Baker Lake Harsh Wardens

[RiverChromeGS]

Well, on a good note, Baker lake is kicking out salmon! With tons of fish being dumped in daily, numbers are upwards of 7000 sockeye in the lake. Today me and my buddy went 4/8 on the lake by 930am, check out my report for more info on how we did,

To get to the point, there was AT LEAST 2 undercover warden boats on the lake today, and one of them gave me a ticket. He was following me all day, i thought i was kind of weird, but i ignored it. We caught fish with him watching, etc... nothing happened.

Well, later in the morning, we were marking a lot of fish and hooked up on a double header, well i already had 2 fish on my card and my buddy had none. Well we were each fighting a fish, and it just so happened that my buddies fish came off and mine stayed on, I was going to hand off the rod but we had a double, and by the time he lost his, mine was tired. To make a long story short, we netted the fish, and yes, i fought the fish for the majority of the fight, and we marked it on my buddies card so i wouldnt have 3 fish limit on my card...

Now dont get me wrong, I understand what I did wrong, and I not against enforcement of laws on our waters, we need more of it. But honestly, for them to spend that much time and money to follow boats around just waiting for someone to do something so small, come on... whoever fought the fish... it was going to die anyways, he was REALLY serious about "no fishing for the boat" What a waste of time, that should be the least of their worries, people fishing for the boat, people do it all the time, guides on rivers do it DAILY, i mean, come on...

They should be checking licenses, peoples fish and safety gear, on all the boats daily so they can check as many people as possible in a day for violations, not following one person around until they do one small little harmless thing like this just so they can give a couple kids a ticket. we had all our fish marked, not running too many rods, everything was fine, but he didnt care, he said that because i fought this fish for the majority that we could not mark it on my buddies card. What a worthless waste of their time to follow me for hours to give me a ticket for that.

For the hours he followed us, he could have checked 100 boats and looked for more serious violations, but no, he wasted half his day to give me a ticked for "fishing for the boat" serious waste of time and money, just another example of the BS way our state handles things like this, over serious enforcement on baker where the fish are there to be killed and caught, instead of enforcing something more important, and then giving tickets out for something like that, WASTE WASTE WASTE>

Ok im done now, got my first fishing ticket ever today,

BE CAREFUL ON BAKER, THEIR WATCHING!!!

what do u think about it?

[G-Man]

Thanks for the heads up. What is sticks in my craw is that party fishing is legal when you are out in the salt, go figure! I received a ticket from an over zealous county police officer that was patrolling the last Lake Washington sockeye fishery. I had just boated a fish that would fill my limit for the day and then broke down my gear so as to allow the others on the boat a bit more room. Filling out my card a few minutes afterwards I get stopped for not doing so "immediately" after boating my fish! I swear that some officers are just... well you fill in the rest.

[RiverChromeGS]

Thanks for the heads up. What is sticks in my craw is that party fishing is legal when you are out in the salt, go figure! I received a ticket from an over zealous county police officer that was patrolling the last Lake Washington sockeye fishery. I had just boated a fish that would fill my limit for the day and then broke down my gear so as to allow the others on the boat a bit more room. Filling out my card a few minutes afterwards I get stopped for not doing so "immediately" after boating my fish! I swear that some officers are just... well you fill in the rest.

Dang! Thats super harsh, i just dont understand how some of them think their doing any good for giving tickets like that,its like a police officer giving a ticket to someone for going 3 mph over the speed limit. What made me angry was that he followed me for so long just to give me a ticket for that, getting payed by the hour on our tax money...

[natetreat]

Yea, they'll try and get you for various reasons. It's a bummer when they single you out, I'm sure they saw you catching fish and saw an easy target. I was under the impression that as long as you hand the rod off, it's that persons fish, although I don't know the circumstances of the thing. Personally, I think that you should be able to fish for the boat even in fresh water, especially in fisheries where you're simply trolling around like that. The rules are just meant to make it harder to catch fish IMO, and they get a little crazy when they see you catching rather than fishing. But in their eyes, any violation is just as important, rather than the hierarchy that we have, where fishing without a license is bad, poaching over the limit is worse etc. They don't really fish so everyone is fair game.

