The MNR stopped by my hut yesterday, some interesting things about that

[barrystrs]

I am happy with the CO's, it is the police marine unit that is intent on laying fines and harassing people. They seem disappointed if they cannot issue a ticket, and let you off with a warning even though you have done nothing wrong. They do a thorough search for alcohol and read the labels of all life jackets. In a local newspaper interview the cop said their intent is to educate and save lives, toward the end of the article he stated that they issue tickets to about 60% of the boats they stop.

Don't get me wrong, I respect the cops and appreciate their work. I understand that they have a tough job and need to protect themselves, but they need to adjust their tactics to the situation at hand. Hopefully my experiences are only from a couple of bad apples.

[lew]

Hopefully my experiences are only from a couple of bad apples.

 

Just my thoughts, but I think you may be right.

 

Over the years I've been stopped many many times by the OPP both in the Kawarthas and up north, infact they stopped me 3 times in one weekend, and I have NEVER had a bad experience with a single police officer on the water. They've always been extremely polite and friendly to me....but then again, that's the way I treat them too.

[limeyangler]

they have a job to do…but some can be real IDIOTS while doing it…this I have experienced many times, you want to treat me like a criminal from the get go….fine….but you will be taking your boots off before getting in my boat….lololol!

[Sinker]

In my case, they spent the whole day watching us from shore with a spotting scope. 3 officers.....all for nothing. Meanwhile, at the other end of lake Joe.....Get my point??

 

I've never had an issue with a CO, or OPP either, but they can be jerks sometimes for no reason. Treat me with respect, they get it in return, treat me like a criminal from the get go, I will be a jerk too. I have nothing to hide, or worry about.

 

S.

[solopaddler]

I told the tale last fall in my Windsor report, but in mid September the MNR flew into the lake while we were there. How they even knew we were there is a mystery as it wasn't supposed to be even an operating camp yet.

 

It was around 7pm in the evening when they landed. We were out fishing and drove over to see what was up.

 

There were 4 of them in the plane and although everyone looks happy in the pic, it wasn't all that pleasant of an experience. They pretty much gave us the third degree and the kicker was when he asked to check my thermos. He opened it and sniffed, then said "we have a problem".

 

He was convinced I had Bailey's in my coffee. I told him I wished it was, but it was actually French Vanilla Coffeemate (I know, I need to turn in my man card LOL!)

 

They then wanted to check our cameras to see if we had any incriminating evidencve on them.

 

All in all a most unsettling encounter and honestly the VAST majority of the sportsmen who fly into these camps are just that. Honest law abiding anglers who if nothing else are an enormous boost to the local economy.

 

The whole thing seemed to be a giant waste of tax payers money imo.

 

In general I love the MNR and what they do, but in some cases it seems common sense is lacking.

 

[limeyangler]

I heard your story before Mike…pretty awful stuff.

[woodenboater]

someone tipped the MNR on you, to what end, I have no idea…probably someone with a beef about something...

Edited March 3, 2014 by woodenboater

[BillM]

someone tipped the MNR on you, to what end, I have no idea…probably someone with a beef about something...

 

Or they read the forums like everyone else does

[MrSimon]

I've only been checked once. They were polite and professional, but seemed totally convinced we were drinking. Even after checking through everything and sniffing our water bottles multiple times, they gave us the "yeah right" attitude and even said, "so you guys just drink water out here ... that's unlikely".

 

I appreciate what they do, and I was grateful they didn't fine us for leaving our licenses back at camp. I'm sure they run into all kinds of ugly situations and deal with a lot of drunk liers ..... so I'll cut them some slack if they are a little edgy and suspicious.

[manitoubass2]

99% of my encounters with CO's are actually awesome. Very friendly, we often end up chatting and sharing some fishing info. They once interrupted a derby of ours, pretty small one, maybe 30 boats. They even let us land fis as they were inspecting boats trying not to disrupt the derby, which i thought was mighty nice. Last year while crappie fishing with a friend, we launch a tinny from his camp and went about 70 yards to our spot. Co's showed up about 20 mins later, checked our catches etc no problem. Dinged my buddy for no life jacket. His problem, i warned him before we launched. He knew he was in the wrong and accepted a pretty huge fine. i think it was $275? Then after checking my liscense he said i was legal to fish but i had a outdoors card from Alberta??? And I would need to change that asap. No idea what he was talking about lol. Its a ontario outdoors card, ontario address, ontario drivers liscense etc. confused the hell outta me. Still dont to this day. It was just weird. Still nice guys though, very nice to my son too( while he continued to land crappie after crappie through the whole visit lol)

Edited March 3, 2014 by manitoubass2

[BucktownAngler]

had a CO on simcoe get very upset that he couldnt charge us with something, and stormed off. fully ignoring us when we were making small talk with him.

