Anybody Ever Get Caught Without Their License?

[NavyToad]

1 hour ago, PressuredFishing said:

Just a little food for thought, game wardens have even more power than police, and can even search backpacks, coolers, cars and boats when normal police couldn't due to the constitution. 

In VA our game wardens have the same authority as our State Police. I had a game warden pull me over on my motorcycle and was tempted to tell him to mind his own business. Luckily I kept my mouth shut. Later, I was telling the story to a friend and he explained to me about game wardens in VA. 

[AlabamaSpothunter]

2 hours ago, NavyToad said:

In VA our game wardens have the same authority as our State Police. I had a game warden pull me over on my motorcycle and was tempted to tell him to mind his own business. Luckily I kept my mouth shut. Later, I was telling the story to a friend and he explained to me about game wardens in VA. 

GWs in many states have the most authority out of all LEOs.     

They also have more leeway with regards to 4th Amendment protections.

 

 

[PhishLI]

DNR/DEC officers here are NY state troopers who'd applied for and gotten the DNR gig. If you live here you know the troopers are humorless, not much for negotiation, and would ticket their own mother. Certain localities have authorized them to not only ticket you for no license, but also to confiscate your gear, Not impound, but confiscate. So, there 'aint no way I'm not paying the $25 licensing fee. Occasionally the bay constables will sweep through a freshwater lake along the coast, and if your chit isn't straight they'll gleefully drill you good. Get caught in any of the east end "residents only" lakes and you'll get all that plus have to appear before a judge.

[CrashVector]

On 5/25/2022 at 7:48 PM, schplurg said:

I want to be checked for my fishing license because I want those two dorks down shore from me to be checked too (bet they don't have theirs).

 

I pay good money for it, please, check me.

 

That's how I feel about it too.

 

Last time I got checked, out of 15 or 16 people fishing from the bank at the lake I was at, I was the only person who DID have a license.

[TnRiver46]

The real shame is that you have to pay for a fishing license every year. A man should be able to acquire fish meat without paperwork 

 

heck I only have to get a drivers license like once ever 5-7 years and seems like it may have even been free 

 

DNR fees are a racket 

[Nelson Delaney]

I got caught many years ago on a warm March or early April day cause the local tackle shop wasn’t open.  Paid my fine and thought it was over.  A year later I get a summons from the court house.  I printed image of check and went and waited.   Ended up chatting with Dan Duquette about all things baseball waiting for our hearings.  

[MN Fisher]

1 hour ago, TnRiver46 said:

heck I only have to get a drivers license like once ever 5-7 years and seems like it may have even been free 

I just renewed my DL - every four years it expires on my B-Day...$31

 

1 hour ago, TnRiver46 said:

DNR fees are a racket

I willingly pay for my fishing license. The fees go to enforcement, habitat protection, launch ramp maintenance and other things that directly benefit fishing. We also don't have ramp fees like other states.

[desmobob]

Never during the soft-water season.  But I, and a good friend I was introducing to ice fishing, each got ticketed many winters ago.

 

Back then, NY's fishing license year ended on Oct.31.  I didn't hunt in those days and was a young man, so I wasn't all that used to remembering to get my next year's license in the fall.

 

I loved to ice fish and had a good friend who wanted to see what it was all about.  He was a very straight arrow and was worried about going along without having a fishing license.  I told him as long as he wasn't actually fishing, it would be fine.

 

As the late December morning wore on, one of my tip-ups kept going off.   Each time, there was no fish on the line and the bait was unharmed; it was likely a very small fish that couldn't swallow the minnow used as bait.  On about the fifth time this happened, I was at the other end of the spread, checking another tip-up.  Expecting it was the same false alarm, I asked my friend to re-set the tip-up for me.  He and I were surprised when he pulled up a small yellow perch.

 

A minute or two later, a game warden walked out to us and asked to see our licenses.  I promptly produced mine and assured him my friend was only an observer and not fishing.  The warden said he was watching us from the parking lot with binoculars and saw my friend land a fish.  And then he looked at my license and told me it was last year's.

 

We both got a $35 ticket and had to pick up the gear and go home.  ?

[TnRiver46]

37 minutes ago, MN Fisher said:

I just renewed my DL - every four years it expires on my B-Day...$31

 

I willingly pay for my fishing license. The fees go to enforcement, habitat protection, launch ramp maintenance and other things that directly benefit fishing. We also don't have ramp fees like other states.

I went to college with 7 of the guys the fees go to and we all still keep in touch daily, it gets mostly wasted. It is the govt, after all 

[Dirtyeggroll]

Yep. I was 17. Lots of stuff going on in my life at the time. Had been on a bit of a hiatus from fishing for about 10 months due to said stuff going on. Was mid May, not long after school had stopped for the year and I finished my construction job early for the day and had some time to kill before going to my night job at the ice cream shop. I had showered up and was in my uniform and had about 45 minutes to kill and the creek by the place I was living at the time caught my eye. I just so happened to have my dad’s two piece Fenwick spinning rod in the back of my little yellow Ford Focus hatchback. I stopped and remembered I had gotten my license the previous June since I had gone on a canoe trip that I had planned to do some fishing.

