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) checked anglers and snowmobile riders. Snowmobile activity is busy as the fishing remains slow. He taught a snowmobile safety class at the Cook County Middle School.
CO Darin Fagerman (Grand Marais) attended training in Camp Ripley during the week.
CO Karl Hadrits (Crosby) reported to a complaint involving people arguing over a fishing spot with behavior such as obscene gestures and words, fish houses too close to each other, banking snow to aggravate, drilling holes to intentionally flood out the other person’s fish house, and other unsportsmanlike conduct. Also, a 65-year-old man was found operating a snowmobile at a speed of 98 miles per hour. When the man came into the radar range, officers observing the situation believed he was slowing down from a much higher speed. The man said he thought what he was doing was safe.
CO John Slatinski (Ray) responded to a snowmobile crash with the operator hitting a tree. The crash resulted in a helicopter transfer to the hospital. Alarmingly, this was only one of several crashes in the area recently.
CO Don Bozovsky (Hibbing) reports that horror stories are filtering in about marathon efforts in getting fish houses off with slush and snow making it difficult to impossible to do so. Bozovsky saw a first during the week: A dad was found with a toddler in a playpen in the portable fish house. Though the quarters were pretty tight, the toddler seemed very comfortable.
CO Kylan Hill (Zumbrota) stopped a snowmobile rider for failing to display registration numbers. This was the third time the rider has been stopped for the same violation and even though he was still displaying a valid registration sticker, Hill believed it was time for the rider to receive a citation for his disregard of the law requiring numbers.
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