Poachers - Bow River Sunday Nov 30, 2008

[Carlodabroads]

What a day, What a fall season, got to take advantage of this weather at the end of November and get out there fishin, lord knows there aint no snow so snowboarding hasnt kicked up yet.

 

I drove south and east of town, parked. Two other cars in the lot. "Shoot, what time do I need to get here", but its really not bad. Took a nice 20-30 minute hike to find my solitude and sweet stretch of river. while walkin through the jungle, I smelt smoke. "Thats weird", I thought. Plus theres these creepy teepee's built out of dead wood everywhere, like a sasquatch shelter, but thats another story.

 

To my dismay, when I approached the river, there were already two dudes (use that word loosely) at the head of the run. They had a fire going, had fold up chairs. Had their rods propped up using river rocks, "hmmmmm". I watched 'em from the jungle for a minute or two, they were clearly bait fishing and my day was not starting off well. I cant stand Poachers.

 

"What do I do?" I had walked a long way, I couldnt let these guys wreck my day. So I walked out to the river bank about 100 yards downstream and started gearing up. I rigged up my two rods, all the while facing them, watching them. They saw me, glanced my way often, probably wonderin' why I kept staring at them.

 

After the 15 minute rig up and staring session, I put my rods down, and walked a little bit away and up onto a higher grassy section in the sun, in plain view of the poachers. I reached into my vest, grabbed my wallet, held it down at my waist and dialed Report a Poacher (R.A.P.).

 

I was making obvious dialing motions with my hands. Then I held my wallet to my ear and had a 5 minute conversation with myself. Nodding my head, looking around, pointing off into the direction of an access road, all the while imagining what it wouldve been like had I really been talking to R.A.P.. I knew those types of calls probably last while, So I stayed on the wallet awhile. It felt really strange at first having a full on, out loud, conversation with myself!

 

I had to watch a nice sized fish on the rocks behind the guys that was flipping around every so often. "Nice of these gentlemen to let the fish suffocate and suffer for, well... the rest of its life, rather than to bonk it dead and end the suffering" I thought. My day was getting worse, watching this and feeling rather helpless.

 

So, finally I hung up, put my wallet in my vest and went back to my fly rods.

 

The guys would not have heard my actual conversation, but rather wouldve heard a drained out mumbling, as sound carries well down there. They had definately taken notice to the fact that I was on the phone, or rather, the wallet.

 

Once back in the river, I could only muster 5 casts, as I was stewing inside, and couldn't take my eyes off of these creeps in order to watch my line and indicater. So I reeled in, and started walking over to them.

 

They were nice guys, they sayed, "hey man, you'll do better with your fly in the water. ha ha", "come on and warm up by the fire", "do you wanna smoke?". Hands me a pack of Du Maurier. I said no thanks to the fag (pardon the pun), but said "I will warm my hands by the fire".

 

We had a decent conversation about weather, fishing, and other things, the guy showed me his new olympus underwater digital camera. blah di blah, blah blah it went for a few good minutes.

 

Again, they were nice enough guys. One of them reels his line in and I see the worms hangin off the sneld hooks, I said, "Whoa, you guys know you're not supposed to be using bait, right?"

 

One looks at me guilty and says "yeah, we know". The other says "Yeah man, but we are catch and releasing". "and that stuff about fish takin it deep with bait is BS cause all the ones I catch are in the lip and release easy".

 

"Alright cool, you dont need to explain to me" I said. I hung out for another minute or so, chatted abit more, and said "alright... well...Im gonna go get fishin, enjoy your day guys, Take care".

 

Just before turning to leave I said "Oh hey, you might want to be careful with that Bait, because when the Conservation Officer shows up and finds it, I dont think hes going to be very happy..... see yah" and off I went, without looking back.

 

Got back to my spot 100 yards down stream, and started fishin. after a few cast I looked over, and the guys were both hunched over working at something. Well, they were working at putting down fire, packing up their backpacks, chairs, I believe a stringer but cant confirm. And they left.

 

YESSSSSSSS, REDEMPTION, YOU MF'S. Sorry to wreck your day. like I said, you were nice enough guys, but we all have to play by the same rules!!!!!!! next time rock a mepps, or Panther martin, we will share the run, have some good times. But today, you two derelicts were up to no good! I will be watching for you in the future. Next time I won't be leaving my phone behind, nor will I be giving you the courtesy of a warning that a CO will be on their way.

 

Karma is great sometimes, and as cliche as it may sound, I hooked a beauty rainbow just as they were walking away. They hadnt even taken 20 steps, it was as if the Bow River wanted to thank me for doing the best I could givin the unfortunate situation down there.

 

My day had just gotten much better, and turned out to be one of my more memorable days of the year.

 

Thanks for listening.

[LynnF]

That's awesome....nice job. Just goes to show ya that poachers come in all shapes and sizes....even nice ones.

[loyaleddie]

Ahhhh...Still call that in...they can trend the call volumes

 

[FlashGordon]

Plus theres these creepy teepee's built out of dead wood everywhere, like a sasquatch shelter, but thats another story

ya those things are creepy....walking through that area seems like something from a movie and not a disney movie either

 

there must be a fair amount of that going on because i see lots of signs of it(i do a fair amount of walking some days)....frozen minnow containers,tags that say fresh/live bait and on few occasions I have noticed spent worm pieces on the banks or on the rocks.....one time just up from the southland dogpark north of the back channel there were pieces of worms all over the place....

 

 

[darrinhurst]

Nice work dude.

 

I have yet to come across any poachers, but I don't get much time to hit the wather that often lately. I always have my phone with me, so I will make sure to take advantage of that RAP number if I do spot a suspected poacher.

[Bowcane]

Phone in the licence plate of the car(s) later. It's easy to find the right one 1) write them down with vehicle description 2) Nice and polite talk to these guys and with a line such as " hey man there are a couple kids in the parking lot screwing with a..........."(I'll use one of them at ramdom) 3) these guys will usually say, "no thats not mine I got the whatever car" I cut no slack with these guys after all the BS I used to see in Ontario

[SilverDoctor]

I don't fool with poachers either. I will stroll by to be sure they are breaking the law, never confront be polite and sometimes make small talk. I always phone in a complaint. Although I have cut slack with kids, never with adults. I've also reported a number of people cross river. I carry decent binoculars. I did 6 reports last year. We should treasure our fishery and do everything we can to protect it. It's gold and can be badly damaged in short order by people who don't care. Lack of knowledge is never an excuse as they get a regulation with a license.

[FlashGordon]

It's gold and can be badly damaged in short orderby people who don't care. Lack of knowledge is never an excuse as they get a regulation with a license.

 

well put SD