 

I got out of the car and walked about a 100 yards to the bank and cast out the little Rebel craw dad and it got hung on a rock and then the line snapped about 4-5 ft from the bank, just out of reach. I was leaning over the edge of the bank using the rod tip to try to free it up and retrieve it when I was startled by someone from behind me, “what are you doing out here” and I fell face first in the water. Of course it was a conservation officer. I told him I had made one cast and got snagged. He asked for my license and I told him I had it and it was in the car (I hadn’t previously actually looked at it, just remembered I had it). So he walks me back to the car and I can’t find it. I ask if he can look me up by my drivers license and he does, “Looks like it expired in February.” 
 

It dawns on me that in the great state of Missouri the licenses aren’t good for a year from purchase but expire at the end of February regardless of when purchased. He proceeds to write me a ticket and I go to the ice cream shop soaking wet.

 

Oh, by the way, fishing without a license in Missouri is a misdemeanor and I have to report it every year when I renew my Missouri medical license. Huge PITA. You can bet I ALWAYS triple check I am in 100% compliance forevermore.

[Woody B]

Never caught without my license but I was with a friend once who didn't have his, and got caught.

 

Myself and a few friends were trout fishing in the NC mountians.  The game warden came down the creek, on the other bank from where we were.  He told everyone to hold up their license.  One guy didn't have his.  He said he was coming across the creek to write a ticket.  We offered to cross over to his side, he said wait where we were.......... He slipped and fell in the creek.  His hat went floating.  I ran down the creek and got his hat.  His ticket book was wet so he had us follow him to his car.  My buddy, the one who didn't have his license asked "do you think that wet gun will still shoot?".   The warden stopped walking, and said "do you want to find out?"

 

The warden was pretty cool about it.  He wrote the ticket, thanked me for getting his hat and commented how funny it probably looked when he fell in the creek.  

[Jar11591]

Never been caught without my license, because I always have it. I try to be the best sportsman I can be and that means being licensed to fish. 
 

Some years I’ve been checked several times, other years nothing at all. Haven’t been checked in over 5 years. 
 

Maybe 7 years ago, a buddy and I were fishing in my boat on a lake that only has access at the launch. The rest of the shoreline is heavily wooded. We heard something rustling in the woods while fishing a cove, but we assumed it was a deer. A couple minutes later we hear “excuse me!”, and we look over to see a DEC officer on the shoreline having just come out of the thick woods. He had binoculars, and asked us to hold up our licenses and safety equipment. We were all square, but very surprised to see the officer just come out of the thick woods like that. Must have had over a mile walk through the thick stuff, just to get to us in that cove. 
 

I’ve also been approached and checked by DEC officers on jet skis. 

[WaterOtter]

I've never been checked, but I think I've been mistaken for a warden by fishermen without licenses. 

 

When I'm just out paddling and not fishing, I always make a large arc around shore fishermen so I don't disturb their fish, but one day I noticed that as I approached an area with two fishermen they faded into the trees and disappeared.  Hey, that's cool, I was able to continue along the shore.  Then on a second lake, I noticed the same thing happen at two more spots, and I realized I was wearing my navy ball cap with the round official navy patch, and my dry-tech t-shirt looked crisp and had a brand logo on the chest which also looked official from a distance.   lol, it was a really cool experience, but I've never worn that combination again because that's not what I'm going for.

[volzfan59]

Knock on wood, I've never been asked to produce a fishing license. I have been stopped once for a boating safety check which I passed.

 

I always keep a hard copy of my license on my boat w/the registration, a copy in my wallet and a digital on my phone. Even as a retired LEO, the game wardens aren't to be trifled with!

[Log Catcher]

I have been checked many times. They usually do a boat inspection when they check you. I have never had a problem. Many years ago I got checked twice in three weeks. I had never seen them in this area so often before. I asked the guy that ran the boat ramp I was using why they were down here so often now. He said they were pulling double duty. They were checking people but they were also looking for marijuana fields.

