I grew up in Virginia, and only got checked by the GW once while fishing.  It was the day before my High School graduation and I took a foreign exchange student fishing for the first time.  The GW approached us and asked to see our licenses.  I showed him my license, but my friend just sat there and gave the GW a blank look.  When the GW found out she didn't have a license, he started to write her a ticket, but I explained that she would be leaving the country the next day.  He put his ticket book away, laughed about it, and told us to keep fishing and enjoy ourselves.

I had never had my license checked until 2006.  I guess I never fit the bill.

Friend and I were out on the lake, I see a certain brand of boat go by in the main channel.  Having just spent the previous weekend fishing with one of the local GW's and talking about their patrol boats, I instantly knew it was them.  I think he may have recognized us and decided to chat. 

That would have been fine had there not been another GW in the boat with him.  So we had to show our licenses.  Had I known the demeanor of the other GW, I probably would have thrown a fit about how I didn't need a license.

I've been fishing for 28 years (needed a license for 17 of those years) and I've only had my license checked twice.  The above incident and once on another lake last summer.  Hell, there were a few times when my friend was patrolling that I would offer my license and he wouldn't even check it.

I met two Conservation Police yesterday while fishing at Briery Creek Lake. Both were friendly and courteous.

I thanked them for taking care of the lake and it's users.

I've had numerous encounters with wardens in VA. Each and every one was polite and professional.

My first experience was hunting geese. It was the early goose season and this was about my second hunting trip ever. I didn't own a single piece of hunting clothing. We were hunting in shorts, flip flops, and t-shirts. We were in an old run down blind that is never grassed up or used (there are no blind licenses west of I95). Anyway, I'm talking with the guy who is kinda showing me the hunting ropes when "poof" a warden was standing in the door to the blind. I was amazed how he materialized out of nowhere. So he checks our licenses, checks to make sure we're shooting steel and checks to make sure our guns only hold three shells. We checked out fine and the guy laughs and said, "I was certain you two were up to no good, you just didn't look like hunters...I guess you never know". He chats with us for a few minutes and told us to enjoy our hunt. Nice guy.

Second time I was hunting wood ducks with a friend. I got my limit but my friend was one short. He had knocked a bird down but we couldn't find it. After dragging our canoe back to the truck he heard a bird back on the beaver pond. Not one to end a day short a bird if he could help it he said he was going to walk back the 100 yds to the pond and try to jump shoot it. He took about four steps into the woods and BANG. I thought he just wanted to say he missed and avoid the walk all the way back to the pond. About 15 seconds later he walks out of the woods holding a flapping wood duck. I almost fell off the tailgate of the truck I was laughing so hard. He had stumbled across the bird he had knocked down. Anyhow, a game warden walks up and wants to know whats so funny. We told him the story and he laughs and says he figured the way we were whooping it up that we must have been drunk and were surely way back here in the woods taking more than our limit. He checks us out and again everything is fine. He hung around and told stories with us for about twenty minutes and told us to have a good day. Again a nice guy.

Adding to those encounters, I have to attend a special briefing every year because I hunt in secure areas on a military base. There is a warden there every year. He always takes time after the meeting to talk with anyone who wants to talk. Since he is out in the field all the time he routinely tells me where he's been seeing birds and he's not blowing smoke...I've taken his advice several times and found birds.

This is from Cayuga Lake in NY.

We are fishing a tourney it turns out to be around noon or so. Quitting time is 2. Anyhow, up pulls the fish warden and sheriff...they share boats up there. The warden does the safety insp. No probs. Now he wants to check me personally. Lic. is good (this was a non resident seasonal). Now he says how many fish you got? I told him a limit. And your still fishing???!!!! he screamed. I told him a tourney limit is 1 less than the state limit...I posess 5, am allowed by state law 6 . Now he says, hand them over into my boat so I can check them for length. I looked over the boat into the water and said NO WAY! He looked at me really ticked and said what? I told him last year I lost a tourney cause I pulled a fish out to re-dink, and he flopped out of the boat...I lossed by 2 oz. I told him you wanna dink them you crawl in here and dink them ON THE FLOOR! He said, just open the lid so I can, look in. He looked in, he said fish. I told him the smallest one was 14 1/2. He agreed. Now on to the guy in the front of the boat, Tom.

