Nit Picking Wardens..BEWARE!!!!!

is it mole season?

is it mole season?

Could be!!
 
Sincerely,

Jim

Maybe the diving section should go members only...

Kalifornistan may arguably be the most beautiful state in the union, and it ain't cheap to maintain.  Nor is it cheap or easy to manage 38 MILLION people under one state government.  So, state entities screw people from time to time to make money.  Still better than sweating it out in 100% humidity.

PS, Our oranges are better! 

Hmmmmm. Let's see.
I get a PM from a guy who just signed up that very same day and without a single post on NCKA questions me about a post made 4 years ago.......Hell ya I deleted it and didn't reply.
So now his first post is to make his PM to me and my response public.
So here is my response...........................................................................

itsNOTjust.sharky             

He's from Florida??????  Whatever.

Few years back a buddy and were diving S gerstal cove and had just finished getting to that car with our load of AB and fish, when who comes out of the trees but Ms warden. She asks to see or catch, no problem. Every thing we had taken was confirmed legal while we were out in the water. I had 1 clinker but we each triple checked that. She went through and everthing was great, till my clinker. She slapped her gage down and it missed by 1/4in. There we were . We both immediately put or gages on it and clink both times. After the hairy eyeball with me wondering how much of an A hole she was gonna be she said to get a new gage or fix mine. We got home and I found that my gage was 7.25 in wide. hers must have been 7.5 at least. I now carry a caliper in the vehicle with me, for the next time . Of course we only hunt 9in now.

Wow. If a warden cannot carry a properly sized gage, that's pathetic. I always take my license and ab tags on the yak with me in a zip lock bag, and when I hit the beach, drag up the yak, sit down, fill out the tags, take pictures, and only then do I walk to the car for the first time. Never had any trouble.

I am from Florida.
The reason I came to this site is because there is a kayak diving section, (Which is what I do in Florida.) and there arent many resources for that besides here.

Ive never been written a ticket for NOT breaking the law,(and know no one who has) but according to members here it happens quite a bit in California. Im sorry to hear that.
Thank you to the members who took the time to answer my question.

I havent heard of situations like that in Florida.

P.s. I carry my license, pen/pencil, wallet, keys, cell and flashlight in a dry case when I dive. I strap it to my chest harness and take it with me underwater. As soon as I get out of the water I could fill out my tags if it was required. I dont see whats so difficult about that,(dont you carry a towel for drying your hands in your kayak? I do.) but then again, Ive never dove in California.

I have been fortunate enough to hav lived in the Berry Is. off of Florida. It is a diffrent type of diving and water. LAt and Long explains some. In Northern Cal we have had some real problems with poachers of Abalonie. Not just a few extra here and there people taking van loads of any size. So our F&G officers get really hard core. Think of someone taking van loads of Groupers over there.  For the most part I have now gotten a drybox to keep everything in and clipped inside the Yak, think I'll be gertting aother or bigger one to put a towel in. A towel on board is a great idea btw thank you. Your right, this board is a great resouce for information and learnig,. IIMHO I think maybe not pooking people in the chest as a way to first meet them might be better though. Hope you get some nice Strawberry grouper for dinner.
S

 the majority of people checked are asian. i am asian so i make it a point to fill the card out asap to avoid any hassles.

john   

huh....and I always thought you were italian.....go figure.

I am from Florida.
The reason I came to this site is because there is a kayak diving section, (Which is what I do in Florida.) and there arent many resources for that besides here.

Ive never been written a ticket for NOT breaking the law,(and know no one who has) but according to members here it happens quite a bit in California. Im sorry to hear that.
Thank you to the members who took the time to answer my question.

I havent heard of situations like that in Florida.

P.s. I carry my license, pen/pencil, wallet, keys, cell and flashlight in a dry case when I dive. I strap it to my chest harness and take it with me underwater. As soon as I get out of the water I could fill out my tags if it was required. I dont see whats so difficult about that,(dont you carry a towel for drying your hands in your kayak? I do.) but then again, Ive never dove in California.

The Abalone fishery is heavily regulated and IMO over-enforcement is an unofficial way of  limiting the overall harvest and keeping new divers from participating.  The language used in the regs leave much room for interpretation....and enforcement is not uniform so its conceivable that a diver may get cited for something he's done 100 times before at another site then run into an overzealous warden at a new spot.  In the story posted, the divers were approached as they were returning to their vehicles at Pt Arena, in Sonoma the ranger told me that he waits until folks pack their vehicles and then checks to see if the abs are tagged.  His reasoning was that once the car is on then he can determine that they are leaving and the abs were intentionally not tagged or reported....which actually demonstrates violation of the law.  Thats alot different than the man sticking average joe diver with a $1200 dollar fine cause he made a mistake.

Re carrying your license on you.  Abs are a freedive only fishery, we don't wear harnesses or carry uneeded gear as it can be an entanglement issue in the kelp (couple people die each year ab diving, I think being caught in the kelp plays a role in a few of those deaths). Many people shore dive and don't use kayaks at all, a trip from car to water can entail scaling cliffs, walking goat trails to get to the water and getting beat up in the surf. Taking extra crap, towels included, can be more trouble than they're worth.  Also the average day on the north coast is 50* air temp, gloomy, gray and may be a bit foggy, exiting the water and drying off isn't as easy as you think. To get dry you gotta strip your 7mil wetsuit off and freeze your ass off in the breeze for a good ten minutes before your dry enough to pull your card out, any moisture that drips on the waxy tags makes them unable to be written on and the crappy ball point pens we're required by law to use don't always work when its cold or damp.  I won't even get into having enough dexterity in your fingertips to make the writing legible. 

It may seem pretty cut and dry online but believe me, its not as black and white as you think.

 

 the majority of people checked are asian. i am asian so i make it a point to fill the card out asap to avoid any hassles.

john   

huh....and I always thought you were italian.....go figure.

Thats frikkin Funny!
 We Italians use dynamite!
 Not on the Abs, the wardens.

It may seem pretty cut and dry online but believe me, its not as black and white as you think.

You got that right.
 

Had a friend and his wife cruise across Tomales bay from Lawsons Landing. They beached their aluminum boat and hiked over the ridge to do some rock picking for abs.
Long steep hike; especially with weightbelt and wet suits.
As they entered the water they saw a warden with a spotting scope eye balling them. No big deal.
They each scored their limit of 4 nice abs (this was a few years back when the limit was 4 and she was nails at rockpicking abs).
His wife was totally spent. With the added weight of 4 abalone and wet gear she was having a hard time making it back up the hill so he grabbed her goody bag and carried it up the hill for her.
The warden stopped them and said he was over the limit for abs. Both limits were in seperate goody bags and each goody bag contained their own license. He explained that they were his wifes and she couldn't carry them up the hill. He even said they saw the warden watching them from the beginning and pointed to his spotting position.
The warden took his goody bag and dumped his 4 abs on the ground. He then took her goody bag and dumped her abs on the ground with his.
"These are the abalone that were in your posession. As far as I am concerned they are all yours."
SEVERAL thousands of dollars worth of fines.
They didn't poach. They each had their license. A husband helped his wife with some heavy lifting and gets a fine. That's what I was talking about when I said people getting cited for being legal.
Below show some of the contitions we in Nor Cal deal with. The pick of the kelp was on a stellar diving day. If you have 10 foot viz it is epic. Imagine diving in that kelp with 2 foot viz. You want as little strapped to you as possible.
And a towel on a kayak doesn't always work either.


http://www.youtube.com/user/kayaktote#p/a/u/1/KHGC94yAPYM

And going out on a boogie board leaves less room for storage.