CO Darin Fagerman (Grand Marais) reports a very slow week with not many people out in the woods and waters. He did check a few anglers who were competing with the bug hatch and not winning with the fish. Anglers were able to keep busy, though, with applying bug spray, bailing rainwater out of their boats, and drying out wet gear. The officer did find another nice lake map that blew out of someone’s boat, but this one didn’t contain secret fishing spots.
CO Mary Manning (Grand Marais East) noted a lack of concern by boaters for their own personal safety. In two instances groups of young boaters embarked without any life jackets in their boats. Minnesota is having a record year for boating fatalities and small boats have been involved in many of these. Angling licenses were also a problem for some. One young man who didn’t have his with him and asked if the officer could “just look it up,” will be receiving his citation in the mail after the officer returned to the office and found that he had failed to actually buy a license for the fishing trip he was on.
CO Phil Mohs (Center City) observed two males fishing from a boat with no registration. After the males noticed the CO was watching them they headed for shore. One of them denied fishing even though he was observed making several casts with a fishing pole. The male became uncooperative and argumentative with the officer and stated he didn’t even have a fishing pole. Officers utilized a canoe and located the fishing rod the male was fishing with lying just under the surface of the water on a weed bed in the lake. The male was cited for fishing without a license and several other violations.
CO Joyce Kuske (Little Falls) received a call of a dead bald eagle on Highway 10. Kuske located the dead bird and identified it as a turkey vulture. Also, a TIP call of a homeowner shooting pileated woodpeckers was investigated and confirmed to be unfounded; and a TIP call of a weird smell in a creek with some dead minnows led Kuske and CO Bertram upstream to a fire scene of a hay barn that had burned, with the water from the fire running into the creek and causing the problems.
CO Marty Stage (Ely) reports that fishing has picked up and it has stopped raining for two days in a row, so lots of people were out on the lakes enjoying the sunshine. There were quite a few people with “throwable” square seat cushions in place of wearable PFDs. These have not been legal PFDs for decades.
CO Tim Collette (Crosslake) responded to a complaint of a very loud boat and after a citation was issued, the operator told the officer that he may as well come back every weekend and give him a ticket because he had no intention of fixing the boat exhaust. CO Collette also found a couple of youths doing donuts on ATVs in the parking lot of the local baseball field. After discussing the issue with the kids and their responsible adults, it was decided that the youths would return the next day to fix the damage by hand.
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!
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