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[dennisK]

That's a tough one in my mind.....   If I don't buy a license and keep fishing I'm breaking the law. If I don't buy a license and stop fishing what do I do? ...play golf?? 

Well technically I never said to fish without a license

[chris gadsden]

Personally  I think a justifiable protest is for all sport fisherman stop buying licenses. We create a legal pool fund of maybe $10 each amongst us and use it to pay the fines. Statistically we'd be ahead imo.

We do this to protest the complete mess the fisheries are in and appalling unbalanced enforcement.

These type of things are very tough to pull off. When it comes to donationing money or join groups a number of anglers choose not to get involved. For example a few times I have tried on this web site to bring up our membership base for the Fraser Valley Salmon Society. The FVSS has been working very hard at retaining and getting fishing opportunities for the rec anglers since 1984 but I have has not that much success getting many membership applications but we are hopefully are going to try and generate a more informative web site so you, the rec angler know what the FVSS does for you and then maybe memberships will flow in.

I have been involved in a few protests over the last 25 years and they have gone off OK in most cases by luck but I feel they should be used as the last resort as it is always better to go the legal route. If things go bad in a protest you are in worst shape than before you started, with a lot of credibility lost in the process.

[Dave]

Nicely worded Chris and I agree - protests should be a last resort.  Perhaps if the FVSS would advocate for the resource a bit more, rather than angler opportunity,  memberships might increase.  Just my opinion.

[Steelhawk]

What? DFO boat got rammed? You must be kidding.  How is it that DFO officers getting treated like this? Did the officers apprehend the natives who rammed their boat? Better be. They are the law enforcers and they let these things get away? Why guys like us don't get the same treatment. I am advocating the rights of average-joe fishermen which got slammed left and right through the years by DFO and native groups.

The last time I saw DFO officers was in the upper Scale Bar, where they rounded up a few poor souls (fishermen) who happened to fish outside the boundary a little bit due to huge crowding. Those guys left the family for a whole day, spent $$$ on gas, caught nothing and instead got treated like criminals with a big fine coming. All that because DFO arbitrarily erected a fishing boundary there against the wish of fishermen by bowing to land-owners. They decided that these unlucky souls did not stand within the boundary of a hard-to-spot line connecting two signs across the river. Why such a line? A few years back fishermen had no such restriction there. There is almost 100 ft from the river side homes. With Scale Bar being the earliest land-accessed bar available to foot soldiers fishermen, it can get crowded in weekends. Yet DFO cuts off 100 ft of precious fishing spots w/o any input from us the user group. There is also a huge reduction in parking space as if the rarely used truck scale is more important than the fishing citizens. Now, the walking alone is enough to trigger an heart-attack.  Once again, less fishing spots to fish year after year and less and less previleges as fishermen. Now that boundary line becomes a new form of revenue for DFO and they enforce it with zealous effort, as if that is going to save the Fraser fish stocks. Why not spend the time to remove illegal nets all alone the river? Most new fishermen didn't even know such boundary exists there. Why not justh issue a warning instead of a big fine? Just because we are the nice bunch and won't ram their boats, I guess. 

I am not advocating lawlessness. I am just asking fairness of treatment. Somehow, DFO has to have fair treatment of all user groups. If DFO is turning a blind eyes on some of the most pressing problems facing the fish stocks (illegal nets of all kind, illegal sales of fish, dumping of excess fish and what have u), why on earth they think standing a bit off from an imaginery line is that important.  They sure know what group of people they can dictate to w/o risk of fight back - yes, you and me, the tax payers, the fathers and husbands who wish to catch a fish for the family to enjoy instead of buying it illegally. We have less and less fish to fish (just look at all the stocking reduction and reduced runs in most rivers), less fishing opportunities (just look at all the closures when natives can fish freely) and less room to fish or even less place to park our cars to fish (just look at Scale Bar). So I guess what it means is that the more law abiding we are, the more mis-treated we get, and the more arrogant and law-challenging, the more respect the natives get. This sounds really strange, but unfortunately it is the reality. 

