[What Were They Thinking??]

I remember the buoy cable broke in '05 and I think in the past also. I'm surprised anyone who went over lived. About 20 years ago two boatloads (power boats) of firemen were killed while trying to rescue some people caught in the recirc of a weir in the U.S.. Both power boats were sucked in. Every few years it seems an incident like this has to happen to educate the next generation.

 

I used to do whitewater kayaking and have experienced how strong the recirculation can be with a natural ledge. I've been roll-shuttered a few times and been stuck and had to work hard to slingshot out. At least there are breaks in natural ledges so the hole has an exit. I've seen friends sucked back in and recirc'ed 3 times before they were able to exit and this was wearing a whitewater rated PFD. For everyone's information, you can't really swim away from the hole, you have to swim across the current to find a break where the current cuts through the surface recirc or you can crawl out on shore. The last ditch exit is to doff the PFD and dive into the downflow off the ledge. I met one person who had to do this after 10 minutes of recirc. He caught the downflow and was rolled along the bottom far enough he got past the recirc which is a surface water current. On the Highwood River one time, a novice joined us for a trip and got caught in the first ledge below Green Ford. He disappeared boat and all for a few seconds. He was sucked out and popped up in bottom of the recirc so I was able to get the stern of my boat to him and get him to the side. It was amazing watching a +10' boat recirc back into the hole. When it had finally caught the exit current it was bent at 90 degrees.

[Poachers Nabbed]

As has been mentioned on this and other boards, lack of enforcement manpower is a serious issue. They want to avoid false alerts and concentrate on the situations where the likelihood of successful prosecution is high.

 

In this situation, I offered to monitor the activity until the officer arrived to be sure I didn't create a wild goose chase but he said it was not necessary. As this was the first weekend the city stretch is open, I expect they had a number of calls.

[Poachers Nabbed]

They claimed to have licenses to which I replied they should have read the regs.

 

The approximate times involved were: I talked to the group at about 9:30. I called RAP around 10 am. Got a return call at about 10:30 asking me to return and confirm they were poaching to avoid a wasted trip. I went down on my bike and observed them for about 40 min and went home. I received another call from the officer heading to the scene about 11:30 to finalize directions. I called him back at about 12:30 to see if I'd wasted their time and he said he was at the scene and couldn't talk. They called me Monday am to give me the code number to claim the reward in 6-8 weeks (July 30 = new 7 wt. maybe).

 

Questions RAP asked: Could I see their vehicle license? What were they doing? Was I sure of the violations? What was the exact location, easiest access? What was the content of the conversation I had with them? It's apparent the conversation was being taped as there were occasional beeps. I do not remember them asking for a physical description of the poachers but I think I provided some description.

[Poachers Nabbed]

Here's an idea for a pinned topic. Let's track how many are caught by the board members.

 

I think only two in the Sat. group were fishing.

[Poachers Nabbed]

Got out for some hook washing Sat am in NW Calgary. Came across a group rigging up at a storm sewer outlet in Beaumont natural area. I checked out their gear and explained very nicely to them that using bait and barbed hooks was illegal. We even commiserated about the silliness of barbed hooks being available. They never even stopped rigging up. I mentioned the size of the potential fines and also let them know about the single fish 35 cm restriction. Then I wandered on to see if they would leave. I checked back about 20 minutes later and they were obviously dredging bottom with bait rigs so I called it in. They were caught with several fish, using bait, and barbed hooks.

 

They spoke fluent English so there was no question about understanding. They'll either think twice or be more deceptive next time.

 

Most times people are thankful for the information about the regs and penalties. Although they were polite, it was pretty obvious this group wasn't interested.

 

Also, I caught a nice 16" buck rainbow. For some extra challenge I hooked him closer to the outlet end rather than the inlet. Made him fight like a +20".