Featured image from Landon Mayer’s Instagram.
Over the weekend, a bait-using poacher was caught with a 20-inch Dream Stream rainbow trout tail slapping under his boot by Landon Mayer and a fishing buddy as they walked past. He was caught red-handed using bait and keeping a trophy size fish in the fly fishing only section of the river. Unfortunately for the poacher and his illegal quarry, Landon did the correct thing and called up the local CPW office to have a ranger come check out the suspected poaching activity. Check out how the rest of the incident went down in Mayer’s Instagram post, below:
View this post on Instagram
From Landon Mayer’s Instagram:
“After saying hello to Phil Tereyla, Zack Tokach and I headed to the water and started approaching an angler standing alone in the distance. While walking past, we noticed the tail of this trout flapping below his boot in the snow. Sadly with a nightcrawler still stuck in its mouth, the 20-inch trout did not make it. However, after calling Eleven Mile Colorado Parks and Wildlife, our new Park Ranger Makayla raced to the scene and wrote the man a $130.00 ticket for using bait and keeping fish in the Gold Medal Waters at Charlie Meyers WA of the South Platte River. If you ever see poaching on this or any other stretch of catch and release water don’t hesitate to take action and call Park Rangers, Game Wardens, or @coparkswildlife 1-877-COLO-OGT”
So next time you spot someone blatantly poaching on your waters, make sure the individual is doing what you think they are, and then alert the proper authorities for your waters.
Well done!
Poaching can destroy a stream .
But, so can keeping legal fish limits.
There are actually few fish in any trout stream or river compared to number of anglers.
All trout fishing in streams and rivers that are not put and take stocked fish should be catch and release. All steelhead and salmon should be only catch and release. These fish are so rare even stocker fish should be released.
It is time to accept that there are too many people fishing to allow even one each of limited river trout, salmon, steelhead.
Come on , no one flyfishing needs to keep fish at all. So, fly fishers and web sites like this should demand the end to keeping fish in streams and rivers.