New State record

[BBQBluesMan]

If he confessed it would be nice to know.

I don't think there was a confession by the sounds of it...

https://bismarcktribune.com/news/lo...7a20191e5.html#tracking-source=home-top-story

Volk disputes the department's "unfortunate" finding and has consulted his attorney "for an appeal process of some sort," but can find nothing in administrative code, rules or law to appeal the conclusion by Game and Fish.

He maintains the fish was caught by the mouth and cited evidence for his side. "There's a hole in the mouth of the fish," Volk said. "There's string burn on the side of the fish's cheek. There is no indication of any damage to the body of the fish."

He said he's disappointed from the official finding and added he hopes for witness statements to come forward to bolster his claim.

 

[Walleye_Chaser]

Really....

 

[Allen]

This story would make a fantastic ND Game and Fish version of "C'Mon Man"

Maybe a good addition to the poacher's trailer of deer mounts that make it to the sports shows?

I too am curious as to the level of evidence, it would seem a fish that large being dragged in sideways would cause a wound that might be easily discernable to the trained eye. But the thought of one eventually coming clean is probably the better reason. Of course, if'n I had caught it legally i'd also be the first to come out with how I was being robbed of my catch.

Anyway, don't know the fella, I wasn't there, and since my odds of actually catching a 16 lb 10 oz fish are nearly identical to me catching a 15 lb 14 oz fish, I'm not going to lose much sleep over this.

By the way, I did just run across this and it does sound like he's standing by his catch being legit and the record was denied mostly because of "witnesses" and not physical evidence:
[FONT=Verdana,Arial,Tahoma,Calibri,Geneva,sans-serif]https://bismarcktribune.com/news/local/bismarck/north-dakota-game-and-fish-rejects-lincoln-man-s-walleye/article_e9fee708-f800-5c10-9453-4e57a20191e5.html[/FONT]

 

[Rowdie]

I wasn't there, but I will say this. If I were TRYING to snag a fish, the last thing I'd use is a jig. I'd use something with a hook pointed down, and maybe a treble hook. A big musky crank maybe. I'd like to know what the "evidence" was. Hopefully it wasn't the one crappy video I seen.

 

[deleted member]

not going to be to judgy about this either. as someone pointed out, i too would think there would be a good old snag wound in a fish this size if he snagged it and dragged it in over a long fight in current. a pronounced hole where the hook was should be a given. no?

 

[MuleyMadness]

I stuck up for him until i heard answers and now after reading everything i still feel there really isn't a good answer. What bothers me the most is that they concluded he did snag it and overturned the state record but did not do anything about keeping a foul hooked fish. Keeping a foul hooked fish is against the law. Why would they not doing anything about it as per the article above? I guess if I was the game and fish person in charge and had 100% evidence that it was snagged I would take away the record, fine him and confiscated the fish to prove a point to everyone else. From what they did it almost tells me that their evidence was just bystanders and that horrible video. It still just seems very odd to me.

 

[Allen]

The beauty of all this is that after a mere 12 months of having an undisputed record walleye, we are now back to having a record with an asterisk. That asterisk being one of "a guy claims to have legitimately caught a fish nearly 3/4 of a pound larger, but there was enough bitching and moaning from the others at the local snagging hole to where we won't recognize it as a legal catch. However, there isn't enough evidence to prosecute the fella for having kept an illegitimately caught fish, so he gets to keep it".

That's a whole bucket of awesome right there.

 

[ndlongshot]

Should be all or nothing. He either caught illegally, and its proven and he loses the fish + fines....

OR, it all stands as legit.

I dont like this gray area, BS.

 

[Obi-Wan]

The new norm is prove your innocence

 

[njsimonson]

I did an article with Bob Timian (Head Warden) of G&F and Tom Volk (the angler) today, it was good to get both perspectives. The G&F side was concrete that it can't be the record, and it seemed Volk doesn't really want it to be anymore even though he says he can prove the catch was legit, and just wants a better verification process going forward.

https://dakotaedge.com/2019/05/13/w...s-foul-hooked-angler-adamant-catch-was-legal/

 

[guywhofishes]

I’m with others - the inconclusive ending is dumb

 

[SDMF]

The new norm is prove your innocence

That's been my view of this whole ordeal as well.

 

[Captain Ahab]

Well, this is wonky.

 

[Bed Wetter]

Here’s how I think it went down:

Even if they didn't have clear video evidence, they talk to his deputy buddy who was a witness. "We have video of the fish being caught. You made a sworn statement that it was mouth hooked. If you're lying to us, you can't serve as a credible witness when you arrest someone, which will get prior, current, and future criminal cases that you’ve been involved in thrown out. Your law enforcement career will be over. You're sure it wasn't snagged?"

So now the deputy, afraid he’s going to lose his livelihood convinces himself maybe he didn’t really see what he saw when he netted snagzilla and “retracts” his original statement. So now all we have is hearsay and witnesses who say “it looked snagged.” Trying to salvage their credibility, G&F says, “the old record stands” because they don’t want decades of speculation and a tainted record. However, they don’t have evidence to charge the guy with keeping an illegally taken walleye, which is the only reason why they couldn’t confiscate it.

This truly is bullshit. I think he should keep the fish AND the record unless they have enough to prove in court that it was illegally taken.

 

[frozen4sioux]

16.9*
Thats the record I recognize.

 

[pointer]

But still wasn't the 60 year old record walleye found dead and netted, but still counted, just saying

 

[Kentucky Windage]

This is why I pass up every state record fish I’m about to catch. You know, so I don’t have to worry about times like these.

 

[guywhofishes]

sounds like they have multiple first hand witnesses who say they saw it was snagged

unless the witnesses are felons or some such, it sounds like NDGF would do pretty well in court

 

[drayweb]

It doesn't count.

https://bismarcktribune.com/news/lo...7a20191e5.html#tracking-source=home-top-story

 

[shorthairsrus]

From what i heard ---- is that Ahab is planning a big trip to the heart next spring ----- Stay tuned!!!!