Took some time off work yesterday to throw some hooks in the water. I went to the spot on Wingra creek where I've caught northern and largemouth in the past. I had some worms I wanted to use up, and the bluegills were happy to help out.
While I was down there, two game wardens pulled up and came over to check my fishing license. One of the guys read it over several times, and then asked for my ID. I gave him my IL drivers license. He frowned at that, and asked me if I had a 2nd ID for verification. I gave him my university ID. He looked back and forth at the two pictures several times and then read my fishing license again. Then he looked back to the road and asked if that was my car. Yeeeess...? He asked my why I was fishing down here. I told him I was catching bluegills. He said, why aren't you up at the lake with everyone else? I told him there were plenty of fish here. At this point, a car load of black guys went by, and one of them yelled out the window, "hey you still harrassing people???" and drove off. He frowned at them, turned back and frowned at me, and asked if they were friends of mine. I was laughing at this point and told him no. I think the only reason he left then was because he was so frustrated. I have no idea why!
I saw a northern going after bluegill in the weeds, but by the time I got my gear ready he was gone. It was pretty cool seeing him in attack mode!
I gave up there and drove over to Lake Monona to get away from the weeds and fish some deeper water. It was a nice day still, but the water was cloudy with dead plant matter and the action was slow. I did end up catching one largemouth, at 14.5".
3 weeks ago
5 comments:
Nice largemouth!
What the heck was that game warden's problem? That's public ground. You can fish there if you want. What an ass.
My guess was the IL drivers license and IL plates on my car. They didn't like it when I bought my fishing license either, but I showed them university mail that had my Madison address on it and they let me buy an in-state license.
Or perhaps he was just an ass. :)
That could be. Many of them don't like flatlanders under any circumstances. Maybe they regard all of that Chicagoland traffic up to their lakes on weekends as an intrusion.
they are jealous!..fantastic catch dude
Didn't you know that badge give him the right to be an (b)ass. Nice bass Ben. I don't know about where you are but when I lived in WA the fish wardens carried guns. One actually pull his on me to check my license, then left in a huff cause I was legal. Here in Fiji, no wardens no license just fish.
Cheers
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