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[chris gadsden]

Will it be a hot summer on the Fraser once again?

Fish fight turns ugly
Published: July 10, 2008 6:00 PM A fisherman is facing an assault charge after pulling a knife on a group of tourists fishing off Ferry Island Wednesday.

Police say four tourists with a river guide were sport fishing off Ferry Island at about 1:50 p.m. when their fishing lines got tangled with a drift net coming down the Fraser River.

The fisherman got into a “verbal altercation” with the tourists, and then beached his boat and approached the group of tourists, who were fishing from the shore.

“The verbal altercation escalated to the point where the male suspect produced a knife and uttered threats to harm the tourists,” Const. Lea-Anne Dunlop said.

“It does not appear there was any intent to disrupt the drift netting on the river,” she said, “and this is a clear situation that did not need to escalate to violence to be resolved.”

The 34-year-old suspect was arrested without incident by Agassiz RCMP officers and released on a promise to appear in provincial court at a later date to face charges of assault with a weapon and uttering threats.

[adriaticum]

Yeeeehhhaaaaah!!!

[troutbreath]

Did the guy have any cheap Socks for sale.

[Athezone]

Thats Insane Chris. It reminds me of that knifing a few years back at the Scale Bar. Total BS. and there is no place on our waters (Yes, Our waters) for this type of behaviour. That fellow is real lucky that it was just some easy going tourists and not some one that would'nt put up with his crap. I know the boys I hang with would of laughed at this nut-job and then beat him to a pulp, plus both hands. Oh well, nuff said during family viewing hours. I sure hope it all remains coool at the waters edge this long hot summer and yes. Finally its hot and the weathers here to stay. Good Fishing All.  

[Geff_t]

Here is the whole article.

From CBC.ca:

Four European tourists sport fishing on the Fraser River in Agassiz, B.C., got more than they bargained for this week when they were confronted by an angry man wielding a knife, CBC News learned through an online fishing forum.

The tourists — three from Germany and one from Denmark — were fishing with a river guide on the shore of Ferry Island on Wednesday afternoon, the first day of their vacation, when their fishing lines got tangled in a drift net that was coming down the river with a fishing boat.

Chilliwack RCMP Const. Leanne Dunlop said the man was intoxicated and took issue with the fact that the tourists were fishing on the river.

Originally police said in a written statement that "the male drifting down the river with a drift net engaged in a verbal altercation with the tourist," but Dunlop later clarified that the tourists did nothing to provoke the incident.

"That person in that boat beached his boat and an altercation [between] the tourist and the male escalated to the point where a knife was produced and threats were uttered."

The fishing guide eventually persuaded the angry fisherman to get back in his boat without hurting anyone.

A 34-year -old man from the Sto:lo nation was later arrested and released by police. The unidentified man is scheduled to appear in Chilliwack Provincial Court at a later date to face charges of assault with a weapon and uttering threats.

The RCMP said incident does not appear to have anything to do with the ongoing tensions between native and non-native fishermen over access to the declining number of fish in the Fraser River.

"This particular incident doesn't appear early indications to be at all directly related to any of the history with the Fraser Valley region or with fishing. It appears at this time in our investigation … we're dealing with an individual who took exception to the fact that some fishing lines got tangled in his net," said Dunlop.


 Wow what happened to the charge of being intoxicated in a public place, operating a boat while intoxicated or are there different laws for different people. I bet this guy only gets a suspended sentence as I am sure his attorny will say because of the way he was raised it is not his fault and the crown will agree. They will issue him a public apology and ask him to forgive them for dragging him to court.

[Steelhawk]

No doublt. That is not the way to treat our royal visitors coming over to spend $$$. They will soon find out who really owns the Fraser and that will be the end of fishing vacation by tourists to the Fraser Valley.  Besides facing low return of fish, the tourists have to compete with drift nets and possible violence. There are better places to spend their big vacation $$$ for sure and they are not that dumb. 

Talking about getting spoiled by our government, why the heck drift nets are allowed at a time when DFO are limiting us to 77cm due to shortage of fish. If that is not raping the river of every salmon, I don't know what is. 

[fyrslyer]

Talking about getting spoiled by our government, why the heck drift nets are allowed at a time when DFO are limiting us to 77cm due to shortage of fish. If that is not raping the river of every salmon, I don't know what is. 
[/quote]

Because they are indians who are drift netting, and can get away with it plain and simple.

[johnny]

Will it be a hot summer on the Fraser once again?

Fish fight turns ugly
Published: July 10, 2008 6:00 PM A fisherman is facing an assault charge after pulling a knife on a group of tourists fishing off Ferry Island Wednesday.

Police say four tourists with a river guide were sport fishing off Ferry Island at about 1:50 p.m. when their fishing lines got tangled with a drift net coming down the Fraser River.

The fisherman got into a “verbal altercation” with the tourists, and then beached his boat and approached the group of tourists, who were fishing from the shore.

“The verbal altercation escalated to the point where the male suspect produced a knife and uttered threats to harm the tourists,” Const. Lea-Anne Dunlop said.

“It does not appear there was any intent to disrupt the drift netting on the river,” she said, “and this is a clear situation that did not need to escalate to violence to be resolved.”

The 34-year-old suspect was arrested without incident by Agassiz RCMP officers and released on a promise to appear in provincial court at a later date to face charges of assault with a weapon and uttering threats.

This article is a blatant LIE! It isn't at ALL what happened, and will be pursued to have corrected. There was NO atercation verbal or otherwise. This guy ATTACKED these people 100% UNPROVOKED. As a matter of FACT the first guy that was attacked(the blade LITERALLY put to his throat!!) does NOT speak english at ALL! It likely is what saved his life as he had NO response to the guy who seemed to be begging for a reason to follow through with the threats...

Of course they spin it to play down the realty of the situation... extremely frustrating to say the least.

[armytruck]

I had the same altercation with the same guy a couple of days prior to this one on Ferry . He did the same thing , drifted down right in front of us and into a couple guys lines down below me . He pulled his net back in the boat , ran back up close to me and uttered threats to me that he was going to come over and beat the $....t outta me . I said a few kind words and he took off . After about a half hour I saw him coming back I thought  , here we go again , but then he turned to the inside channel and away from all of us . On another note , over this last weekend my buddy and I fished up and down the upper Fraser had a few bumps , probably sockeye bumping the line    but nothing in 2 days trying . Talked to others at Gill Rd. launch but nothing to report, We watch FN doing there sets and seen them get a couple sockeye and 1 spring for 8 sets .

[GoldHammeredCroc]

FN openings for Chinook every saturday and sunday in the lower river might have something to do with it.   

[hue-nut]

The FN guys that i've run into on the river have all been pretty nice, mind you I did not get tangled up with them.

[younggun]

for the most part the first nations have always stayed to the opposite side of the river, they understand that the fishermen congregate to specific spots and that they have the rest of the river to fish.