Steelhead poacher in Ukiah

Yesterday some idiot walked into the local fishing store (Diamond Sporting Goods) and told the clerk that he had landed a real big steelhead. He asked the clerk if they still had the steelhead tournament going on. The clerk informed the idiot that they have never had a steelhead tournament and asked if he could see the fish.

The clerk walked out to the idiot's truck and there lay a beautyful 30+" buck steelhead. The clerk asked, "is that a hatchery fish?" and the idiot answered, "nope, it's a wild one, I caught it by Squaw Rock on the Russian River."

The clerk told the idiot that if he were to take the fish to the Ukiah Daily Journal, they would likely take a photo of the fish and post it in the paper.

So Idiot went to the paper and sure enough, they took a photo and wrote a little story about the idiot and his fish.

The sad thing is that you can clearly see the unmolested adipose fin on the steelheads back.

I just hope a Fish Cop sees the photo and decides to pay the idiot a visit.

I attached a link to the print version of the paper below, but they haven't updated the Thursday paper yet. Maybe tomorrow you can see the photo.

LINK TO UDJ

CHEERS! 

In the words of a famous wabbit, "What a maroon, what an ignoranimous...!"

and speaking of imbeciles, did everyone see this article?
Poached trout was on menu until cafe owner got caught http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/02/03/SPB9UOP3U.DTL

Not only was the numbnuts poaching & selling illegal fish, he was caught '....throwing an empty salmon egg jar and a soda can "right into the river."' Ever heard the phrase don't $h*t where you eat...?

and speaking of imbeciles, did everyone see this article?
Poached trout was on menu until cafe owner got caught http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/02/03/SPB9UOP3U.DTL

How was this guy allowed to move out of state while he's on probation?  I hope the sentence followed him and his lifetime fishing ban is enforced......but I doubt it will be 

 Remember the guy who shot the protected  "Elk" and brought the huge "Deer" into town to show it off.

Yep... it's in there... and the person that wrote the caption is almost as big of a dope.

"Michael Moore holds up his fresh catch of the day --
a Steelhead salmon straight out of the Russian River
near Hopland. Fishing season is underway in
Northern California and fishing regulations along the
Russian River allow two steelheads a day along the
size that Moore is displaying."

Very sad indeed.

I just hope a Fish Cop sees the photo and decides to pay the idiot a visit.

What? Doesn't the Mendocino Sheriff's Department have any channel of communication with DFG Wardens?  Radio? Phone? E-mail? Some sort of common-ground donut shop you both frequent?

Don't make me call Cal-Tip all the way from Oregon.

Brian

Ok, we've heard how he's a dope, the writer is a dope, and noone has pointed out the obvious:  what did he do wrong?

And no, I don't fish for steelhead so don't worry.  Educate me please.

He kept a native steelhead from the Russian River.. which is a no-no.  They're dopes because they (the fisher and the writer) because they bragged about it in a news paper.

The following is from the DFG freshwater regulation handbook..

Here's the photo and blurb from the paper..

LOL... Im not sure which is worse... this or the ever present picture of someone proudly holding up some poor, half dead, black @ss, open sore covered salmon that just rolled over and floated in as soon as it was hooked... false pride is hilarious!  Did you all hear about the guy that got busted a few years back stealing steelhead right out of the hatchery @ Lake Sonoma...  The horrible thing about that story is the same dude is know in prison for murdering his girlfriend... real bad sicko.

http://www.justicewomen.com/teen_domestic_violence/reynold_record.html

Scroll down to the bottom of his record... look at all the poaching charges... either dismissed or misdemeanor... how many time do you have to screw up before they just throw the book at you, or you kill someone...

I actually did pose the question to a warden and was told that it was illegal, but he said he couldn't tell (by the picture) if it was released after the picture was taken. Still, he was forwarding the info to local enforcement.

If anything is done, however, I would be surprised. The only other time I ever reported anything was a HMB partyboat skipper and deckand both catching enough rockfish limits for TEN people. They were standing knee-deep in rockfish. DFG did nothing.

I actually did pose the question to a warden and was told that it was illegal, but he said he couldn't tell (by the picture) if it was released after the picture was taken. Still, he was forwarding the info to local enforcement.

released after the picture was taken?!  LOL.. that rock wall in the background is the outside of rite aid.. which is across the street from the Ukiah newspaper, and a mile from the river, and like 15 miles from where he caught the fish if he actually caught it at squaw rock!

I actually did pose the question to a warden and was told that it was illegal, but he said he couldn't tell (by the picture) if it was released after the picture was taken. Still, he was forwarding the info to local enforcement.

released after the picture was taken?!  LOL.. that rock wall in the background is the outside of rite aid.. which is across the street from the Ukiah newspaper, and a mile from the river, and like 15 miles from where he caught the fish if he actually caught it at squaw rock!

Not to mention the photographer and the sporting good store employee who both saw that the fish was dead.  I'm sure they would make great witnesses.

Michael

  I don't fish steelies (for a long time now) but I do know that natives are to be released!  This weekend warrior apparently has no clue of the F&G regs.  He probably just geard up and went out, got lucky in his mind! Hope he at least had a fishing license!
 

Hope he at least had a fishing license!

Having a steelhead card too would be nice.  I doubt he did, because if I remember correctly the card does a pretty good job about describing the regs and the difference between natives and hatchery fish.