You must be freakin joking???

[Dzone]

TweetUnbelievable. This game warden should have his a$$ kicked. This is a real life example of the government growing out of control!!!!!OMG!!!!!!!!!!!He tells the guy to call home and tell his family to eat the fish in the freezer!

: Angler's on the hook for frozen catch
By Bill Johnson
Denver Post Columnist
Posted: 08/04/2010 01:00:00 AM MDT
Updated: 08/04/2010 01:03:00 AM MDT

I had no idea about this. I will hazard you do not, either.

Art Hernandez is a 47-year-old, disabled heavy-equipment operator who last month set out from his Commerce City home for Antero Reservoir to catch a couple of fish to feed his family at his mother's 76th birthday party.

He loves the lake in Fairplay because it always yields large trout. Indeed, he'd been out there a day earlier and quickly caught a two- fish limit.

Here is where the trouble began.

He was preparing to return home that Sunday, having caught a 22-inch, 5½-pound rainbow along with another that was 19 inches and a little over 4 pounds.

He was packing up his gear when a state game warden walked up and amiably started a conversation.

Yes, Art Hernandez told him, he'd had similar luck a day earlier. Well, what did you do with the fish? the warden asked. He told him about his mother's party, that he had put them in the freezer back home.

The warden took the man's license and told him he would be right back.

He returned with his citation book. He could, he said, either warn Hernandez or give him a ticket. For what? Art Hernandez thought, finally saying he'd take the warning, all things being equal.

The rule, the warden told him, is that "any fish taken and subsequently smoked, canned, frozen or otherwise preserved for consumption is considered part of the established limit until it was consumed."

Hernandez, therefore,
was two fish over the limit.

"I've been fishing in Colorado since I was 13 and never heard of that before," he said.

The warden made him stand with the fish while he took photographs.

He was then given a warning for one of the fish — "since you were honest with me," the warden said — and a $49 ticket worth five points against his hunting and fishing license.

"I'll bet the next time, you'll lie to me," the warden told Hernandez.

"I'm just not that type of person," he said later. "I wouldn't have lied to him even if I knew."

The warden said he would have to confiscate the fish unless Hernandez wanted to call home and have his family eat the fish in the freezer. In that case, he could keep the two he caught.

Art Hernandez, infuriated, declined the offer, as he did the warden's request for one of his plastic bags to carry the confiscated fish.

He drove to Commerce City in a rage. He wondered how many others like him believed the limit was "daily" and not cumulative.

Tyler Baskfield, a Division of Wildlife spokesman, called the incident unfortunate but said it points up the need for everyone to study the rules.

The rule, he said, is meant especially to protect the state's trophy fisheries, which he says the division does "fiercely."

Hernandez contemplated running his license through the shredder, he said, but decided he would only be punishing himself.

He instead called every fishing buddy he has to inform and warn them, he said.

And yes, he will pay the fine. He has checked with federal and state officials and learned he was wrong.

"I was made to feel like one, but I am not a criminal," he said. "I just wanted to do something nice for my mother."

[3Vandoo]

Tweetloooooooooooool

[rc10j1]

TweetThat'd get you shot around here. We take fishing seriously. Lots of game wardens have met their demise messing with people.

[daved150]

Tweetwow.....what an asshole

[mtnmedic]

TweetSame thing up here he would'a wound up being crab bait. I talked to a coupla people around here about fishing and they all but give up on it, "there are too many damn rules" im told, and way too many people fishing. when the runs come in it's outrageously competetive ! literaly elbow to elbow, where it comes to puncturing tires and fist fighting. most of those guys belly snag and take unclipped fish too, not the place to take a kid fishing. for me I head to the Cascades and hit the alpine lakes far from the flatlanders. we do have ALOT of violators and that sucks for all us fair hunters/fishermen. I agree that was going outta his way in being a douche barrel.