Fish Thief at Lake Waubay

[kevfish]

I have made several trips out to Waubay lake this winter with friends and family. On every trip the people in the area have been very nice and helpful. This past weekend we had a very bad experience. One that left us feeling unwelcome and thinking we may never go back. We have a sleeper style fishhouse and spent the weekend on the ice. After fishing on saturday our days catch was brought to shore and stored there at the private landing that we use to get on the lake. (others also use this landing) This is what the area Game Warden suggested we do with our fish while staying on the lake. we had 20 perch and 5 eyes between 3 fishermen. After fishing on sunday we left the lake and our fish were gone from shore. In the snow where we had put the fish we could see foot prints. The Theif left us a note at this location. the note read...
THanks!! Next time clean your
fish at your 10,000 lakes and Poach there too @#$%heads... HA HA HA YUm yum yummy.......

After reading this and seeing the fish were gone it made for a very long ride home with sour looks on our faces Obviously we were not poaching and someone stole our fish. Maybe whoever did this will read this and realize that theey had did a terrible thing. How could a true outdoorsman do something like this. I just wonder how good can fish that you stole taste??? I hope that you enjoy them as much as we would have. They taste even better with tarter sauce. If the person that took them wants to post there name and address I could bring a jar to them. We do not know if we will ever go back to Waubay after this experience. Thanks alot fish thief.....

[ifishsd]

That sucks. You should have taken the fish into Greinville to the bait shop. I have heard they will put the fish in a freezer for you.

[The Bronco Kid]

Wow, I am sorry to hear that. I would feel the same way you did. I think the bait shop in Grenville might be closed down.

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Here for all you mortgage needs!

[Rost]

That is a shame that should not have happened.

Next time just make better arangments to store your fish. I may be wrong, but I just can't see a warden telling you to simply take the fish to shore and stuff them in a drift. I am not trying to bash you here, I am simply saying that there is most likely a better spot to put your fish.

Also, don't let 1 bad experience on Waubay brand you for life. Come back and enjoy yourself. Don't let some jerk change your future plans.

[kevfish]

That is what the Warden recommended on a previous trip also -we will find a better option if we ever go out there again-You would not think that one sportsperson would do that to another.

[MapSD]

The Bronco Kid
The bait shop at Grenville is open.
Just got off the phone with Penny and she says there is NO plans on shutting down.

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Mike
Mike's Maps

[jr712]

I would had left a 2nd package with a couple fillets..... and a note:

"Greetings. We are happy to help feed you and yours. And the next time we come back, you are welcome to tag along. It would make more sense for us to teach you to fish rather than just feed you for a day."

[perchjerk]

Hey Kevfish,
You guys got the royal shaft! That just goes to show that some people have no regards for others property, too bad that warden hadn't caught them with your fish and theirs (if they had any). Probably not since they were busy stealing and not fishing. Sounds like you caught some fish - where on the lake were you fishing? I was thinking of heading up tomorrow for the day. Don't give up on Waubay, there are crooks on every lake you just have to watch out for them and call them in if you catch them.

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Keep your rod straight and watch the hole!

[kevfish]

we were on the northend of waubay south and east of helwig island. we did not catch many on sunday but we could have if we moved the fish house. if you move a couple of times you will catch them. we played alot of cards on sunday-we figured that we did not need many more perch to feed our family"S-boy were we wrong....

[crappie jigga]

Sorry, to hear about your bad luck...
I spend alittle time in that area and most of the people are very very friendly, but there are a couple of people who apparently don't like out-of-staters coming in and catching "their" fish...

I can kinda see their point... They see all us out-staters pounding the fish, leaving trash lay around, being rude, etc.... Pretty soon, anything bad that happens (poaching, littering, no fish biteing, bad weather, bad day at work, etc.) is all the out-staters fault.... Well, of course that's not true, but I think that's how some of them feel... Which sucks!!!!!!

As for the Land of 10,000 lakes thing! I hear that one almost everytime I go to the bar, when I'm there.... The people that say it are just giving us a hard time, and it's all in good fun, but some of the locals find NO humor in us being there....

When they seen you placeing your fish on shore, of course that's the first thing they thought of, (you were poaching) NOT TRUE but, that's what they thought...

It's too bad that happened, but don't let these bad apples stop you from going back because, some of the best fishing memoires you'll ever have, will probably come from that area....

By the way, if they seen you put the fish on shore and saw your lisc. plate, they were maybe sitting on shore watching or, you passed them on your way back onto the lake... Either way, you probably seen the people who did it.... Think back..

[walk on water]

Yeah that's too bad! Make sure you come back soon and take a few more limits. Along with the guy who had 300 perch stored in the bait shop with his buddies because this lake will soon be just a memory with the "pounding" its getting in state and out of state. This lake has very poor perch reproduction and my guess is next winter will be just a memory from the reports I've seen. Thank god the GFP decreased the limit to ten to help sustain the fishery for a little while.

Remember put a few back not in the snow bank HAHAHAHAHA.

[HoleHopper]

kevfish,
After reading your post, I tryed to put myself in the theifs shoes. The only reason that he would have wrote 'poacher' in his letter to you would be that he probably thought that you were hidding the fish while you were still fishing the lake to get more than the limit.
That is the only reasoning I could come up with, why he would wright this.
Sounds to me that he was trying to justify his actions by thinking you were a poacher.
demented, twisted, and no morals! 'outdoorsman' not a chance! If you find the theif, can I deliver the 'tarter sauce? 'please'

'Here fishie fishie,' 'Here fishie fishie fishie'!