Now 10 minutes has passed that we haven't been fishing, and I'm getting irked. I can win this thing with one more good bite.

I said to the warden, can't you leave us alone we are good honest tournament fishermen, we can't cheat or we would be DQed. By this time he has Tom's lic out. He bought a 2 day non resident. He never filled out the days it was good for! I'm like you gotta be kinding me (his idea was to not fill it out and maybe sneak it for the next weekend). Turns out that it is not the buyers responsiblity to fill it out, but the sellers. So we get off with nothing. The warden took down all the info from the lic.

Now here's the kicker. The next year Tom goes to the same store to buy his lic. Turns out the Fish and Game pulled his permit to sell. The owner says last year I let some guy fill out his own dates on a 2 day lic. and he left them blank. I lost my permit and got find. If I ever see that SOB again I'll kill him.

Exit Tom in a hurry!

By the way I won that tourney.

;D ;D

This is from South Carolina.

Me and a buddy were fishing a small state-run lake and on our way to the ramp one afternoon we were flagged down by two game wardens on the bank. On our way over there, we recognize who they were. One of them is a good buddy of ours, who happens to be a neighbor of mine, while the other is a peckerhead with an attitude problem. Well the good game warden knew our boat and lisc. would all check out and be in order, but the peckerhead wanted to check us, so we obliged. Well everything was in order until he asked for our whistle. In SC, every boat must have a boat horn or a whistle. Our whistle was stuck between the the side of the boat and another piece of metal on the boat. He said if we couldnt produce an accessible whistle then we could get fined. After that my buddy nonchallantly put his lips together and started whistling. Me and the nicer game warden almost keeled over from laughing so hard. The peckerhead warden went and sat in the truck after that, while we chatted with the nicer game warden. It still brings a smile to my face everytime I think about it. 

I grew up across the street from, and was practically raised by a Chief Conservation Officer. Long retired now. If I had a nickle for every story, and every lesson passed on by this man....

He's a long time, champion Turkey caller, and sitting around listining to the turkey tales, and listening to him call on the back porch is still one of my favorite things. He's getting old now, losing his memory a bit, gets winded easy and his legs arent what they used to be. I took him to the woods today, looking and listening for ole tom, and you could see him light up. I was a little worried about getting him off in the woods, but he nearly walked me to death. We spent two hours wandering around and I broke a sweat. He was listening and looking for sign, and getting excited about fresh tracks, it was cool. I'm taking him back next week (season opens Monday, whoo hoo) and see if we can bag him. He told me today that he wants to call one more to him, and I hope I'm there when he does. This man dedicated his entire life to conservation and protecting our wildlife, as well as our rights to get out and enjoy it like it was meant to be. God Bless him and those like him.

I had never had my license checked until 2006. I guess I never fit the bill.

Friend and I were out on the lake, I see a certain brand of boat go by in the main channel. Having just spent the previous weekend fishing with one of the local GW's and talking about their patrol boats, I instantly knew it was them. I think he may have recognized us and decided to chat.

That would have been fine had there not been another GW in the boat with him. So we had to show our licenses. Had I known the demeanor of the other GW, I probably would have thrown a fit about how I didn't need a license.

I've been fishing for 28 years (needed a license for 17 of those years) and I've only had my license checked twice. The above incident and once on another lake last summer. Hell, there were a few times when my friend was patrolling that I would offer my license and he wouldn't even check it.

He checked my license once right before I started dating my wife.  After that he would just spook me while trout fishing.  I've never been checked while hunting and only that one time while fishing.

Bountyhunter - That is awesome!