A Bad Thing

[ginger]

I am usually just a lurker on this forum but yesterday a bad thing happened to me and another fly fisherman on the Bow that I thought I should post. I was fishing downstream of the baseball diamonds in Douglasdale. On my way back up to diamonds where my car was parked I encountered a spin fisherman with his rod in a holder and a tight line heading out to a deep hole. It looked like a bait rig so without thinking much about it I asked him what he was fishing with. He said corn. I told him that was not allowed. He said he didn't know that and I continued upstream. I noticed that he continued fishing and that irked me so I approached another fly fisherman and asked to borrow his cell so I could call the poacher hotline. He was very friendly and lent me his phone. By the time I got through to the hotline the poacher was leaving and the operator and I agreed that there wouldn't be much point sending out a CO. As the poacher passed I yelled at him that I had called him in. The other guy and I fished for a few minutes more and then headed back to the parking lot to find that a tire on the other guy's truck had been slashed. It seems pretty clear that the poacher thought the truck was my vehicle.

 

I felt terrible about the whole thing particularly because I initiated the call and riled the poacher. The other guy graciously turned down my offer to pay for the tire. I gave him my number and hope he reconsiders. I'm going to continue to call in poachers but in the future I'm going to be less naive about how I do it and more careful about where I park my car. At least the fishing was pretty good.

[reevesr1]

That sucks. Good on you for calling it in, no use in questioning yourself in telling the poacher. No way you could have anticipated the outcome, so don't waste any time worrying about it. Hopefully good karma will dictate that the fly fisherman you met will turn into a new fishing buddy! And the poacher learned the rules, though I doubt that one. Not much of a man.

[trailhead]

Oh I think he knew it was illegal, that's probably why he left. I don't even approach bait fishers anymore, I had two occasions where it turned confrontational, but they just told us to FO. So we phoned RAP and in both cases they were busted. Who knows maybe that guy was one of them. Anyway good on you for righting a wrong.

[dutchie]

well your correct in guessing who slashed the tire i'd say , best always just to keep it low and just call it in , i don't even give breaks anymore , they know , he knew as like what was stated , he left ,

me i would of just said nothing and followed him and wrote his lic plate number down , then they could of went to see him after , almost always it takes time for the CO's to get there , and this time of year they after hunters also , so it might be a day befor they even get to you

 

you did good and hats off to you for calling it , thanks , what i wouldn't do to see that SOB slashing your tire ,

[Guest 420FLYFISHIN]

dont give them any warning! call em in as soo as you see or think you see something a miss. This province is going to *hit with ignorant outsiders. Lets move to alberta and make a bunch of money and not check out the difference in laws....

[fish4trout]

any description of what he looked like? fly fish calgarys most wanted list.. take 1

[headscan]

This province is going to *hit with ignorant outsiders. This province is going to *hit with ignorant outsiders. Lets move to alberta and make a bunch of money and not check out the difference in laws....

I think you just showed your own ignorance with that statement. There's nothing in the original post to imply where this guy was from. There are lots of us around here that are from elsewhere and follow the regs.

 

That really sucks about the tire. I agree that you shouldn't tell poachers that you called them in. This time it was only a tire that was slashed - next time it could be worse. Good on you for making the effort.

[Swede]

I always questioned why people feel the need to try to educate some bozo out breaking the law. Myself am there best buddy till I get out of sight than I call them in. Why try to educate them they already know what there doing is wrong, they just pack up and move to a different spot to poach. Only if it was a father with his young kids would I try to educate them.

[Guest tallieho]

when i walk into ,areas with restrictions i take the time to write down lic plates# & match the plate to make of the vechile.that way they don't know who did it to them.

[ginger]

Thanks for all your input. I've learned a lot from the incident and from the comments as well. The best and only consequential way to identify this poacher is by his gear and technique: spin rod,rod holder,tight line heading out to slow deep water. I think this is the infamous"pickerel rig". I'm guessing I haven't converted him to legal techniques and the next time out he will have exactly the same set-up. For the sake of the guy who is buying a new truck tire this week call this poacher in when you see him (very carefully). I'll never go out again without my cell.

[bhurt]

Ginger,

 

I know you fell bad for what happened but honestly I think the guy would of slashed the tires regardless to what was said.

 

I think we need to let these guys doing this stuff on the bow know the we will not put up with them damaging our fishiers, these fishiers are very important not just to us locals but to business and our tourism and if we keep on letting it go then we are FUCJKED in the future.

 

Just remeber every call that is placed into RAP is recorded, so even if they do not catch the bastards there is a record of the inccident.

 

I would also suggest getting the number for the information center in fish creek, alot of times when I hear that the CO for RAP can not make it cause he/she is in Cocarne, I will call them and then the information center gets on the raido to the park CO's and get them to the right spot very quickly.

[leachman]

how healthy would eating fish from south Calgary be? I wouldn't eat anything out of that area, even if it was legal. My past job in the water treatment biz smelled similar to fishing the bow, at times.

[Guest 420FLYFISHIN]

you B , whats the park #? If its faster i'll call them first

[bhurt]

403-297-5293

 

Always try RAP first as all phone calls are recorded and they get their funding through studies that are done on the number of calls so it is very important that you ALWAYS call RAP first. Only time I call the alterntive number is when RAP can not get down their quick enough.

 

Also note this number is for Fish Creek only, they can not do much outside of fish creek.