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 waterfowl opener, checked small game hunters and monitored ATV activity. With the blue bird days over the weekend, waterfowl hunters had limited success. The leaves are starting to fall and the grouse hunters are starting to pick up a few more birds.
CO Darin Fagerman (Grand Marais) reports that even though Cook County isn’t known as a duck hunter’s destination, he did check a few parties of hunters who all had a good number of birds. Even though the hunters did well with their fowl, a few ran afoul of the law including unplugged shotguns, lead shot, and lack of PFDs in the duck boats. He also assisted the U.S. Forest Service and paddled into the BWCA to retrieve a prohibited item that a group of campers had. Other enforcement action included unregistered canoes, no fishing license, duck stamps and small game license in possession.
CO Mary Manning (Hovland) checked numerous grouse hunters, most driving the roadways, but saw few birds taken. Duck hunters were fewer in numbers. Anglers were having better luck, particularly on Lake Superior. When asked for his trout stamp, one angler stated he had been fishing for salmon, not trout…stamp still required. ATV operators are reminded that anyone under 18 must wear a helmet – even on side-by-side machines.
CO Dustie Speldrich (Willow River) investigated an illegal bear hunting case where the hunter didn’t register or sign the bait station where he had harvested a bear. When interviewed, he stated he didn’t register the bait station because it was too much work to do the paperwork and he didn’t have access to a computer to do it online. He didn’t sign it because he didn’t want the CO to know who was hunting the bait since it wasn’t registered. At the end of the interview, enforcement action was taken for unregistered bait, unsigned bait, non-biodegradable material in the bait, illegal off-trail travel in a limited state forest and baiting without a license.
CO Chad Thesing (Albany) encountered one angler who was found angling out of a pontoon. As the officers approached, the angler began throwing some sunfish out of his bucket into the lake. The angler realized that the fish were not swimming away so he began trying to hide fish in his jacket pocket. When asked about the fish in his pocket, he explained that he was going to release those fish. The angler had six sunfish in his jacket pocket and was 11 fish over limit on the lake. The officers went to his house and the angler got into the house before the officers and attempted to hide packages of fish behind his toaster. Enforcement action was taken.
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