Behind the Badge - Skills
Skills
District Game Warden Corey Erck
I was recently reminded by one of my fellow Game Wardens that not all the knowledge, skills and abilities employed by game wardens can be taught. Some can only be gained through experience.
The ability to recognize undersized fish is one example.
I started working as a game warden in Barnes and Stutsman counties.
Several of the lakes had a minimum size of 14 inches for walleye.
When another game warden had first started working, he was amazed at how I and other experienced wardens could look at walleyes and immediately recognize that a fish was undersized.
Having looked at perhaps thousands of walleyes a 13.5-inch walleye would immediately catch your eye.
It’s an ability that helps save time by not having to measure dozens of fish in a day and only measuring the ones that you were quite confident were undersized.
It was something I had taken for granted and had not thought about until it was pointed out.
Having given it some thought, the ability to pick out undersized fish is not something I would be able to articulate very well, and it certainly could not be taught in a classroom.
Now my fellow game warden will say after having worked for several years and having looked at hundreds of walleyes that ability comes quite naturally.