[fishin5]

The Bait shop in grenville isn't completely safe either. My group took 300 perch and 12 eye's there and they put them in the fish cleaning house wich was locked. well, some other guys came in and cleaned thier fish and appearently ours too.
Don't get me wrong, the Grenville shop is the best around the lake but just beware and mark your catch with name and lic # and maybe you might get lucky.

[HoleHopper]

walk on,
It sure takes a real (self rightious) outdoorsman to take delight in someones missfortune does'nt it?........
I hope you are haveing a nice day!

[kevfish]

walk on

I DO NOT THINK THAT TAKING 20 PERCH BETWEEN 3 GUYS FOR A WEEKEND OF FISHING IS GOING TO HURT THE LAKE. AND BY THE WAY WE DID RELEASE AT LEAST THAT MANY OTHER FISH. aRE YOU SAYING THAT THE GFP DOEA NOT HAVE A HANDLE ON THINGS AND SHOULD LOWER THE LIMIT MORE. OR ARE YOU ONE OF THOSE THAT WOULD HAVE ALSO STOLE THE FISH. YHE ONES IN THE SNOW WERE THE ONES WE WERE GOING TO TAKE HOME AND FEED TO OUR FAMILIES HOW DO YOU EXPLAIN TO YOUR KIDS WHY THIS HAPPENED. i SUPPOSE YOU WOULD TELL YOUR KIDS THAT SOMEONE SHOULD HAVE STOLEN THE FISH. THINK ABOUT IT BEFORE YOU START BASHING SOMEONE THAT IS TAKING LESSS THAN A LEGAL LIMIT OF GAME.

[This message has been edited by kevfish (edited 02-24-2004).]

[Uncle Grump]

Kev

I normally don't frequent this forum - but saw your post in the main Ice forum, and had to come take a peak....

The only thing I can tell you, is that the person who did this to you and your buddies is not a "true outdoorsman" - your 2nd paragraph, 4th sentence. Please understand that I'm not bashing you.....

The person who ripped you and your buddies off is a low life "bleep". An outdoorsman wouldn't have ripped you off, an outdoorsman - had he/she suspected you of poaching - would have called their local DNR officer, and let them handle the situation.

There are lowlife of every type - everywhere. You sadly - ran afoul of one or more.

Hang in there - don't write off all S.D.'ns cause of one bad apple.

UG

[pegleg]

I guess I am confused. If you aren't poaching or planning on poaching, why do you need to take 20 perch and 5 walleyes to shore to store them? Why not put them in a snowbank on the lake or in a cooler until you get your limit? Am I missing something?

[kevfish]

Yes-you are missing something-you can only have one days limit on the Ice. Therefore if you are staying more than 1 day you need to get the fish off the ice. Our one day limit would have been 30 perch-we had 20 and took them to shore so that if we caught more than 10 the next day we would not be over our limit. . You can bring more than one days limit back with you. It would be the same as if you stayed in a cabin for a weak- You can keep a days limit and bring a possession limit back with you home-depending on what the possession limit is on the body of water you had been fishing.

[kevfish]

hole hopper- is there anything else you can add so that pegleg is not confused about this- I think that it is clear that we were not poaching and had no intentions of ever poaching- I think that someone else said it best- If yoiu thought we were poaching the thing to do would have been to notify the local warden-not be a thief yourself

[sloughshark]

Hey Now, settle down. Stuff happens, it was most certainly a bad deal, id be in a little uproar myself if that had happened to me, but we dont need to start bashing one another. The bottomline is that someone was jack!@# that nabbed the fish, bad luck but its something thats just gonna have to be dealt with, we cant turn back the clock and get them back. Lets show a little more respect for each other. By the way I had a wonderful day of ice fishing on saturday up on enemy swim catching some dandy walleyes!

[kevfish]

sloughshark-have there beneany crappies biting on Enemy Swim lately- maybe I will give that a try next time out

[Reel Inn]

I guess if I would have seen what you did I would have called the C. O.. I know what your intentions were, this is a screwy law for those that do this, even if you cleran and eat the fish on the lake, you better get the cleanings off of lake or that is part of your possession too, possession limit is 2-days limit. only that you can take back home, weather you are a res. or non-res.. When I do a 2-day stay over I just release every thing the first day. Hope I catch some thing the next.

Don't give up on Sd fishing, Sd loves your money, also helps keep our TAXS LOW>

[kevfish]

walk on water- I wont even justify that with a response

[kevfish]

Reel Inn- why call a C.O.-would you do the same for someone that stays at a resort or a motel and keeps a limit of fish one day and returns the next day- also if you called the C.O. that we talked to he would tell you that we did just what the law requires us to do and that is what he recomends you do. also you cannot clean or have fillets on the ice as it clearly states in sd law book

[This message has been edited by kevfish (edited 02-24-2004).]

[walk on water]

kevfish,
Too bad the powers that be are supressing free speech by deleting posts. How about next time you come to SD you just worry about taking a one day limit home instead. That would solve everyones problems. People won't think you are poaching and you can still feed your hungry family.