Hi everyone,

Try not to get sick after you read this.

13 fishermen arrested, 2,238 fish seized on the Flowage
by Kathy Hanson
Staff reporter
Published: Tuesday, May 25, 2010 12:24 PM CDT
Sawyer County Conservation Warden Sue Miller, Conservation Warden Tom Heisler from Winter and Flowage Ranger Roy Zubrod arrested13 adult males and seized 2,238 fish on Friday, May 21 on the Chippewa Flowage, after two complaints were called in on late Wednesday and Friday. The complaint received on Wednesday came in on the anonymous/confidential hotline for overbagging. The other complaint received on Friday was regarding keeping bass, Miller said.

“We went out Wednesday but they (the men) were already in,” said Miller, who then said that “on Friday we worked these guys all day.”

The investigation is ongoing and details and names will not be released until next week, Miller said, but they arrested five men at one resort and another eight at a second resort. There were three groups, all from associated Baptist churches in the Milwaukee area. All have been coming up here for over 26 years, Miller said, and have allegedly been “grossly overbagging” for the same number of years, she added. The men had been fishing for a period of five to six days. Most of the fish were crappies; a handful were perch; some were bluegills; and there were six bass, Miller said. 750 of the seized fish had not been filleted, so they were taken to Whiskey Ridge for processing.

“Some of them (men) kind of knew the rules,” Miller said. She added said that some of them thought they could bag up to 30 crappies per day, instead of the 15 daily bag limit. None of them seemed to be aware that at any given time or moment, a maximum of 30 crappies in possession is the law, she said.

The 13 men were all part of a larger group who, upon being tipped off that they were under investigation, left the area, Miller hypothesized. Miller suspects that they left with far more fish than the 2,238, but she has two names so is following up on those.

The men were very cooperative and pleasant, according to Miller. “When it comes to natural resources people have different outlooks—they don’t compare it to breaking into someone’s home,” she said.

The fish will be held for court purposes. Typically, the DNR hosts fish frys for the nursing homes and the Relay for Life American Cancer benefit, normally not more than two or three such events per year. “With this amount of fish, we’ll do a lot of them, unfortunately,” she said.

Wisconsin’s DNR Violation Hotline program provides people with the opportunity to confidentially and/or anonymously report susupected violations using the 24-hour operated toll free number 1-800-TIP-WDNR (1-800-847-9367).

I hope they throw the book at'em. People who wantingly violate, steal from us all. And a church group!!!!

Congrats to warden Sue Miller, and a big THANK YOU. You have earned my respect.

Walleyemaxx