Fish hog fined

[IFallsRon]

BACKUS - A Minnesota angler faces a large fine and possible restitution for taking 26 northern pike over his limit on Sanborn Lake near Backus.

On Aug. 12 DNR Conservation Officer Tim Collette of Longville got information from Turn-In-Poachers that a man staying at a local resort was keeping many pike over his limit. Collette was given a description of the angler's truck, boat and camper.

Henry W. Cram, 61, of Wyoming, Minn. has been charged with possessing 26 northerns over the limit. The legal northern possession/daily limit is three per angler with not more than one fish over 30 inches in the daily bag. Crams faces a possible fine and restitution of $1,400. His fishing license was seized.

Collette began to monitor Cram's fishing activities shortly after getting the TIP call. On Aug. 18 Collette saw Cram catch a pike on Sanborn Lake and put it in his boat's livewell. Cram left the lake, but returned later and caught eight more pike. Collette said Cram was "double-tripping, " meaning he took fish home and returned to catch more.

Collette approached Cram at his campsite and asked him how the fishing had been. Cram admitted to catching fish but told Collette that he had released them. Collette got more suspicious when Cram said he had caught a limit earlier and given the fish away, but could not identify the person to whom he gave them.

After checking Cram's fishing license Collette asked to inspect Cram's livewell. Collette found the eight northern pike that Cram had taken. Collette then asked for consent to search the camper, but Cram refused. While other conservation officers watched the site, Collette got a search warrant from the Cass County attorney's office. The subsequent search turned up 17 packages of fish fillets in the camper. Cram said some of the fish belonged to his wife and son, who had left the campsite to return home. The packages of fish, and the eight northerns from the boat were seized.

"With the eight he had in the boat and the 27 in the camper it came to 35 northerns," Collette said. "I allowed him a limit for his wife and son and wrote him up for 26 fish over the limit. I'm glad we were able to follow up and catch him."

[candiru]

I would like to give a big thank you to the person that called TIP on this one. It is nice to see somebody do something instead of just complaining about what they saw on an outdoor forum. Thank You!

[deepportage01]

When we people stop? I'm very close to sanborn and fish it on a regular basis and this type of blatent disregard for our lakes just plain has to stop...

Henry W.Cram[poacher], did you learn your leson? not only did you get a fine but you lost my respect as an angler and sportsman

The fine faced is not steep enuff for me this guy should loose his licence for 5 five years and $1.000 per fish over and have to ask use real sportsmen for his licence back after the five years is up, IMO.

Thank you Tim Collette and TIP caller

[Gator Slayer]

I'm sorry $1400 doesn't seem enough. This SOB knew exactly what he was doing. Take his boat, "truck", gear, and everything he has and then tack on about $500/fish. Post his name and picture in the papers (especially in his home town). I hate these type of slobs. I can forgive an accident like A (1) fish out of the slot or maybe shooting a hen instead of a rooster but the slobs I want out of the outdoors. To the anti-fishing or hunting crowds they paint those of us who believe in fair chase and "conservation" with an ugly brush. There rant is over

[PERCHJR]

They were only slimmers!!! Just kidding, nice job catching him that's for sure!!!

Perchjr

[Koldfront Kraig]

Should have taken his boat too.

This state needs to get tougher on extreme cases like this.

[CatManLee]

I recently talked with a DNR Officer out of the main office in the twin cities about this same situation. I was upset about the small fines issued for the over harvest of Catfish on the Red River of the North this spring by some individuals from Warroad, MN.

He basically said, "A judge sets the fines as he/she see's fit"! If we want the law changed, or fines increased we need to contact our local congressman and try to get it changed. Obviously the Judge that set the fine amounts doesn't think it's that big of a deal to break these laws?

If you want to do something about it, you know what you need to do. It's just like the comment made earlier, "It's nice to see someone actually called TIP about this instead of just complaining about seeing it"...It would also be nice to see a bunch of anglers talking to their local congressmen about these low fine amounts, rather than complaining about it on a forum!! I have talked with a few individuals about this already, but it's probably going to take more people than just me to get this changed in the near future. Everybody call your local congressman and bring it up...the more calls the better.

[irvingdog]

I think I'm going to do this every time I read poaching stories on the web:

Quick everybody!! Grab your cel phone and program this in!!

Turn in Poachers (TIP)

Statewide toll-free: 1-800-652-9093

24 hours a day, 365 days a year

not gonna stop til you all agree to do it.......

[Sandmannd]

Thanks irvingdog, I was going to ask what the TIP number was. I agree with the poster that says a small fee for one or so over. I was out fishing with a couple of buddies just nailing blue gill. We had our limit and went home. When we got home, I counted them and was one over. I was upset that we mis-counted. I'm sure this happens, but for me, I went out and bought a couple of tac-counters so I could keep track of a certain kind of fish. When it's something that doesn't have a big limit like pike or eyes it's not a big deal. But gills and crappies you can miscount pretty easy. I think for these big cases you should loose your whole rig and never be able to fish in the state again. He was over on purpose, no question.

[hawkeye43]

DONE, just double check the number in my phone.I used it three times in 8 months.

[Ebiz]

The number is also on the back of your fishing license.