DFG Encounters for 2014

Out of our last 5 saltwater fishing trips this year a DFG Officer has checked us 3 times.  Twice in Carmel and once in Sonoma.  No problems each time but this is highest ratio I've been checked in a long time. 

You guys being checked regularly too?

Haven't been checked this year. Been out a bunch, you must look guilty, or your kayak is out of balance and looks like a hull full of silver salmon!

Saw people getting written up down here in ventura county. Most likely surf fishing with out a license

Mel with all the fish you've been catching you are starting to look fishy.     But I believe it's a lot to do with profiling.  I get checked at least 80% of the time.

07.06.14 DFW officer was waiting for me as I landed at Half Moon Bay Kayaks.  We chatted a bit, I told him all my catches were undersized and didn't keep anything. 

He didn't ask to see my fishing license or inspect my kayak.  He seemed more interested in the color of the Lings I had caught and released.

I don't think I've been checked yet this year.
But last year there was an officer hiding in the bushes waiting for us to land, out in the boonies of Big Sur. He said they had gotten additional funding and that there were more officers on staff. He was a dedicated officer for the Sur coastline, first one they have had in seven years, according to him.

He was a nice guy though, I don't think he expected us to be as chill and as well prepared as we were.

There was one up on the bluff at Timber Cove last week but he was gone by the time we finished fishing and came in.  I was checked once there last year.  I think I have seen more than the usual number of their trucks around.  There was one at Half Moon Bay the previous week too, but like the one at TC, he left before we came in.

I have not been checked once this year.  In fact only checked twice in the last ten years OTW.

Got asked to show my license by DFG's in a zodiac at the Santa Cruz Harbor last summer.  I was fishing for perch from the bank.

"You got a license?"

yeah.

(Snide tone of voice) "Can I SEE it?"

sure...I pull out the plastic holder and show him.

"Can you take it OUT?" (really snide like a fucking 5th grader)

No... this fucker is 12 feet long and it took me 20 minutes to fit it into my plastic holder and you can't read it from there anyway if you want to dock your boat and come up here I'll gladly show it to you otherwise  Nope.


Haha....they putted away.  Three of them on one zodiac 3pm in the afternoon inside the harbor!!!  Training session gone awry I guess.  I wasn't even thinking, his tone of voice was just so juvenile I treated him like a kid.  Powned.

Both my OTW's were completely cordial and friendly.  One I had to show my guide license, the other was just fishing solo.  Both were in Monterey.

Bushy

I met the same Big Sur  DFG officer I think he is officer Lynch.
He was a great guy-checked my fish and license and warned me that the workers at the Aquarium had tried to call me in for fishing west of the cut off line-but that he checked and i was in the right area to fish-told me to watch the lines-gave me the most recent book and his card to report any poaching or fishy stuff ,as I live and work down by his area also near steel head stream etc...he told me to call with any questions on regs as my first season went along, and I di call him a few times with a quick question.
I have been checked three times this year off pt pinos in my kayak..
once the guy wanted me to paddle over and hold their boat in choppy seas so he could read my papers,i said no thanks and showed him my papers from 5 feet away...he looked surprised but went along with my idea...
I have seen em nail boats fishing off asilomar and I have seen them give warnings too...I love seeing them out and dont mind at all when they check me..... folks breaking rules on purpose is poaching...poachers are bad news

I got checked OTW trolling for salmon about 2 miles off Pt Cabrillo 3 weeks ago.  Asked me to come up to their large zodiac and let them check my non-barbed hook and show them my license.  Nice guys.  One of them used to work commercial fishing boats and offered some advice on salmon fishing.

Moss Landing OTW checked license hooks and fish
Pacific Grove checked license and fish (nice guy)
HMB checked license fish/crabs

So far this year I have just been checked once....and that was a very friendly encounter.

My Dad and I were walking back to the car from my buddy's sailboat at the Monterey Breakwater. We had fishing gear and a cooler so obvious we had been fishing. Walked past a DFG guy packing up his stuff for the day and said Hi.

He asked how we had done and we said "Good! Got a few Lings and some rockies. Wanna see?"

He said sure and I opened the cooler and he looked at the fish. One Ling was only abour 24 inches so I asked if he wanted to measure it and threw it on the hawg trough for him.

Then I asked if he wanted to see our licenses and I pulled them out for him.

 

My encounters have always been friendly, but I go out of my way to be super friendly and make their job easy for them as well...

To be honest Mel, I'm sure profiling does happen...but I have never seen a DFG agent who didn't check me...so not sure what that says?

 

Sincerely,

Jim

I've been checked by DFG and the CG at Tomales in the last few months.

DFG stopped me the day before the rockfishing season opened. They didn't believe me I was fishing halibut cause the warden kept saying my halibut rigs looked like what's used for catching rockfish. They had me beach my kayak so they could check inside my hull.
Whatever, a little irritating but at least they're trying.

When the Coast Guard came up to me, they ask me about fishing and did a quick safety check. They were cool and the conversation quickly turned into the ins and outs of kayak fishing. 

yet I cant get the guys here in Central valley to go to the lakes and stop the pilaging by the shore anglers. They take the whole family and take every fish, carried away in 5 gal buckets. The lakes have a one fish over 22" or 2 fish over 15" rules, yet they take em all.

yet I cant get the guys here in Central valley to go to the lakes and stop the pilaging by the shore anglers. They take the whole family and take every fish, carried away in 5 gal buckets. The lakes have a one fish over 22" or 2 fish over 15" rules, yet they take em all.

That's BS!
I've seen that on the Russian river too, right after they release all the baby steelhead