Northwest Fishing Reports

There are several TV shows about game wardens. Shows done in Alaska, Montana, California and Maine and now there is one that follows wardens from WFDW.

Six episodes on Animal Planet on Sunday night called "Rugged Justice".


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Cool!

I'll have to check that out.

Larry

I saw them filming on the Columbia river while fishing the hanford reach last october above Vernita. I got my DVR set up to record.

WDFW does enforcement? thats news!

Good show. Back in high school I wanted to be a game warden. I'll have to watch it again.

good show but was any of it real?

strider43 wrote:WDFW does enforcement? thats news!

Thanks for the laugh.
Its funny because I have been fishing around the state for 30 years and have only had one encounter with them. It was a positive one. But for as much as I get out, I would think I would see them all the time. Though I don't frequent the hot areas they probably patrol because I hate fishing crowds. I will tell you though, there have been many times I wish they were around or very close to witness the things I have seen. Hopefully the show will help add to the budget and more enforcement will happen because of it.

Does it seem like the show will focus on hunting more than anything else?



fishnislife

There is hopefully gonna be part of this show were they get a phone call of guys bonking chums on the Skykomish. Someone (some guy in a green Customweld) called it in and about a half hour later here comes to wardens and two guys with cameras across the gravel bank. I hope this show makes some paochers think twice. I also hope it show cases that Game Wardens are out to protect our resources and not bully use on the river. They do what the do for a reason.

Good thing mines red!

Bodofish wrote:Good thing mines red!

Good thing mines getting wrapped lol

During elk season this year i heard they were filming some around Pacific county. I guess some hunter shot an elk from a nearby bridge (Niawakum river bridge) right off hwy 101! I guess they determined it to be a legal shot!? how could that be legal? .... Hopefully it makes the show for an explanation?? anyone else hear about that?

sjrose24 wrote:During elk season this year i heard they were filming some around Pacific county. I guess some hunter shot an elk from a nearby bridge (Niawakum river bridge) right off hwy 101! I guess they determined it to be a legal shot!? how could that be legal? .... Hopefully it makes the show for an explanation?? anyone else hear about that?

I did not hear about it but.
If the shot was from beside the road, not on or across the road, at a legal elk on property that is open, what would not be legal?

I thought you had to be a certain distance away from a roadway. like 50 feet? hard to do from a bridge. practically had to be standing on the white line

On page 80 under prohibited hunting methods.
"7 Negligently discharging a firearm
from, across, or along the maintained portion of any public highway, regardless of surface, or from within a moving vehicle "

The word "along" could make it a violation. But I know people that have shot from just off the road and the officer that was there was ok with it. They shot from off the road and away from not along the road. The question would be does "along" have to do with the location for the shooter, (as the word "from") or the direction of the shot, (as the word "across").
I don't know where you would get the 50' rule.

King County has some BS ordinances that you have to be so many feet off the road to discharge a fire arm but, I can't remember how many feet it is. It very well could vary by location. I know they've effectively shut down hunting in a number of areas by going 500yrds from a road.

I am going to guess that Pacific County is more lax than King County. King County seems to be the strictest county in the state on a lot of things. That does bring up a problem. When hunting you need to know state game law, other state laws, county and city laws. You also have to deal with the knowledge of the enforcement officer and his or her interpretation of those laws.
This doesn't even speak to the ethics, it may have been legal to shoot from the bridge but was that the most ethical thing to do? If other hunters are questioning what you did, how is a non-hunter going to look at it. We need the non-hunters on our side and should strive to do the most ethical thing when something is in question. If not we run the risk of our hunting being voted away, such as the bear baiting.

Unless specifically stated otherwise in a county ordinance like the King County reference, I would imagine as long as you're not within the county right of way (whatever that may be) it would be legal, that's assuming all other aspects were legal too.