An Accura is a good car.

Did it look like this?

I guess it would depend for me. If it was an honest mistake I wouldn't want to get someone in trouble with the law but if they were what I would consider a true poacher then I would turn them in.

Sort of shocked with how many people want to throw the book at him when I would assume we have all made honest mistakes not meant to be harmful of the resource.

that's my thought. I would have probably warned the guy, but he seemed intent on not looking at me or noticing I was there.

could be an honest mistake...but at the same time. season dates are clearly published in the texas parks and wildlife hunting and fishing guides and waterfowl digests that they give you when you get your liscence..and clearly published on the TPWD website. My thoughts are that if your going to go hunt...you should at least check into dates to make sure your doing it legally. Ive never thought it was that difficult to check them. thats just my two cents. I always make the effort to be legal in every way.

that seems to me like a sign of guilt. I would have called it in.

Too many people hunting out there for you not to call the GW... Take out the trash Cjags. Just my 2 cents

Unfortunately, it is way too difficult to determine if it was an honest mistake or intentionally violating law. Even if he acted/said it was an honest mistake, can you believe it? If he is breaking the law intentionally, then where is the moral compulsion to be honest with a stranger? Additionally, I tend to believe dishonest people are really good at being believable but dishonest.

At the end of the day, you are hard pressed to make an accurate judgement of the situation. So I think it really becomes a matter of choosing the lesser of two evils:

(1) An individual who makes an honest mistake, which is incumbent upon him not to make, receives a fine from the GW.
-or-
(2) An individual intentionally violating the law is able to not only continue for that day but also gains confidence for doing it, or something worst, again.

I am going to go with #1 and call the GW everytime.

That's my $.02...

what kind of car did you say he had?how many times have you seen him bc if he goes out there often.then he definetly knew about the split.I'm guessing your talking about public hunting spot?if it is then there's probably a GW that did go out there.

Sounds like he knew. GW time.

You guys are hard core. How many of you flash your lights at oncoming traffic to tell folks there's a cop ahead? Nothing wrong with asking him if he knows and then decide from that conversation. May gain a hunting friend out of it.

I mean seriously... do you want over pressured ducks come Saturday's opener??? That guy will be out there again if no one stops him... You can be as nice as you want, but that's poaching (if he's not shooting geese). Everyone gets a book when they buy a license... and everyone gets the waterfowl digest when they get the stamp... How much you wanna bet this guy probably didn't have a duck stamp and migratory endorsement either??? I ain't one to do people "favors" and be nice and all that. You gotta protect the resource even if that means getting someone in a little bit of trouble with the GW.

What makes you think folks will be there in a few days, because someone let it be known that there are no ducks there.

Isn't there a pretty significant chance that the GW isn't going to be available to go over there anyway? I've never had to call the game warden, but I know those guys have to cover a lot of territory. I'd think during the split they'd most likely be out working deer hunting.

But I'm with Marc -- talk to him about the split in a friendly way, and he's sure to leave. If you talk to him, whether he knew or not he's going to quit hunting. But if all you do is call the GW, and the GW isn't in the area or otherwise able to get over there, the guy will continue to hunt.

Also, has anyone called the game warden on themselves after you realized you made a mistake? Find a round of lead in your bag, killed a dove you couldn't find and didn't count it in your limit, etc.? What he did is way worse than probably anything most of us have ever done, but it seems that some of you suggest it should be a strict liability standard with no excuses.

Anyway, just my opinion, but I agree with Marc -- if he's knows he's doing wrong or is a jerk about it, call him in. If he seems honest and packs up when you tell him what he's doing wrong, I'd let him go. At the same time, I can see leaving it up to the GW to decide whether he gets a pass or not.

Now that I think about it, we caught a tresspasser elk hunting in Colorado once. He acted honest and gave us the "honest mistake" story, etc., and we told him just to get out of there. The guys we were with knew the local sherrif pretty well and his place was on our way back to town -- when we told the sherrif, he knew exactly who we were talking about and the guy had been arrested for poaching in the past. He was a real bad dude, and the sherrif was glad we didn't have a bigger confrontation with him, as the sherrif said he was the kind of dude that could do anything, as he was facing serious jail time as a repeat offender.