Although the Cook County News-Herald knows that the majority of sportsmen and women are law-abiding folks, there are a few that run afoul of the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) Conservation Officers. Periodically, the DNR provides a report of some of the miscreants the Conservation Officers (CO) have encountered. The News-Herald shares these stories as a reminder to all to be safe and to follow the rules!
CO Thomas Wahlstrom (Tofte) worked the trout opener with area officers in Lake and Cook counties. After the rainstorm hit, the roads had an ice sheet on them and the lakes were full of slush. The anglers who made it out for the opener did well. Some nice splake and rainbow trout were seen in the bag. BWCAW trout lakes were patrolled. Enforcement action was taken for driving after revocation, vehicle equipment violations, angling and snowmobile violations.
CO Mary Manning (Hovland) continued to check anglers in the BWCAW. The officer participated in a work detail in Lake County during the trout opening weekend. Snowmobiles and skiers were also checked. Rain over the weekend has left trails in very poor and icy condition, although travel in the woods is easy due to the crusty layer that is left. Enforcement action was taken for no angling license in possession.
CO Darin Fagerman (Grand Marais) worked with several officers during the opening weekend of the winter trout season. Officers patrolled many miles by snowmobiles, checking remote designated lakes along with lakes that are easy to get to. A dead coyote with mange was picked up from the porch of a residence. It appeared that the very small coyote may have been killed by a wolf as the piles of large scat left on the porch couldn’t have possibly come from the coyote. The owner of the residence did previously hear some banging and noises coming from that area.
CO Don Murray (Two Harbors) worked the trout opener patrol up the Gunflint Trail with other officers. Warm weather and rain prior to the opener made for slushy conditions on most lakes, which firmed up throughout the weekend with dropping temperatures. Much more snow is needed to make snowmobile travel on lakes and trails easier.
NR Standby Pilot Brad Maas continued on the northeast moose survey. Snow conditions held up even with unseasonably warm weather. Fewer moose were observed on some of the plots than last year. Ten plots remain to be sampled, all in the Grand Marais area.
CO Robert Gorecki (Baudette) checked an angler who reported good fishing for five days on Upper Red Lake but only presented three walleye. Gorecki noticed an edge of a Ziploc bag sticking out of the snow and a subsequent search of the area revealed a total of eight bags of walleye including protected slot walleye. Charges are pending for over limit of walleye, unmeasurable walleye, possession of drug paraphernalia, and marijuana.
CO Shane Osborne (Evansville) received and investigated several fish over limit complaints throughout the week. One complaint came from the TIP line in which an individual posted a picture on his Facebook page of almost 100 crappies on the ice with a caption that said, “Good afternoon I would say!!:)” When contacted, the individual told Osborne that he had done a dumb thing. He had been seeing everybody else’s pictures of fish on Facebook and fishing hadn’t been very good for him so he decided to take a picture off of the Internet and use it as his own. The night before, one of his friends at the bar said, “Don’t be surprised if the DNR shows up looking for you in the morning.”
CO Duke Broughten (Longville) made contact with a fisherman who was using three lines. When the angler noticed the officer he attempted to throw his rattle reel down the hole. Unfortunately for the angler the rattle reel floats.
Leave a Reply