Fishing with my daughter

[huntingdhunter]

Ok guys,just trying to get a few opinions here on a recent situation. Two weeks ago I took my 7 year old daughter to a local fishing contest that my father used to take me to since I was in diapers.this was our first chance to get out fishing together this year so she was very excited, I grabbed her little scooby doo pole and we headed to the contest found an open spot next my brotherinlaw and prepped for the contest, my daughter doesnt quite have the casting thing down yet so i was casting for her stripping a few fet of line and passing her the pole, pretty much the same process we all probably do for our children in this situation.to our delight she did great and managed to land an 18.5 inch trout which secured her a first place prize in all age groups!!! She was so excited and I was one proud pop!! Well I wish my story ended there. We continued working our way upstream and had just stopped at another spot so i repeat our process of me casting pulling lead and passing the pole to her, I had just casted her pole and was in the process of handing her the pole when I noticed two game commission officers walking on the trail opposite side of the stream from me. One stopped pointed to me and they started in my direction, I continued to pass the pole to my daughter once she had it I stepped back and one of the officers approached me and asked to see my fishing license,I told him I didn't have one and stated that typically I have my license purchased before season however I've been so busy opening and setting up my garage I just hadn't had the time to fish yet and when I did get the time I had planned on just getting it then, the officer seemed to have a horrible attitude right away and accused me of fishing without a license!! I told him I had merely was casting for her and she was capable of the rest,in pa you do not have to have a license  to help your children fish as long as the child is within arms reach and actively engaged in the activity, which my daughter was probably 18inches away and anxiously waiting for the pole!! I began to tell the officer that I did dnt need a fishing license to assist my child and he got real nasty and asked me if I thought he didn't kno how to do his job , then told me he had watched me for ten minutes fishing by myself which was a complete lie I wouldn't leave my daughter alone by a stream for any length of time, I, along with two other strangers explained to the officer that I had just gotten to that spot a d was certainly not there for more than one min let alone ten!!! He wouldn't budge and insisted that he watched me for ten min!!  I didn't want to cause a scene or let my daughter see me arguing with an authority figure so I gave him my personal info and he stated I should receive a citation in 7-10 days!! I know I was within my legal rights and did nothing wrong so I will plead not guilty and see this prick in court. My biggest concern now is that my daughter  took away a negative experience from this and is totally confused of why daddy got in trouble for doing the same thin as the rest of the people!!!(now why can my daughter make more sense of this then a 50-60 year old officer who is an officer of the law???!!!!)as I told the officer at the time I think its great to see them there and always support them, its good for them to get to kno the local public and they should take it as a. Opportunity to spread knowledge, answer questions ,and just get acquainted, however I believe officer Christman had other agenda on his schedule that day. I've now lost complete respect for pagc and will not support them whatsoever, I am a law obiding kinda guy and try to teach my children to follow all rules and kno the regulations maybe officer Christman should learn to do the same!! Anyway just kinda wondering if anyone has ever been in a similar situation? If so how'd it pan out? Either way even if I get a fine, lose a day or two of work to go to court, I'd do it all over again just to see how excited she was when she pulled that trout in!!!! I just hope in the future when she looks back she remembers the fun not the rain clouds that officer Christman put over her day!;(

[Misterjake23]

     Please don't judge the entire PA Game Commission by one bad experience.  Like every profession,  you always have one or two bad apples.  I do not know that WCO,  but everyone has a bad day.  It's no excuse, but unfortunately it happens. 

     I would definitely exercise your right to appeal the citation.  Perhaps even call him and ask to have a sit down one on one chat.  Perhaps you both can walk away with a different perspective.

     Please keep us posted on the outcome of what you decide.

[Bowman66]

That's awesome your daughter caught the big one, it sucks that afterward you had a bad experience with the wco.
Jake was right, they are not all bad, just a few. Take your day in court and hopefully you got the names and numbers of the witnesses to vouch for you in court as well, it might help your case. Good luck and keep us posted.

[uncle buck]

Wardens I know always treated me with respect...Now there was this Pa State Trooper that use to be at Wyoming Barracks.. Now that guy was going to give me a ticket once for smiling...My brother and brother in law were both PASP... My conversations with them about this guy also revealed that they knew he was a AH...They recommended that I bring a complaint about him for what he was saying to me... Never did.

[HDRoadking3058]

Unfortunately, that is NOT the first time I've heard a story like that!

[Shurshot]

 huntingdhunter I wish you the best with you issue.Was officer Christman from the Pa Game Commission or was he a Pa Waterways Patrolman ? Below is from the Pa Fish Commission book that comes with a fishing license.See Mr Christman at the local District Justice and it would be a good idea to have someone that was at the stream and observed you helping your daughter.

ASSISTANCE TO CHILDREN
An adult who assists a child (12 years of age and under) by casting or retrieving a fishing line or fishing rod is not required to possess a valid fishing license provided that the child remains within arms’ reach of the assisting adult and is actively involved in the fishing activity.

An adult may assist a child by baiting hooks, removing fish from the line, netting fish, preparing the fishing rod for use and untangling the line without possessing a valid fishing license. An adult is required to possess a fishing license if they intend to set the hook for the child.

[jaspr1]

The last several years I have been a tag along to a lot of these trout derbies. The norm is for people to be assisting these kids.......I am guessing it was a Waterways Officer....If you did nothing, ALWAYS go for the hearing....and these people especially the overzealous ones are not your friends. NEVER volunteer anything,BE QUIET....tell the Magistrate he just wants the facts. If I was the Magistrate I would wonder why the Officer in question wasn't pursuing the Hooftie up the creek getting his 2nd or 3rd limit for the day or over at the public launch cleaning up the picaninnies who congregate there hogging up the place, instead of stalking around a kid's derby like a Heron raiding a trout nursery. JMO..... Congrats to your daughter and don't be discouraged by one incident.

[huntingdhunter]

After three continuations on the officers end I finally got my day at the magistrates office and it went better than I expected! The officer approached me outside the office and gave me a compliment on how well I shined up! Lol,then asked what I thought "we" should do? I stated we were both wasting our time there as it will likely be thrown out because I was within my legal rights. He said he did his homework and spoke to over 15 ppl about me and no one had a negative thing to say about me(as if that would change the fact that his accusations were absurd to begin with) and he was going to do me a favor and drop all charges(suprise!) and made me give my word I would have a valid license when fishing with my daughter to avoid any confrontations or confusion!! The only confusion on that day was on his part! All in all it went smooth and got dismissed he wouldn't apologize or admit he was in the wrong but did remain civil and we talked about every day bs for about 20 min afterwards so I guess no hard feelings officer Scott Christman. Now I'm headed home to pack up the fishing and camping gear to take the kids out for a long weekend fishing n camping!!!

[Bowman66]

That's great news! Glad cooler heads prevailed. Have fun fishing, don't forget your license. Lol

[Misterjake23]

Congratulations!  The bottom line is you approached it in the proper manner and prevailed.  I'm glad to see you took the higher ground.  It's disappointing to see the Officer couldn't admit he made a mistake.