The "warden"

Bored late last night and watched 2-3 episodes of Northwoods Law, Maine area. Was kind of surprised the power the green shirts wheel in mostly a rural setting. Learned a lot about a few areas in that neck of the woods. I think of ours here in Canada, Conservation Officers, and wonder how much power they have. Being on Federal land without permission seemed like a big no-no along with small grow-ops LOL. Anyway, does anyone have a story regarding an encounter they would like to share? Oh ya, better have a fishing license!!! 

Got caught growing pot without a permit back in the day.

6 whole plants. He gave me a citation for possession of weed.

Cost 635 with court costs first offense.

He took the plants.

Maine don’t have a lot policeman and sometimes the State Police will take on jurisdiction of  extra towns.  Green Shits can also accept jurisdiction.  Show some respect In Maine or you will quickly be looking at  jail cell.    

No real cop stories to tell you so I’ll tell you a funny quick….    Me and a bud were excited about 2 week fishing trip to Maine and packed the van full. Canoe on top. Couldn’t get great access so we took the canoe thru the small under brush and into the river.  Beautiful spot. Told my bud I’m dropping anchor. UT-Ooooo.  Tied the anchor to the center of the canoe.  Tyou can guess what happened next!!!

Michigan Conservation Officers have the same power as state police. They go to same academy/boot camp training along with Weigh Masters.

Back when I was young and ambitious wanted to be a CO. Found out they could only work something like 5 hours of overtime every two weeks because the states liability insurance would not allow any more. Dangerous job! 

Many, many years ago took my 6- month pregnant wife ice fishing. Had a favorite small lake in upper Michigan that a friend of my father owned the land around it. No cabins on this small, maybe 100 acre lake. Good pike fishing! Drove down two track dirt road to back end of lake. Snow was about 6-8 inches on that road and we had a Ford Maverick. 

At the front end of the lake was a paved road that passed next to the lake. As we sat there fishing on about 4-6" of ice I see a green car stop on that paved road watching us. It's a conservation officer I tell my wife. So what she says, we're not doing anything wrong. Then I tell her I don't have my fishing license with me. Purchased a Sportmans license that includes deer, small game, and fishing. That license was home on my deer hunting jacket. Ah, no way they come back here, ice is thin in spots and the roads are bad.

About an hour later here comes two of them walking through the woods, an older man and young woman. I tell my wife, " they better not try to walk on the lake right there, that's swampy and ice is bad there." Out comes the guy and he goes thru the ice up to his knees. I can see the black muck on his pants. Chuckle. So then they stay on our trail we took in and come on out to us. I tell him I left license at home. He quizzes me, where did you buy it, when, how much, etc. I tell him. He then has his young lady trainee issue me a ticket that required me to show my license at any state police post within one week, which I did. 

Caught no keepers, just small pike. Got the Maverick stuck. Pushed it out myself while the wife drove and burst blood vessels in the back of knees doing so. 

Wife and I have never iced fished since. 

Only encounter I ever had with a warden was when I was duck hunting on public land and was roughly two hundred yards off of the nearest road. Someone called us in thinking we were lots closer. Warden found us and checked us out making sure we were using steel shot which we were, but little did I realize I had some lead shot in my pockets from a previous hunt. He never checked my pockets or that would have been a hefty fine.

Quick sidenote. One of the best Canada hunts I was ever on was in Manitoba . Saw a very large black bear, a lynx [very cool] and a mountain lion all in the same day. Lynx stared me down for five minutes from 75 yards away.