 

then when he "left" he waited outside our hut listening for what we would say.

 

 

but when i report an offense...sorry 3 offenses, they are nowhere to be seen. even though they have an MNR office 20 mins away

[Dara]

I told the tale last fall in my Windsor report, but in mid September the MNR flew into the lake while we were there. How they even knew we were there is a mystery as it wasn't supposed to be even an operating camp yet.

 

It was around 7pm in the evening when they landed. We were out fishing and drove over to see what was up.

 

There were 4 of them in the plane and although everyone looks happy in the pic, it wasn't all that pleasant of an experience. They pretty much gave us the third degree and the kicker was when he asked to check my thermos. He opened it and sniffed, then said "we have a problem".

 

He was convinced I had Bailey's in my coffee. I told him I wished it was, but it was actually French Vanilla Coffeemate (I know, I need to turn in my man card LOL!)

 

They then wanted to check our cameras to see if we had any incriminating evidencve on them.

 

All in all a most unsettling encounter and honestly the VAST majority of the sportsmen who fly into these camps are just that. Honest law abiding anglers who if nothing else are an enormous boost to the local economy.

 

The whole thing seemed to be a giant waste of tax payers money imo.

 

In general I love the MNR and what they do, but in some cases it seems common sense is lacking.

 

 

 

somebody has to pay for the gas in that plane to come visit you

 

without reasonable suspicion that a law is being broken, they can't search your stuff

[bobogo]

 

 

somebody has to pay for the gas in that plane to come visit you

 

without reasonable suspicion that a law is being broken, they can't search your stuff

 

Really? I thought as long as they think you are fishing (judging by seeing you with all the gear) they can searching all your stuff including boat and car.

[bare foot wader]

 

 

without reasonable suspicion that a law is being broken, they can't search your stuff

 

I've challenged this a time or two....short version, if a figure of authority decided he wants to makes up "reasonable suspicion" then that's all he needs to do...asked an attorney through work and he said it's your credibility versus his and the cop/CO always wins

 

I have nothing to hide so as another poster said, I will quickly return the dickhead attitude favour and in the end it's always a good laugh seeing how frustrated they look when they don't find what they want

[solopaddler]

someone tipped the MNR on you, to what end, I have no idea…probably someone with a beef about something...

 

 

I doubt it.

 

They didn't fly in just to check us, they were doing a milk run of all the outpost camps in that region. We were their last stop of the day, they'd been into a dozen or more earlier.

[chris.brock]

Nah, I thinking something more to it then that. The observations kinda one directed no? I mean how was the fishing, what was best lure, was it cold that day?

no hidden agenda here,

 

the stealth tactics and the K9 unit I found interesting, I thought others might too, I was also interested in finding out if a CO can fine us for beer? maybe somebody knows about this?

 

anyways,

fishing was a little slow, no fish over the slot were entered for a 2nd straight year, I caught 1 late, just under the slot I should have kept and entered because it likely would have won some money, I lost 1 that felt like it had some weight (just a fish story now though), while the COs were there I caught and released a slot fish while we chatted

[bobogo]

a CO can't fine you for beer + fishing. But he can fine you for Beer + ATV/snowmobile

[ONbuckhunter]

A CO can fine you for open alcohol in a public place. Liquor Licence Act. Though if you are doing it without littering and have a designated driver most CO's wont charge you.

[Pikeslayer8]

I told the tale last fall in my Windsor report, but in mid September the MNR flew into the lake while we were there. How they even knew we were there is a mystery as it wasn't supposed to be even an operating camp yet.

 

It was around 7pm in the evening when they landed. We were out fishing and drove over to see what was up.

 

There were 4 of them in the plane and although everyone looks happy in the pic, it wasn't all that pleasant of an experience. They pretty much gave us the third degree and the kicker was when he asked to check my thermos. He opened it and sniffed, then said "we have a problem".

 

He was convinced I had Bailey's in my coffee. I told him I wished it was, but it was actually French Vanilla Coffeemate (I know, I need to turn in my man card LOL!)

 

They then wanted to check our cameras to see if we had any incriminating evidencve on them.

 

All in all a most unsettling encounter and honestly the VAST majority of the sportsmen who fly into these camps are just that. Honest law abiding anglers who if nothing else are an enormous boost to the local economy.

 

The whole thing seemed to be a giant waste of tax payers money imo.

 

In general I love the MNR and what they do, but in some cases it seems common sense is lacking.

 

 

 

 

 

Looks like the same guys and the same plane that checked us. The little guy that was closest to you on the pontoon was the pilot and they were interested in nothing other than alcohol. I know this because, at the time, I left mine and my boys' licenses back at camp. They just shrugged it off and said that my outfitter wouldn't of let us go without license or outdoors card.

