Behind the Badge
Pushing the Limit
District Game Warden Riley Gerding
Growing up in North Dakota, I have always enjoyed fishing with my dad and grandpa.
I have fished in a wide variety of lakes that our great state has to offer.
Because of this, checking fisherman to see what they’ve caught is one of my favorite parts of being a game warden.
One of the ways to check fishermen is to go on boat patrol.
Boat patrol is an effective way to check fishermen while they are fishing and especially if there are multiple boat ramps on one lake.
One day on Lake Sakakawea, another warden and I were on boat patrol checking people fishing in boats.
While driving down the lake we saw a fishing boat that did not have an aquatic nuisance species sticker.
This sticker is required for all out of state registered boats.
I pulled up to the boat to talk to the owner about not having an ANS sticker on his boat.
While I was doing that the other warden was checking the licenses of the two individuals that were in the boat fishing.
Their licenses were valid and there was just one last thing to check, the number of fish the anglers caught.
The fishermen were asked how many fish they had in the livewell.
One of them responded with, “we are close to our limit of walleye.” With that being said, I was thinking maybe they were one or two fish under their limit of 10 total between the two of them.
To my surprise they started to take the walleye out of their well and it kept going, and going, and going.
Finally, they stopped with 20 total walleye.
That’s double the amount they are allowed to keep.
After talking to the fishermen, we learned that the driver of the boat had two more people with him that were in another boat.
So, the other warden and I went to where they were camping to see if they had too many fish in their possession also.
Between the four of the fishermen, they did not have an over possession but were at the limit.
We then checked the two other fisherman’s fishing licenses.
As it turned out the other fishermen did not have valid fishing licenses, another violation.
In the end, 20 walleyes were seized and citations were given out to each of the fishermen in the group.
Anglers need to remember that catch limits are set for a reason.
They help reduce the chance of overfishing.
For all of us that enjoy the sport of fishing, it is important to follow the legal rules that have been established to make certain we can all enjoy fishing in our great North Dakota waterways for years to come.