've never seen one spin on it's nose in the rocks trying to get one

chrome you did the right thing at the wrong time. when the guy said he was shooting lead you should have givin him steel rounds right then or walked away. he may not have known the rules on lead shoot. its not enough to do the right thing you have to ask others to do the right thing or they will never learn. and yes i always do tell people when they are breaking the law or just being stupid. my grand father (5ft 2 on a good day) took a eletric chain saw away from a moron in the camp ground at little grass valley becouse the guy was cutting up tables for fire wood. grand pa never said any thing to the guy he just unpluged the cord from the genarator, rolled up the cord untill he was at the guy and then "took" the saw away and put it in his truck. walk over sat down and puored another martian. the guy demanded it back and grandpa told him to do things to him self that my then 11 year old mind believed was not only unheathy but darn near impossible.

leadership by example.

and no he never got the saw back.

Sol,
I do understand where you'e coming from and do see the reasoning. It's just even though, like all of us, I do feel this is unecessary and illegal, it is not my place to do the policing that my tax dollars supposedly pay for. Especially when a person can stand off the Humptulips bridge any day on Hghwy 101 and see numerous people BLATANTLY snagging fish and no game wardens anywhere, anytime . Not giving excuses but just my thoughts.

Originally quoted by Bob:
I'm more than willing to play student someday. I've picked up alot of what I know by fishing with my guide friends.