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Devils Lake, N.D., Game Warden Urges Restraint Against Hmong Fishermen

Posted on: Monday, 18 July 2005, 21:00 CDT

Jul. 17--A Devils Lake game warden is asking the public to resist calling authorities every time they see a group of Hmong anglers fishing the big lake.

Members of the southeast Asian ethnic group, mostly from the Twin Cities, have frequented Devils Lake in recent years for the white bass fishing. They've been under close scrutiny by some people in the Lake Region since last summer, when wardens ticketed several Hmong anglers for keeping too many white bass.

Before last summer, there was no limit on white bass in North Dakota, but regulations that took effect in 2004 limit anglers to 35 daily and 175 in possession.

"With the southeast Asians, everybody calls if they see them even catch a fish," said Chris Knutson, district game warden for the North Dakota Game and Fish Department in Devils Lake. "We don't want to see that. It takes away from our regular duties. There has to be a substantial reason for a call. We don't want to deter people from calling, but we want them to have good information.

"When you look at the (white bass) limit, they can catch lots of fish."

The most recent incident occurred July 8, when Knutson ticketed four Hmong anglers for possessing 334 white bass -- 54 more than they were allowed for two days of fishing. An informed complaint to the state's "Report All Poaching" hot line led Knutson to the anglers.

Knutson let the four anglers keep their legal limit of 280 fish after seizing their fishing licenses, a cooler and the 54 surplus white bass as evidence. Court appearances are pending. The anglers had purchased their three-day fishing licenses only the previous day, he said, so the most white bass they could legally possess was 280. They would have had to be fishing five days to legally keep the full possession limit of 175 white bass each, he said.

Good walleye fishing this summer also has resulted in anglers occasionally keeping too many fish, Knutson said. The most common violations involve people keeping one or two walleyes too many.

"There've been a few of those," Knutson said. "Last year was quite bad for that, too."

Not surprising, perhaps, considering frying pan-sized walleyes have been so easy to catch this summer.

"There's a lot of the small 12- to 14-inch walleyes," Knutson said. "It's crazy, you can go out and catch 50 to 100 of them in an afternoon."

According to Knutson, that tempts some anglers to "double dip" by catching a limit of fish, returning to shore to unload the catch and heading back out for a second limit of fish the same day.

"We're hearing some concerns from people, and we're keeping an eye out for that," he said. "It's turning out to be a busy summer."

On a lake the size of Devils, there's no doubt that good information from the public is a big help for wardens to enforce game and fish laws, Knutson says.

"That's the bad part about Devils Lake," he said. "You can't be in every area at once."

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Copyright (c) 2005, Grand Forks Herald, N.D.

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Source: Grand Forks Herald (Grand Forks, N.D.)

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