Violations

[ohmz138]

In the few times I have been down there I have seen bait in the outlets. We always try to as kindly as possible show them the sign that says the laws. People tend to get pretty defensive when you tell them they are breaking the law. Gotta try to choose your words carefully.

[eric1978]

It's such a shame. To me it's just misallocation of resources, as stated before about the deer. It would only take one active agent to run up and down the lake handing out tickets...word travels fast and I think the poachers would talk among themselves about how risky it is...if there was a risk. Those who were just oblivious to the rules may still break them, but there would be a better chance they'd overhear talk about it, too. Rules don't mean anything if there's no one to enforce them.

I was catching crappie a few years ago off the dock of a friend's place at LOZ. I ran up to the house to get something, and while I was gone a fish took my minnow and one of my buddies, who didn't have a license and was not fishing, reeled it in and tossed it in the live-basket. An agent had been watching from across the lake with his binoculars (might as well have been a telescope, you should have seen those things). He gave my buddy a ticket for $100, even though I explained the story to him. He said he watched the whole thing, and even though he believed us, he had no choice but to issue the ticket. I split the cost with my friend, but I still feel guilty about it and feel like I should have paid the whole thing. What was he supposed to do, let that fish drag my rod off the dock and into the lake?

The point is, that was an innocent and minor infraction on a giant lake, and it's hard for me to believe MDC can't do a better job curbing major infractions at Taney, which has a lot of fishermen and a lot of rules. You'd think they'd want to anyway...sounds like revenue city for MDC. The more tickets written, the more money for the MDC, the better the fishing will be...win, win.

[Phil Lilley]

Money paid for game violations go to school districts, not MDC.

[Quillback]

I bet those poachers know it is the deer opener and the Wildlife LE are going to be concentrating on deer hunters.

[eric1978]

Money paid for game violations go to school districts, not MDC.

Ah, did not know that. Still, more tickets would mean more deterrence. Couldn't be a bad thing, right?

[Flysmallie]

Ah, did not know that. Still, more tickets would mean more deterrence. Couldn't be a bad thing, right?

And I'm pretty sure that a few of our schools could use some extra money. They either need to step up the efforts or explain where they spend all of their time.

[eric1978]

And I'm pretty sure that a few of our schools could use some extra money.

No doubt about that. My wife is a public school teacher and I guarantee you she isn't properly compensated for the effort she puts in. Many of the schools are a mess, though. But's that's a whole other story.

Where ever the funds go, if MDC would hire more agents, they could easily pay for themselves and then some by getting tougher on the regs. Responsible fishermen who care about their waterways wouldn't notice the difference, except you'd have to think fishing would improve if anything. I'd be happy to have an agent ask me for my license and make sure I'm not breaking any other regs. He'd see it and then he'd be on his way.

[Brian K. Shaffer]

Nervewracking --- positively puke - inducing when you see it over and over and over in a single day.

ohmz138 - I know exactly what you mean. Its a shame... especially when you're the one being real nice about explaining it -- and they seem to never accept even the lightest explanation very well. Then you can just tell when they are going to go on the defensive.

This is clearly something that needs to be addressed : somehow.

2 agents for 1 county... something needs to be done.

Brian

[Wayne SW/MO]

2 agents for 1 county... something needs to be done.

I don't think all counties are that fortunate. With 168 hours in a week it doesn't take long to see a deficiency, but with the economy nothing will change.

I do think they should think outside the box by reminding people. A few signs reminding people of how expensive it can be, or has been, might get some results.

[Chief Grey Bear]

Who I give you gives a flip about some poor slob shooting a stinking deer. Missouri herd estimate at 1.4 million. 3.5 million in auto accidents, and over 100 million in crop damage per year, but MDC for some reason puts all there efforts into working this very small segment of wildlife management.

Didn't the MDC just spend about $5 million of our tax dollars on that hatchery down there?