[alwaysfishn]

So I guess what it means is that the more law abiding we are, the more mis-treated we get, and the more arrogant and law-challenging, the more respect the natives get. This sounds really strange, but unfortunately it is the reality. 

I agree 100% that when the laws are not enforced, that law abiding citizens get very cynical and soon they begin challenging the law.... I don't agree that breaking the law leads to the natives or anyone else getting more respect though.

[chris gadsden]

Nicely worded Chris and I agree - protests should be a last resort.  Perhaps if the FVSS would advocate for the resource a bit more, rather than angler opportunity,  memberships might increase.  Just my opinion.

I agree we need to work on that aspect thats for sure.

[nosey]

instead got treated like criminals with a big fine coming. All that because DFO arbitrarily erected a fishing boundary there against the wish of fishermen by bowing to land-owners.

Those landowners that had fishermen trapesing through their property, cutting their fences, waking them up well before daylight with loud and raucious behavior (remember the scales bar has  had 3 documented stabbings) one of the landowners even has a picture of a fisherman deficating in their vegetable garden, there are reasons for that fishing boundary. On the day the fisheries officers gave those guys tickets for ignoring it they had the helicopter fly over and warn them to move off half an hour before and the ticketed fisherman chose to defy them and moved right back in when the chopper left. If you're going to defend these actions Give Me a Break man.

[Steelhawk]

Then I will give you a break man. The actions of bad sheeps among fishermen should not be borne by all fishermen fishing legally and civilly. If this rule also applies to the Vedder, with all the public urinating fishermen do, should the section of the Vedder with houses at river edge be closed too, I mean 100+ feet from the nearest house? Will you accept that?

I am not sure how fishermen could get into people's vegetable patch there in Scale Bar. As far back as I remember, there was a high metal fence all around that section and I didn't know there was a way to get into people's property from the bar. Are you so sure that the picture was not fabricated to get city attention in order to get rid of the fishermen? I have no proof of that, of course, but why would people climb a high fence to do that stuff, when they can just hide in the bush behind the bar to do that? Just not logical.

As for the helicopter buzzing the fishermen, that just illustrates the point I am trying to say. We are the easy group to intimidate. Do they use the same machine buzzing on the natives when they fish illegally and massively killing fish? Do they send officers afterwards to enforce the law? No sir, they may get shot back or pepper sprayed. If they don't do that to the natives, then why ticket those poor souls who simply tried to fish in the only early land bar available after driving all that far from their homes? Do you expect them to go home after driving 2 hours to get there or sit back for hours in the hot sun waiting for an empty spot? Who had cut their fishing space massively and unnecessarily anyway? I am not advocating lawlessness, but if the laws are unjustly imposed against fishermen without any form of democracy, and if the laws are biased against average fishermen, then I won't blame them for disrespecting that autocratic authority imposting an unjust law which has nothing to do with protecting fish stock, but about protecting land ownership. DFO, receiver of our fishing license revenue, should protect our rights, not landowners'.

There is no need to keep the boundary 100+ ft from the landowners. If we use that space allowance for any urban river, or the sections of the Vedder with houses around, there wouldn't be any more space left to fish, and crowding will be even worst. Realistically, these poor souls never risk the fish stock and get hammered, while the other group doing much more damage to fish stock and they get mostly unchecked. I am asking for fairness of treatment. Don't you see the problem there? I defend the fishing rights of average fishermen, and you defend those of the landowners and actions of DFO on us poor sport fishermen running out of room to fish & park. Perhaps some one just hates BBing to the point that fishermen's rights are not important as long as they are BBing.

Kniving someone when fishing is stupid and not to be tolerated. But this happens every where when fishing space is crowded and removing more fisherable space from the bar will only worsen the situation. Even Lafarge lake had a fatality due to fighting. Should we close Lafarge too? Give me a break.