Canyon Lake poachers

[Sasha]

Does CA do life time bans on poachers?

[lucfish]

Here's what I understand from DFG. We have to look at it in the context of a traffic collision even if we don't want to. It's all about the courts and tying up the courts. We have 3 people who in our opinion did a very bad and unforgivable thing and we would like them to "throw the book at them" but if they plea guilty to a lesser offense it's a win/win for all the parties involved. It's a win for them because the charges the plead guilty to are less than what they were originally charged with and it's a win for the dfg who still were able to get some punishment for their deeds and there original arrests did not go in vain, which happens more times than it should. The courts are jammed, they cop a plea and still get punished, granted I would like to see more, * it's the lake I fish at but 30 days of picking trash would be no fun especially in this heat and the fine although just a token as far as I'm concerned still is something. When you take the fact they did not have a previous record it's maybe not as much as we could have hoped for but it could have been a much lighter sentence. Alot of this just depends on the judge. This is from the dfg, not me. Like I said before, we can only hope these guys have learned some kind of lesson.

[clee]

This story makes me hate California more and more. Seriously what kind of punishment is not being able to obtain a fishing license (something they probably never bought before anyways), paying a total of $410 in fines (chump change all things considered) and 30 days of "hard labor" (whatever that means) going to deter? I would like to see what California deems as hard labor these days. Knowing how pansy California is, its probably cleaning a house or mowing a lawn.

Honestly why do we even have wardens and game laws? It must have cost the state tens of thousands to catch these clowns then bring them to court and the State gets $410 back from all three. Genius. I imagine this is not an isolated case, I'm sure its commonplace. If I were a warden I would just quit, honestly what's the point? All that work and its barely a slap on the wrist. It seems like a pointless endeavor. Obviously the laws didn't deter them from committing the crime now the actual punishment will not.

What a joke. I'd would be surprised a year from now these jokers are at some other lake doing the same thing all over again. California you suck.

Haven't been on this board for a while and first thing I read my BP is up. I need to calm down, Luc post up a pic of the 10lber you got last weekend.

[Trootfisher]

For your reading pleasure, the bail and penalties for violations of the FIsh and Game Code (and others):

http://www.courts.ca.gov/documents/july2011_jcbail.pdf

FGC penalties (fines) are found on page 118

[fly addict]

I think they should have to spend a few nights with this guy as punishment for their crimes...