Behind the Badge - Fishing While Under the Influence
Fishing While Under the Influence
District Game Warden Corey Erck
It’s estimated that some years North Dakota sees 25% of its fishing effort on the ice.
This makes for a lot of ice fishing activity, and over time I have spent hours driving pickups, ATVs, and snowmobiles across many different lakes around the southeastern part of the state.
And it’s no surprise when a lot people are involved in an activity that there will be a small number involved in illegal drug use.
What follows are a couple of those stories from the past, one of which has a humorous ending and one that ended up being a large drug bust on the ice.
The first incident started when I walked up to a fish house and knocked on the door.
When the young man inside opened the door the odor of marijuana smoke was immediate and strong.
I asked about the marijuana smell, and he admitted that he had been smoking and handed me a still warm pipe.
He was very cooperative, even though he had a warrant for his arrest and was headed to jail.
While I was booking him into jail, one of the correctional officers was asking him a series of questions as part of the booking process.
One of the questions was about the last time he had used marijuana, and he looked at me and asked, “What time did you get to my fish house?” The correctional officer and I could not help but laugh out loud at his question.
Another drug-related incident started out in a similar way.
I was patrolling solo, checking ice fishing activity.
This time I was in the middle of very large lake, and I spotted a fish house a long way from the other anglers.
I drove my pickup over to the house and about the time I stopped and got out, the three occupants came boiling out, which struck me as a bit odd.
I chatted with them and checked their fishing licenses, the whole time wondering why they came out of the shack like they did.
I really wanted to see what was inside, so I asked if I could go in and count how many lines they had down in the house.
They granted me permission and when I got inside, I could smell burnt marijuana.
Now, I was by myself and outnumbered three to one and a long distance from any help, so I did what I thought was prudent and called for some help.
A short time later I met two deputies at the landing.
I knew the three occupants of the shack were still on the lake fishing because they would have had to have left by the same landing.
It had gotten dark and we drove onto the lake to where the three men were fishing.
I went up to the shack and asked them to step out.
They were a bit surprised when they saw three officers standing there.
They were asked about marijuana and at first denied they had any.
Before long we found marijuana, marijuana pipes and nine grams of methamphetamine.
What started as simple ice fishing check turned into arrests for drug possession and felony drug distribution.