 

Pretty expensive way to go about alcohol violations

[solopaddler]

Looks like the same guys and the same plane that checked us. The little guy that was closest to you on the pontoon was the pilot and they were interested in nothing other than alcohol. I know this because, at the time, I left mine and my boys' licenses back at camp. They just shrugged it off and said that my outfitter wouldn't of let us go without license or outdoors card.

 

Pretty expensive way to go about alcohol violations

 

 

Yep, that looks like the same plane.

Checking for licenses was the first thing they did with us LOL! Amazingly we both had them with us. Amazing because I usually always leave wallet/papers, etc, back at the cabin on these trips. They told us we were lucky, if we didn't have them on our person we'd have been ticketed.

[Terry]

welcome to my world

http://ontariofishingcommunity.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=56133&hl=abbey

 

Terry gets caught in MNR raid

I wasn't going to say anything but what the hell




at our fly-in camp/lake we got caught in a MNR raid

well maybe not caught but caught-up in a raid





we got back in one night about 930 pm

I was just getting out of the boat and my buddy was just off the dock

2 guys came at us out of the bush dressed in normal street clothes , I could not hear what they were saying but the were come at us very aggressively

I didn't know what was going on but it seemed bad/dangerous .I had a machete on the dock and went or it.....I think I could hear dueling banjos...LOL

at that point I could hear them and realized that they were saying "MNR" and one of them was holding his badge out.
they were not in uniforms

they checked our licenses and fridge and checked all our cameras ..they were hoping to see pictures of stringers of fish over our limit.......

of course everything about us was 100% legal



they hid their boat and hid in the bush so we wouldn't throw all the illegal stuff out of the boat if we saw them waiting for us
we had not kept a single fish..they found it hard to believe.. we asked how they got into the lake but refused to talk about it

now the second part of what I didn't like.....they boated into our lake from a logging road.....

so much for a fly-in.........

seems they sat at the camp for hours waiting for us to turn
I am told that that the public does not have access to these old logging roads..but still I pay to fly and the boat in....doesn't make me happy


it was real dark when they left and raining pretty hard as the left the camp...they made us feel better that they would have a miserable trip back...LOL

[Steve]

police marine unit are trouble.

 

pure trouble.

 

they make up laws.

 

they enforce laws that aren't even law.

 

they are a joke.

 

that's all i'm going to say about that.

[ONbuckhunter]

I hear ya. I almost had a marine unit run right into my boat. He came flying in to my left and realized there was a shoal right there that I was moving by to fish. He veered around it to miss rocks and damn near hit me. I gave him shyt. lol. Told him he should right off his boat on the rocks before endangering me and my bass boat. I obviously had all my gear on board and was totally legal. I informed him that endangering the public just for a potential torn lifejacket fine is pathetic. He agreed and left very embarrassed. lol. I know the local CO's around here and they have been really good to me. I have ran into others that are brutal. I graduated form the course and decided I'd venture into a different investigative field and it was a smart move.

[Steve]

but did you get threatened by them for not having a Lake Ontario map?

 

or better yet, when you challenge them to determine if you have "sufficient knowledge" they make up the name of a point, and when you look at them with a confused look on your face, you get told "see, if you had sufficient knowledge you'd know that landmark doesn't exist".....say what??!!

 

or when i ask them for a second question, after their first one was pure bogus, they ask me what the pattern of the flashing lights on shell pier means?

 

i was fishing solo and lost it on them...

 

i almost got arrested over the issue.

 

the next time i got checked, one of the guys in the boat recognized me from the last harassing. however, he apologized for his retarded co worker and just let me go on my way....

 

so you can tell its a few bad apples...unfortunately in the marine police case, the bad apples are the senior ones, and the rest of the guys won't step up.

 

at the last sportsman show, the opp had a booth there. i asked them what the pattern of lights were on the shell pier and they just laughed....asking my why I'm asking them....i told them the story and both of the booth attendants looked at each other a muttered a name....guess the winner is the senior officer for the marine unit out of Hamilton/Bronte.

[Big Cliff]

Good apples/bad apples

 

Good Fisherpersons/bad Fisherpersons

 

Good Cos/bad Cos

 

Can you tell which is which until you check them out?

 

If you are good and get checked by a good Co, no problem!

If you are good and get checked by a bad Co there shouldn't be a problem!

If you are bad and get checked by either you deserve to have a problem!

 

One of my very close friends when I lived up in French River was a Co, you wouldn't believe some of the bull poop they have to contend with. At the end of a very long day of trying to chase down poachers, figure out who is telling you the truth and who is just a very good liar I don't doubt that some of them get very frustrated and sometimes they don't always react as we would like.

 

I sure wouldn't want their job! Dambed if you do, dambed if you don't!