Can't fix ignorance

[Charlie415]

Walking up the dock past the cleaning station yesterday and what do I see? Someone proudly filleting a yellow eye. Do I say anything......Given the time and place decided to just walk by. Looked at my wife and she gives me that look and says REALLY! I have to believe that people just don't know the regs and don't bother to educate themselves. Nine times out of ten I will say something but today I just had to gave my head a shake and walked by. We have even seen fishers adamantly insist that the hatchery coho are the ones with the fin still attached. Would love to see that converstion with a DFO officer. LOL You try to educate but there are a presistant group that just don't care. I am assuming it is similar at most public docks. What are the best dock conversations that you have had?

 

[Eden Island]

Hmmm. Either didn't know the regs or didn't know what a yelloweye is.

 

[Whole in the Water]

or don't care!

 

[Srthomas75]

Did it appear that the guy cleaning the yellow eye had a strong grasp on the English language? ( not to stereotype but there usually is a connection to certain situations )

 

[Aces]

A real common occurrence

 

[Samnjoe]

I do follow the regs mostly but when I do see someone making a mistake like that I usually give them a heads up. Not to shame them at all but to help them not get a ticket. Yelloweye are so prolific now that we should be able to keep one a day. I watched the floating pumpkin patches for years out off the Brooke's peninsula from dragger by catch. Can't fault a guy for putting the odd one in the secret fish locker.

 

[pescador]

Lotta guys say or think it’s a “Vermillion”. That’s their go to response.

 

[Charlie415]

Can't blame this one on country of origin.

 

[fishbadger]

Some canaries can look like yelloweye's too. In that instance you actually can fix ignorance, and engage in a discussion about orange-looking rockfish differential diagnosis. That said, I hear you, I have often avoided the conversation because you never know what sort of person you're running into, and at that time of the day I'm usually pretty pooped,
fb

 

[SpringVelocity]

I don't let I bug me honestly. If people break rules they will be caught at some point. What is the point of being worked up by what you can't control.

 

[brutus]

A nice couple came in for a weekend last year first week in July, closed to retention at east point, came back around noon with 2x dead chinook proudly showing them off, as nobody had fish lol, the marina care takers told them what was happening, but too late at this point, so they just packed up and left the same day with the fish, they did not know the regs

 

[Tips Up]

Are you 100% confident it was a yellow eye?

 

[Tips Up]

Soon it will be painful watching the cleaning station with mix of pinks and coho. Happens every pink year. People assume if it is small it is a pink and in the tub it goes.

 

[kaelc]

Not easy to handle the conversation but pointing people to where you found the right information can be helpful. Instead of you know that's a Yellow eye, say “I learned the difference between a yellow eye and a vermillion from the DFO site”. I've had on the water arguments with my buddy boat, about regulations. Lot of misinformation out there. I downloaded a whole Google earth file of every RCA on the B.C. coast and it was missing at least one major spot. Have the real source handy and should be printed out. https://www.pac.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/fm-gp/maps-cartes/rca-acs/index-eng.html

 

[Buddha]

Soon it will be painful watching the cleaning station with mix of pinks and coho. Happens every pink year. People assume if it is small it is a pink and in the tub it goes.

I hear you. It is painful seeing people with “pinks” that have perfect round spots on the tail and black gums with aggressive sharp teeth or “coho”with round spots on a silver tail, purple backs, dark fins and black gums. I also hear seasoned anglers complain about the 12 lb “sockeyes” they had to release because they couldn’t identify the narrow wrist at the tail, eyes set back on the head and the slightest of purple blotching on the side that can only be seen on an angle. I understand it can be difficult to tell. Especially between certain species. Even professionals have difficulties. Used to see chum salmon mixed in totes of sockeye all the time but come to think of it never saw a sockeye in a chum tote. .

Best dock conversation I had was with a Creel Surveyor and newly enlisted DFO Officer while I was dressing what they thought was a 13lb “sockeye” or wild “coho” and showing them it was in fact an ocean run chum. When I told them it was going to be pale pink and far from red when I open up the belly their minds were blown. They were actually open to learning instead of trying to dig in as the know all only authority. I think I saw pig flying but I believe ignorance was fixed that day.

 

[Hot-Streak]

I've had a new angler friend get blasted at the cutting table by some old grumpy guy saying they had a chinook. They took a video and showed me a picture it was clearly a coho. I knew the grumpy old guy and he was a pretty seasoned/regular fisherman. I was shocked that he could be confused.

I've also been out with people on their boat and caught a vermillion but the boat captain was worried it was a yellow eye so back it went on the descender, no big deal. I later showed him the difference but I said to him it was better to error on the side of caution and not kill a fish you shouldn't. We had a great run and caught other fish anyways.

I never blast people at the cutting table but I will sometimes do the same, help educate them in a friendly way with the line "Hey I just don't want you to get ticketed by DFO" and usually the advice is taken in a friendly way.... unless they are on Trophy... those guys are the F150 drivers of the ocean

*** BONUS*** Oh yeah while I'm at it I think I'll call out the thinly veiled racist implications on this thread. I am "one of those guys" that you may think "doesn't have a strong grasp of english" by my race/look. I can assure you I speak english fine. Also as of note the last big court convictions for large scale poaching did not look or have problems with english. Also those good old boys caught poaching lots of fish from alberta that had their boat taken and had very fair complexations so should I side eye every european looking dude that I pass by in my boat?

I know a few asian decent fisherman in real life and the ones I know are all ethical fisherman. I won't go too much off topic but I do notice a larger leaning to pro-conservative, tucker-protest, anti-liberal government types in the fishing community so its not a big shock to me.

If you feel your racial leanings need to be spoken out loud, please try it in person with me... but I promise you will not like my sharp-sarcastic reply... and maybe you might even become famous on social media at the same time as I like to record my fishing catches in video

 

[CBsqrd]

I've literally put a lingcod on the cleaning table and had someone ask "what kind of salmon is that?”

 

[RiverBoy]

i can’t begin to tell you how many large orange cod i’ve released on the west coast because i wasn’t sure if it was a yellow eye, or vermillion.
it’s my actual kryptonite weakness. i feel shame. i have the charts. i have pics.
is there a support group for this?