July 1 Incident Fines Total $6,025

The first overlimit incident of white bass that occurred on July 1 at the Minnewaukan south boat ramp resulted in a total amount of fines levied to be $6,025. These anglers/poachers had 598 white bass – 388 more than the limit and 64.4 fish each.

Each defendant was ordered to pay $225 in court costs. Five of the six were ordered to pay $500 fines and one $300. In addition their fishing equipment and ice chests were forfieted.

Since North Dakota takes part in the Wildlife Violators Compact all of them will lose fishing licenses in Minnesota and any of the other states which belong to the compact

Thanks much for the follow-up here Kevin. $6,000 in fines + court costs will get their attention. How long will they lose their licenses?

I don’t know.

Let’s hope it is for multiple years.

One guy here last year got a $6000 fine all by himself for poaching 1 sturgeon out of season. $1000 a foot. Took his van too.

Would’ve wanted to be him when he had to call his wife for a ride home. lol

Thanks for sharing the end result!!! Boy does it tick me off to see this type of gross violation. Don’t give me the I don’t understand the language BS either. I’m surprised a redneck local hasn’t sent a personal message to the group. OK, I know it’s better to let the law deal with this. I still say send a group home with a few whitey’s shoved up their I bet that would slow them down. I sadly wonder how many the GFP isn’t catching.

I have been fishing devils once a year for the past three years for whitebass and until this year the limit was no limit. It just changed this year and I am thinking not all of them knew about the change in the regulation. I know its there own fault they didnt read through the regs but this is getting carried away with these misleading articles. Yeah they had alot of fish but just last year the limit was as many as you could fit in your coolers. Rite? If you guys fish devil’s lake for whitebass you should know that 15 whitebass and 2 bags of ice will fill up a 50 quart cooler easily. Me and my girlfriend drive six hours to devils lake and we bring back two coolers of whitebass. Sounds like alot but it really isnt. These whitebass are giants.
We love devil’s lake and the people there. We stop by the wal-mart everytime we pass it. We gas up at the holiday maybe four times throughout our trip. Grab some KFC and tacos. The people are very friendly and helpful. It’s gonna be interesting to see how we get treated next year when we come to devil’s lake and spend hundreds of dollars in gas,bait,food,and supplies to add to your growing communities economy. Oh and dont forget the hardie’s either. Love the burgers they make there. Alot better than the ones we get here in the twin cities. But maybe next year we wont even be served? Who knows. All I know is that these articles have just made my yearly relaxing fishing vacation another stressful trip. Thanks alot guys.
Here’s a pic of my girlfriend with two walleyes she caught on devils from shore. See how happy she is. Hope I get another picture like that next year.

In reply to fishkiller, I have seen the Game and Fish this weekend going down the road north of Minnewaukan asking everybody for their liscences and not singling out any one group of people.

I attended a meeting of the Lake Region Anglers a year or so ago when a member of the Hgmong community from St Paul spoke about her cultures thoughts toward fishing and game plus the aspects of extended families and subsitsence.

White bass resemeble a fish from back home and is revered among the Hgmong here in the US.

What gets most peoples goats is that there is a belief that these are going for commercial sale and not to feed extended families. Fishing for food is still an important part of fishing. Fishing for sale is taboo.

I suspect that traveling 450 miles in new vehicles is not fishing for subsistaence but rather for pleasure. I can see the pleasure in your girlfriends face.

Personally I feel a great deal of respect for the Hgmong people for the assistance they provided the US in Viet Nam. I feel we as US citezens owe them a great deal and did them a great diservice by leaving them behind. It is about time more have an opurtunity to obtain safety and a chance for a good life in our country.

As we welcome them into our country, they will be assimilated eventually into the great melting pot as generations grow up here. Those coming over in the recent days will be shocked to see the bounty this country provides. After living in refugee camps for all their life or the crowded living condotions in SE Asia, it will be tempting exploit.

I sincerly hope that you will come back to my area. Both sides need to understand each other.

And by the way…McDonalds just re-opened after the fire from a year ago.

Fishkiller,

Ignorance is not an excuse that works for me. I learned that lesson the hard way, as apparently many of the individuals traveling to Devils Lake are. Unforturnately, the natural resoursces being wasted are paying the ultimate price.

I hope you are not treated any differently than anyone else when you travel to ND, you don’t deserve to be. I just hope the people that are stealing these resources are treated differently. The media in this state/country has a way to ticking me off quite consistently. I say write a letter to the editor of these newspapers, share your feelings.

How do you cook a white bass to make it taste good, besides smoking it?

You have to get rid of the red meat that is closest to the skin. Fry em up just like any other fish with some breading. They are pretty tasty!!

That’s what I’ve heard.

I only (mostly) eat perch.

Vacuum pack em in small one meal portions. Keep forever