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Hunters: Follow the rules

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The Outdoors
By
Scott Rall, outdoors columnist

I consider myself a pretty die-hard outdoors man. I have been spending many late afternoons chasing ringnecks across the southwest portion of the state. Populations in this part of the state are normally higher than elsewhere, but I don’t often see many other hunters.
That changed in the past few weeks.
As I drove from one public ground to the next, it took me until about the fifth stop to find a Wildlife Management Area where there weren’t already hunters. It was Thanksgiving weekend and this was kind of expected.
At one of those spots a conservation officer approached and asked to see my license. I was glad to show it to him although it took me more then a few minutes of rummaging around in my wallet past the Kansas license, my South Dakota license, next to my Nebraska license and finally to my Minnesota license.
I knew I had it, but I was starting to sweat a little by the time I found it. I was looking for the light blue-colored vinyl one that you get when an electronic license seller location prints it off their machine. When I found it, it was white paper as I had purchased it online for the first time ever this year.
I asked him about what percentage of folks he checks end up with a warning or citation. I was pleasantly surprised when he was seeing violations in only about three or four out of 100 hunters or fisherman checked.
There has been lots of news recently about a huge bust that gathered up over 100 people that had participated in the illegal taking of game. This investigation took many months and roped in a few different TV personalities who had their own shows.
All of the violations ended up with thousands of dollars in fines and restitution.  They also suspended the hunting privileges of many well-known folks. There was a bunch of equipment confiscation as well.  All of these centered around one big outfitter across several different states.
There is a piece of federal legislation called the Lacey Act that covers the illegal sale and transport of not only animals and animal parts but also endangered plants as well. It is one of the few regulations that actually has some teeth to it.
To me the Lacey Act is the game and fish equivalent to the RICO statutes for Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations crimes. I am all for “lock ’em up and throw away the keys” for those who think the game and fish rules don’t apply to them.
I am referring to gross violations, not one or two fish over your limit, although someone with 50 fish over their limit should pay a fine large enough that it would actually keep them from being able to afford bait for a year.
Many states have reciprocity agreements with Minnesota regarding game and fish violations. If you get your hunting or fishing privileges revoked in one state, they are then automatically also revoked in all of the other states who are parties in this reciprocity agreement.
When I hear people tell stories that they harvested many times the number of ducks or pheasants, or caught 100 times more fish than other anglers or hunters of their experience level, I would often say to myself that these folks are not using all of the legal methods I use.
One winter it was a struggle to catch fish on a river near my home. There were three other guys who had caught over 100 in just a few days. After a few months it came out that they were caught using about 60 tip ups per person. The limit in Minnesota is two tip ups per angler.
It only made sense that they would catch a lot more fish than my two tip-ups could.
When you hear of these stories of superstar outdoors people, remember, there certainly are great fishers and hunters, many that will far exceed my prowess level, but in some of those cases they are just playing by different rules.
Hunting and fishing can be challenging endeavors. It should be, but remember, it’s more about having a quality outing than the number of any species you pursue.
 
Scott Rall, Worthington, is a habitat conservationist, avid hunting and fishing enthusiast and is president of Nobles County Pheasants Forever. He can be reached at scottarall@gmail.com. or on Twitter @habitat champion.

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