Behind the Badge - Stories from the Field

Stories from the Field

District Game Warden Ken Skuza

In the mid 90’s I was stationed at Kenmare and I remember getting a call about deer depredation east of the Grano bridge.

Enroute to the caller’s location, I crossed Upper Souris NWR at the Grano crossing.

At the time, the staff of the Upper Souris NWR had been furloughed due to federal budget problems.

I noticed a white fish house just south and east of the Grano Bridge.

There was a pickup parked next to it.

I stopped, walked up to the fish house, knocked and announced who I was.

A male opened the door and I could see another male inside.

I introduced myself and asked if they were fishing.

The male that opened the door said come on in, then asked me why I was out there, stating “aren’t you guys on furlough?” I explained to the two males I was a state game warden and not a federal game warden.

While I was talking to the men, I could see several northern pike (the daily limit at that time was three northern pike per person).

Some were filleted, others were whole fish.

The male that opened the door looked at me and said, “you aren’t supposed to be here, we thought all you guys were off.” I asked the male “how many northern pike they had?” The male said “I think we have about 25.” After counting them it came to 27.

The fish were seized, and citations were issued.

Again, on Upper Souris NWR (Lake Darling), I was sitting next to my fish house watching people fish.

I remember it was a Saturday and lots of people were out ice fishing.

I focused on one male who was catching northern pike just about as fast as he could get his line in the water.

I watched him catch his three fish limit.

He then picked them all up and dug a hole in a snowbank not far from his pickup.

He filled the hole back up with snow and began fishing again.

I watched him catch three more northern pike, which he placed in a five gallon bucket.

The male packed up his gear and drove off Lake Darling.