Yesterday I wanted to work some kinks out in my stillwater fishing and ever evolving boat setup game, so headed over to a popular westside lake.
They seemed to really like balanced leeches and my chosen chronomid pattern, but i did not want to fish indicators so switched back to just stripping little buggers, which was working ok as well. All in all, action was pretty steady; one of those days where you lose track of how many you are catching. All but one of the fish i caught were recent stockers so not the world’s wariest trout, but still good mellow fun and a great way to decompress from a typically intense work week.
The one holdover was a really nice fish and got me stoked so that was a bonus.
This lake has selective gear rules and i think is a “min size 14, limit 2” in the regulations. Not too long after I showed up, three or four guys popped up along the shore at various intervals and starting chucking bait.
When I started making my way back to the boat launch, I noticed a WA fish & game warden talking to one of the guys. The warden questioned/inspected, issued a ticket, told the guy to pack up and get out, then moved to the next guy ~100 meters away and repeated the process. I could hear him talking to the guys, and at least one did not have a license. All had at least a few fish stashed in plastic bags - those got photographed and confiscated.
As i was silently applauding the warden, I found myself wondering - what do the wardens do with the fish they confiscate when they are dealing with smaller scale “random acts of poaching?” Do they just take them, clean them and fry them up? Bury them as fertilizer? Provide to a homeless shelter? Anyone know what the SOP is for that?
They seemed to really like balanced leeches and my chosen chronomid pattern, but i did not want to fish indicators so switched back to just stripping little buggers, which was working ok as well. All in all, action was pretty steady; one of those days where you lose track of how many you are catching. All but one of the fish i caught were recent stockers so not the world’s wariest trout, but still good mellow fun and a great way to decompress from a typically intense work week.
The one holdover was a really nice fish and got me stoked so that was a bonus.
This lake has selective gear rules and i think is a “min size 14, limit 2” in the regulations. Not too long after I showed up, three or four guys popped up along the shore at various intervals and starting chucking bait.
When I started making my way back to the boat launch, I noticed a WA fish & game warden talking to one of the guys. The warden questioned/inspected, issued a ticket, told the guy to pack up and get out, then moved to the next guy ~100 meters away and repeated the process. I could hear him talking to the guys, and at least one did not have a license. All had at least a few fish stashed in plastic bags - those got photographed and confiscated.
As i was silently applauding the warden, I found myself wondering - what do the wardens do with the fish they confiscate when they are dealing with smaller scale “random acts of poaching?” Do they just take them, clean them and fry them up? Bury them as fertilizer? Provide to a homeless shelter? Anyone know what the SOP is for that?
