Stupid People - What Would You Do?!

[ÜberFly]

So we hiked into Rummel Lake and surprisingly there were only a few people fishing, even though the trail was quite busy due to the fact that Chester Lake was closed due to a griz being in the area... Nonetheless, as I was setting up at the far end of the lake I noticed a lady that was spin fishing and making her way around the lake caught up to where we were. I noticed that she had just landed a fish so I went over to talk to her about her catch (and noticing that she was bonking the fish)... I asked her about her catch and she proceeded to show me (while gilling the fish) and I said in shock, "you're keeping that"!? It's too small (this fish was only about 12")! Her response was, "I read the regs yesterday and you can keep 2 fish". I responded back, "the fish have to be 16"'s!

"No" she replied, "anything under 35 cm"!! No I said, back! And think to myself, lady, if those were the regs, there would be no fish in here!! I walked away in discussed and a few minutes later she came over and apologized and said that she's never poached before and what should she do (thinking to myself, "if you've never poached before, you are defineily poaching now"!!)?! "Put the fish down the outhouse"? She then asked us if we wanted it for dinner (as we had set up camp on the other [legal] side of the provincial park boundry), and our response was definietly no! I mentioned to her that "technically" she needs to throw it back dead or alive and that she needs to be more careful!! She pretty much slinked away and I never saw her again... I didn't notice any fish floating belly up later that day, so she either kept the fish or threw it down the out house... What a waste!

 

So what do you... We were 5 km away from the trail head, "x" kms away from a CO... I just tried to do my best to educate her, but there was no way I could have reported her, or get her licence, etc.

 

Your thoughts?!

 

Peter

[Hawgstoppah]

you did the right thing by educating. by the sounds of it she misread the regs. they can get pretty confusing, to be honest, especially if your not really reading and re-reading them.

[bigbowtrout]

Rummel Lake (3-22-10-W5) & tributaries & outlet

July 1 to Oct. 31 – Trout limit 1 over 40 cm; Bait Ban

Nov. 1 to June 30 – CLOSED

[fishfreak]

Good job on educating her. Sounds like she felt pretty bad and learned her lesson.

 

It's tough to keep track of the different regs for those high country lakes, as they're all different.

[ÜberFly]

Yeah, seemed pretty clear to me!!

 

Rummel Lake (3-22-10-W5) & tributaries & outlet

July 1 to Oct. 31 – Trout limit 1 over 40 cm; Bait Ban

Nov. 1 to June 30 – CLOSED

 

[reevesr1]

Good job on educating her.

[darrinhurst]

Sounds to me like Educating her is all you could really do. Clearly she misunderstood, or had a really old copy of the regs, as she said she checked and was allowed two, not one, like the quote BBT put up.

 

Nice job educating her, at least she was embarrassed to be considered a "poacher". Next time, she'll likely read the regs a little more carefully.

 

Is there anyway she may have thought she was at a different lake?

[ÜberFly]

Dunno... The only thing I could think of is the lake listed before Rummel in the Regs is Ribbon Lake and the limit is 2 (no size limit listed for that lake), but that listing is at the bottom of the previous page!! The "general" regs for high mtn lakes is 2 fish regardless of size, but those regs are only for lakes that don't have a specific listing!!

 

P

 

Sounds to me like Educating her is all you could really do. Clearly she misunderstood, or had a really old copy of the regs, as she said she checked and was allowed two, not one, like the quote BBT put up.

 

Nice job educating her, at least she was embarrassed to be considered a "poacher". Next time, she'll likely read the regs a little more carefully.

 

Is there anyway she may have thought she was at a different lake?

 

[McLeod]

Dunno... The only thing I could think of is the lake listed before Rummel in the Regs is Ribbon Lake and the limit is 2 (no size limit listed for that lake), but that listing is at the bottom of the previous page!! The "general" regs for high mtn lakes is 2 fish regardless of size, but those regs are only for lakes that don't have a specific listing!!

 

P

 

We need to have a sign on a post right by the lake.

You did the best you could do.

[birchy]

That's about all you could do in that situation. Good job.

[Hawgstoppah]

That's where it can get really confusing for people. There's "general" regulations for an entire area, like southern alberta, for example, that allow fish. Then for each site there is regs differing from the general regs. Someone new to the whole fishing scene could have trouble figuring out wtf there doing with regards to regs, seen it a million times even from experienced guys who bought the regs / licenses to fish alberta the day before and TRIED to figure them out.