Poachers

There is a breed of men who thrive on the excitement of the dark side of things.
Maybe it is the feeling of superiority over those who tread the straight and narrow. Maybe it is the challenge of outsmarting those who enforce the law. I’m not sure why, but there is always someone trying to beat the system, usually at our expense.

Here is a case in point from last season in Newfoundland. I should mention that I’ve driven by this spot many times; always wishing I could stop to wet a fly.

SPAWN reports that hundreds of fish were being taken from the tail race below the power dam at Deer Lake and the poaching was occurring quite blatantly.

In one email they received, a concerned angler revealed:

"He played the fish as good as any seasoned fisherman would and then cleaned the fish on the beach. The other fisherman there (around 5 in total) continued to fish.

To my dismay, however, a car pulls up within 5 minutes and out comes a person with a plastic bag. She proceeds down the beach and the gentleman hands her the fish without tagging it. She took the fish to her car and then drove away.To me it was very disheartening to see this not once, but happen 2 times within a 2 hour span. Another fisherman hooked and landed a fish and surely enough the same car with the same person came for it."

Apparently the tail race had become known as "The Fish Market", at least until thirteen officers took part in an operation which will see individuals face a total of 30 charges.

So once again the good guys win a battle but the war will continue.

I must admit that I have heard some ripping good stories from fellows who have been known to take a chance or two. They feel that the law is plastic rather than rigid and will often bend it a little.

An interesting one tells of a time when they were fishing on a stretch of the Little Sou’ West Miramichi in New Brunswick. Seeing no fish, they began to suspect someone had strung a net downstream. They don’t say how they knew the likely spot but soon confirmed that indeed a net was blocking the river - right where they figured it would be.

Being enterprising fellows they drove up the road and bought from a nearby farmer as much hay as they could cram into their pick-up truck. When it was dark, they parked the truck on the first bridge upstream and proceeded to dump the hay into the river.

The hay drifted downstream becoming lodged in the net. The hay of course became heavier the more sodden it got and finally tearing the net from its moorings, swept the whole mess away down stream.

As it travelled, it cleared any other nets as well and the boys report that the pool was full of salmon by the next morning.

Here is a picture from the William Bullock & Co. Hardware Catalogue circa 1850. It is reflective of the way poachers were dealt with in the past.








Note that this is the humane model. The mind boggles at the thought of the inhumane one.