DFG Violations and fines

In 07 I got a ticket for not tagging my 3 abs, they were laying in the tank well of the yak and I was fishing. What had happened was we went ab diving then immediately started to fish, I just plain forgot to tag the abs, in 07 the law was immediately upon exiting the water, kayak was considered out of the water, now when in a yak you don't have to tag til you reach shore.

Wardens were in an inflatable, they didn't check anything else, not my iron, or gauge, they didn't even touch the abs, said they'd note in their report that it didn't look intentional but they "just couldn't let it slide"

I was prepared to give an explanation until the judge said, that since it was a first offense if I gave $250 to SCAN he'd DROP the charges and I'd have nothing on my DFG record.  I shut up and paid it, having a clean record is worth allot more than gambling that my explanation would have gotten the ticket dropped.

Before my turn I also saw the judge drop another fisherman's charges when the guy gave a really reasonable explanation of what had happened, so yeah speaking up can help allot.

DFG fines have always been really high, I don't think it's got anything to do with the budget.

 Here is one that burned... 6 years ago headed home on a nice day there was a DFG checkpoint at russuia gulch. We pulled in and proceded to show our take. 1 abalone taken that day between 5 of us. Here is where it gets tricky I was driving my truck and my brother and the other 3 divers where in his car( seperate vehicles) Since I was in a truck we threw all our wet gear in the bed to head home. After being checked and thinking everything is all good I received a citation?????? Not knowing why we asked why the violation seeing as my brother correctly filled his tag out and was there to prove he had taken the Ab. Turns out that even though he was there with tags in hand!!! It was illegal for me to be transporting his abalone without him riding with me in my vehicle. After a $320 dollar fine and a trip to court all was good. Goes to show that some of these laws are petty and IMO just a way to fund the department in some ways. In the defence of the wardens they actually let us keep the abalone in question and even apologized for making an example out of us.