[Kirtley Howe]

I have never been without a license, so no problem for me. But one time my buddy Paul and I were up near Pulaski NY for the annual Salmon run. We had anchored in the Salmon River, and a little ways from us was a boat from New Jersey with two "gentlemen" on board.  They were doing just about everything illegal that you can imagine. They each had 3 rods (only allowed a max of two) and they were obviously trying to snag fish (also not allowed). We watched them put 8 fish on a stringer. Paul and I thought it could be that they just didn't know the rules, so we thought we should go over and tell them what the rules are. We motored over near them and explained what they were doing wrong and warned them that the DEC officers were known to sit in the lighthouse near where they were fishing, and would watch through binoculars, and then would wait till the offenders went back to the ramp at the end of the day and would then ticket them. The two "gentlemen" told us where we could put out advice, so we just backed off and waited. At the end of the day, we followed them back to the ramp and sure enough, the DEC guys were there. The two fishermen were charged with being a total of 4 fish over the legal limit, snagging fish, not having a valid New York license, and not having life preservers on board the boat.  They left in the company of the officers, and their boat and truck were impounded. We did not see them the next day. The day after that, they were back fishing again. One of the guys started snagging again and caught a nice fish. He yelled for his companion to get the net, to which his friend replied. "I ain't touching that fish. It cost me $1500 for what we did the other day, so you can go straight to h@##!" Paul and I just about fell out of our boat because we were laughing so hard.

[Cgolf]

Never been caught without my license, but once I didn't have my wallet with my drivers license and they were doing on the water boat checks. There was a moment or two I thought my lack of a drivers license was going to be an issue, but they couldn't really do anything because I had my fishing license and it isn't illegal to drive and not carry your drivers license on you, just not smart to do so.

[Bankc]

On 11/26/2022 at 1:48 PM, NavyToad said:

In VA our game wardens have the same authority as our State Police. I had a game warden pull me over on my motorcycle and was tempted to tell him to mind his own business. Luckily I kept my mouth shut. Later, I was telling the story to a friend and he explained to me about game wardens in VA. 

In my state, the game wardens have the most authority and jurisdiction of any law enforcement agency.  They have the full power of the police.  They're even deputized by a couple of federal agencies, so they can arrest you on any land within Oklahoma's borders.  And their bar for probable cause is quite a bit lower than other police agencies.  If you so much as have a gun while being near the woods, they can legally search your car with probable cause.  

 

Now, that's not to say that they're running around abusing their powers.  All of the one's I have met have been extremely polite and understanding.  They're just wanting to make sure everyone is following the rules that protect our fish and wildlife and aren't really wanting to get involved with all of that other stuff unless they have to.  They're not ticket happy.  But from a legal standpoint, they are the most powerful law enforcement agency in the state.  

[Susky River Rat]

I was fishing a stocked trout lake for bass. I had s license but no trout stamp. A police officer not a CO came up to me. Hey how’s it going blah blah. He said I just wanted to remind you that you need a trout stamp to fish here. I said sir that is not correct. In a compound meaning anything that is not a creek or stream I do not need one. Now if I kill or have one in my possession yes I do need one. He argued with me a little and I said is there anything you can legally write me a ticket for right now? He said no I cannot. I said ok I think we are done here then and he got in his patrol car and left. 

[roadwarrior]

Hmm...

Seems a little strong on your part to be confrontational with an officer just doing his job.

 

[Smells like fish]

I was around 2-3 miles from home rabbit hunting when I was 14 years old. I wasn’t old enough to drive and didn’t have a dollar to my name so I forgot my license in my wallet which I hardly carried. CO wrote me up. I never forgot it again ?

[A-Jay]

22 minutes ago, Darnold335 said:

 I said ok I think we are done here then and he got in his patrol car and left. 

Believing that you are in control of any aspect

of any meeting

with ANY LEO,

is living in fantasyland. 

Might be sort of dangerous as well.

A-Jay

[Susky River Rat]

2 minutes ago, A-Jay said:

Believing that you are in control of any aspect

of any meeting

with ANY LEO,

is living in fantasyland. 

Might be sort of dangerous as well.

A-Jay

I agree with you but, he even admitted to having no reason to tell me to what I need or don’t need. I was not trying to be rude to him. It was just getting to the point that the conversation was going no where. Sure he could have detained me did an investigation for whatever he wanted. Which if he wanted to do was fine I am not going to argue with him. Again hounding me on something that is not in even in his citation book he should have left it at that. 

[the reel ess]

In very early 90s I was fishing from my dad's boat and a warden approached me. I went for my wallet and couldn't find my license. I swore to him that I bought one but couldn't find it and even told him the store I bought it from, which he was familiar with. He wrote me a big ticket (for that time) in the county across the lake. He told me if I brought the carbon copy, which the merchant was required to save for a year, the ticket would be forgiven. I went to the store and the owners said "Aww, I throw those away." I was stuck. I was going on a 7 day shift so it was going to be hard to get to the magistrate in the other count. So I mailed it in. I traced my steps back to a pool party in which I fell in with my wallet in my shorts. We threw them in the dryer and my wallet was still in them.

[Will Ketchum]

When I was in the Air Force I was on a two week leave before getting sent overseas. I thought I could get away without a license for two weeks so I never bought one. A friend and I went fishing and of course I got caught. I had one on the stringer but said it was my buddies.

 

Now I have a senior's lifetime license so I haven't bought one since 2007.