Poll for fishermen....Your input is important !!!

[Gills-only]

The wardens word carries a lot of weight, wish ya luck.

[just_a_beer_man]

Had a dink perch do it just the other day, twice.

[wyoutdoors]

Generally speaking, a "Lesser Plea" is given to clear the court dockets for other more serious issues. More often than not a token fine and "Don't do it again" and it's all over. Tie up the courts time and if found guilty fines and stuff become heavier to pay for all the County's expense of taken someone through the system. But I do sincerely hope you are found not guilty. Good luck.

[wyoutdoors]

Had a dink perch do it just the other day, twice.

Repeat offender? tsk tsk 

[frozengator]

[ but the burden is upon you to prove otherwise. A prosecutor, combined with a peace officer or warden whom wrote the citation and claims to have seen the infraction or illegal activity, carries far more weight within the judicial system than the accused who stands there and says, "I didn't do it! The fish jumped back onto the ice all by itself!"

Then again, they let OJ go too so no worries! 
[/quote]All I have to say is what ever happen to innocent until proven guilty? And why would he only have one fish sitting on the ice if he was planning to keep it. I would have to say the warden should have waited to see if he did it again then bust him. I still see no proof here that he did wrong. And like he is trying to prove it happens and it is a big mistake. I can't see fighting this if it wasn't. Lets hear from one of you Ice shanty wardens!! I know your lurking out there. LOL  What would you suggest he do???

[gunnerdog]

I just had a minnow do it yesterday. I slid a plain red hook into it's back and dropped in the holed.  It went down about 3 inches and straight back up and onto the slush on the side of the hole.

[TheDL]

wow, I've never heard of this happaning?  To those who say it's common - do you just flop the fish back in the hole?  I will "launch" a fish back down head first if it's small, and hold the tail and stick my hand in the water to 'revive' a bigger fish.  if they don't start swimming down they probably are going to die.

That's too bad about your ticket - I hope you win your case.  Out of curiousity - what was the fine?  What was the plea?   good for you for standing up for yourself when you're right - I would too - hope it works out for you.

[BlueDuck]

Yep, fairly common.

[wyoutdoors]

All I have to say is what ever happen to innocent until proven guilty? And why would he only have one fish sitting on the ice if he was planning to keep it. I would have to say the warden should have waited to see if he did it again then bust him. I still see no proof here that he did wrong. And like he is trying to prove it happens and it is a big mistake. I can't see fighting this if it wasn't. Lets hear from one of you Ice shanty wardens!! I know your lurking out there. LOL  What would you suggest he do???

Agreed, innocent until proven guilty. But in the bigger scheme of things, a warden isn't known for going around issuing citations to innocent parties to begin with. Sad fact is, according to OP he is innocent, but a trained and hopefully experienced employee of the State Fish & Game saw what he deemed to be an infraction of the law. This initiates the process and the State is going to lean towards the weight of the officers testimony and what they witnessed in order to issue a citation.

OP may get out of it and hopefully so. Bottom line is he did receive a ticket and is now going to have to overcome the wardens credibility, or show the warden made a mistake to begin with.

FWIW, I too have had fish not go back down the hole when released and I will either push them down further or wait for them to swim below the bottom of the ice. Last week I had a Lake Trout not want to go back down and had to walk clear back to my sled to get a long-handled ice skimmer and push the trout below the ice so he could swim away.

Lesson to be learned? Make sure your fish is gone before you walk off and a Warden arrives.

[Lobes]

I think anyone that does a lot of icefishing will witness this. I'm sure conservation officers view of this will leave the responsibility to the fisherman to make sure the fish go back down the hole and stay down the hole.

                                                         
NBG

[combsey]

The bass on cossunyna are know for it   Itook my niece fishing there 2 years ago and she turned it into a game.   1 bass ( about 2 lbs) did it 2 times in a row.   My only thing is that ' was your tip up inthe hole or were you fixing it and it was out?    Never had a fish come out of a hole when a tip up was in it   

[kasilofchrisn]

Yes this has happened to me a few times. usually when released tail first down the hole when I wasn't thinking.  Releasing the fish head first is a big help as fish cannot swim backwards.
I have had fish get off just as I was about to grab them and they then came out of the hole and flopped around and then back down it before I could reach it.

[doran]

there was a redneck fisher man from my local area that was once caught with a bunch of bass in a bucket that were out of season at the time. he was approached by a dec officer and was immideatly pursued. the dec officer stated it was illegal to keep bass during that time of season. the red neck replied well sir these fish here are my pets. DEC officer replied your pets my ass. PROVE IT. the red neck simply explained that he takes his pet bass out every Saturday to swim and they come back to him and he takes them home to put back in his pond. the dec officer confused says show me i don't believe you. when the red neck put the fish in the lake to swim around he stood there for a while watching over the lake. after a few mins the dec officer says to the redneck arent you going to call your fish back and the redneck replied WHAT FISH?

[vtshantyman]

there was a redneck fisher man from my local area that was once caught with a bunch of bass in a bucket that were out of season at the time. he was approached by a dec officer and was immideatly pursued. the dec officer stated it was illegal to keep bass during that time of season. the red neck replied well sir these fish here are my pets. DEC officer replied your pets my ass. PROVE IT. the red neck simply explained that he takes his pet bass out every Saturday to swim and they come back to him and he takes them home to put back in his pond. the dec officer confused says show me i don't believe you. when the red neck put the fish in the lake to swim around he stood there for a while watching over the lake. after a few mins the dec officer says to the redneck arent you going to call your fish back and the redneck replied WHAT FISH?

this is totaly off topic but yes

[openingact]

there was a redneck fisher man from my local area that was once caught with a bunch of bass in a bucket that were out of season at the time. he was approached by a dec officer and was immideatly pursued. the dec officer stated it was illegal to keep bass during that time of season. the red neck replied well sir these fish here are my pets. DEC officer replied your pets my ass. PROVE IT. the red neck simply explained that he takes his pet bass out every Saturday to swim and they come back to him and he takes them home to put back in his pond. the dec officer confused says show me i don't believe you. when the red neck put the fish in the lake to swim around he stood there for a while watching over the lake. after a few mins the dec officer says to the redneck arent you going to call your fish back and the redneck replied WHAT FISH?

needed a laugh.... thanks!

[doran]

i actually had 4 pickrel do it to me at perch lake last saturday and my father who fished for 35 years couldnt believe it.

[IceNeck9292]

have had it happen a few times. some times they will free willy it out on to the ice

that gave me a little chuckle ...

[frozengator]

Well what was the out come?

[eplindstrom]

When you pull fish up from a deep depth (saw it at 30 possibly even shallower), their swim bladders expand making it impossible to swim back down. We caught some tiny perch that we wanted to release but even pushing them down in the water they felt incredibly buoyant, so we ended up keeping them.  Also putting a fish down the hole tail first would probably get it to jump back out. Hope this helps

[snybry]

perch do it to me all the time if i dont put them in just right they just jump right back out.

[MichiganMan]

  Over the years I've had quite a few bass come back up and out, also small walleye on a couple occasions. Not unussual at all for perch and bluegills.

[dachmation]

Besides all that, wheres his evidence? LoL

[jumbo chaser]

Been ice fishing for 20+ years its happened a lot a few times a year

[TheDL]

Well what was the out come?

x2

[pipeboy98]

he may not be able to answer you until he gets computer privlidges in the slammer....you know how those bass offenders are!!

[Bullelk34]

I heard he got 30-to-life, depending on behavior he'll be eligible for paroll in 2028.....