[RiverChromeGS]

Yea i hear ya nate, it just seems a little ridiculous they would spend so much time watching and waiting just because they NEEDED to find something wrong to give a ticket for. Like i said i admitted that i fought the fish more the majority of the time because we hooked another fish and kockman had to grab it, but come on... A ticket for fighting his fish for the last half because he had another fish on? What a bUnch of bull... We had 2 punches each, doing everything legal ect... The ticket isnt gonna hold up in court because the ticket is for fishing after retaining limit, but i had only 2 punches on my card. He said because he handed off to me it should of been my 3rd even tho we marked it on kockmans card. It wont hold in court because i only have 2 punches for the day. Still what a waste of our money paying the bastards to give tickets like that. My god...

[oneshot]

on a better note: nice haul!

[RiverChromeGS]

on a better note: nice haul!

Yep not bad! Had 4 others on, shoulda limited but you know them damn soft mouth sockeye...

[ResQ]

That just sucks. How much was the ticket? I would contest it. Great haul. Any way I can get a picture of what you were using? Im planning a trip up and really have no clue lol. Also, where is that launch with the dock? It would be great to be able to bring my big boat and just sleep on the boat, but it pretty much needs a dock to launch and load people.

[RiverChromeGS]

Ill shoot you a pm after work resq!

[ResQ]

Sounds good!

[Bodofish]

I'll be out Tues, minding my P's and Q's. What kind of boat were they in?

[RiverChromeGS]

Little redish brown boat bout 16 feet with no name. Fishin 4 ounce banana weights no downriggers. One older guy driving with a mustache and a younger kid in front.

[Matt]

That is really unfortunate, indeed. I have to agree with the above sentiment as well that it is legal to party fish in the salt, and should be in many instances in freshwater as well. The rule has to do with incidences of encounter with wild endangered/threatened fish. The thought is that this would be higher in fresh water systems where ESA listed populations exist driving up incidental post-release mortality in wild fish. In the salt you are fishing from a larger pool of all fish stocks so the incidence would be a lower percentage. At Baker, however, there are no species of immediate concern, and it is a troll fishery, so I agree that party fishing should be allowed. Unfortunately, what you did was against the law, but you're right, for him to ticket you immediately for such a small violation is quite petty. I'm sure there were PLENTY violations occurring on the lake that were much more egregious and flagrant. I'm sure that a written warning would have adequately conveyed his point.

I was out on the water as well yesterday, and fished well out of the fleet which is why I probably did not see the wardens out checking anyone. I assumed they were out there, though. They hit Baker pretty hard this time of year. Usually you see DFW or the Sheriff out there, and often times both, especially on the weekend.

For those wondering, fishing was good for us as well. We hooked 11, landed 6 and had 3 double headers. Nice getting a limit for the boat on the first trip out. We saw a few fish being caught, but a lot of folks seemed to be struggling to put the pieces together and get bit.

If those gamies have an itch to write tickets they ought to just go down to any of the popular marine area boat launches and write some tickets for crabbing. Now THERE is a real clownshow. Something like 80% of crabbers are committing at least 1 violation according to an article in the Seattle Times this winter.

The commercials don't have to fish with barbless nets. Why do I have to follow all these ridiculous damned rules!

[RiverChromeGS]

Thanks for the input matt, and glad you had a good day as well, it was our first time up this year, so we were still dialing in our gear, but hooking 8 was good compared to the plentiful amount of boats passing me asking questions wondering why they hadnt even had a bite. It seemed the same 8-10 boats, including us were hooking up consistantly, where the other 90% wernt getting any, you gotta have the right gear/speed/location, etc... And its cool you were able to catch fish outside the crowds. We always stay away from people by fishing really close to shore, everyone seems to stay out a ways, but we like trolling within 100 feet of the shore a lot, and the fishing is just as good or better, especially on the first point across from swift creek near that dried up creek mouth, we marked fish all day in 25 feet of water close to shore on that point. gotta love the double headers! we even had a triple! (and landed one...... )

And you are right, like i said, i know the situation of having a double header and reeling in the fish caused me to brake the law, im not complaining about that, it was just the whole situation him following me just cause i was catching fish, he was just waiting to jump on something, when he could have been at the launch checking every boat that comes in, would have been much more useful... What a petty little thing to spend so much time on is what made me a little angry.

Anyways, good luck if you go up again, if you see us matt give us a shout, i always take my 10 foot livingston with an electric up to baker, i like fishing in a small boat and catching fish when the guys in the big boats arent getting bit, its amusing . Boats name is "the kokanee coffin" if you see us give me a shout!

as for those wondering how i caught my fish, we used 3 rods, one with a bright red dodger, one purple haze chrome and one straight chrome, all in 0 size with 16 inch leaders of 20 lb flouro attached to the rig below, with a sandshrimp tail on the top hook, notice i also cut most of the hootchie legs off and shortened it by about an inch to lower the lures profile. this rig produces all my baker fish every year, i need to get me a 50/50 dodger tho, i know matt uses them and i just havent picked one up yet

[steeleywhopper]

"i fought the fish for the majority of the fight, and we marked it on my buddies card so i wouldnt have 3 fish limit on my card..."

I don't know what your crying about? You said yourself ( see above quote) that you were trying to skirt the law by having your buddy tag your fish. I think you deserved what you got. I hate nothing more than seeing guys on the river handing fish off to others so they can punch it. Rules is rules man, play right and Johnny law has no reason to follow you around. WDFW needs revenue and you were begging to give them some cash. Bow down, take it like a man and write the check....

[The Quadfather]

Ya, I couldn't agree with you more on the point of just walking along most of the salt water piers is just a smorgasboard of violations. Here is the painful part.... I see you as someone who puts A LOT of hours into fishing. I do the same!
It's a pastime that we absolutely can't get enough of. Along the way you probably are a very abide by the rules guy.
And also along the way, it always kills me when I walk along salt water piers and just see all kinds of barbed hooks, crab traps out of season, etc.
Then to have a guy follow the boat that is catching fish consistantly and just wait for an opportunity, it really is a gut punch. It makes you feel dooped.
I guess it doesn't really matter if there is room to wiggle with the judge. Things like this just get your goat.

[Bodofish]

It was still Chicken S#!t ticket seeing how he only had two fish on his card. The limit is three. Granted you should have stopped and marked his card right away but it's still a Chicken S#!t move.

[bbordeau]

So first off, that's unbelievable - they actually followed you all day. Second, I intend on bringing my kids with me who are 8, 5, 3 and 6 months. The three oldest have cards and I plan on letting them try to haul one in, but if they can't then what, let it haul them in. If I let the kid reel while I hold the rod does that count? What if their unlicensed mother hold the rod, is she in jail? Well done WDFW well done indeed!

Brian

[The Quadfather]

thanks for pointing the 3 fish limit out, Bodo. i had thought that he was "Fishin' for the boat" your point is well said.

[bugmasta]

"i fought the fish for the majority of the fight, and we marked it on my buddies card so i wouldnt have 3 fish limit on my card..."

I don't know what your crying about? You said yourself ( see above quote) that you were trying to skirt the law by having your buddy tag your fish. I think you deserved what you got. I hate nothing more than seeing guys on the river handing fish off to others so they can punch it. Rules is rules man, play right and Johnny law has no reason to follow you around. WDFW needs revenue and you were begging to give them some cash. Bow down, take it like a man and write the check....

Wow, nice first post there tiger, you're gonna make lots of friends. Guessing you have some kind of association with the law.