I only had one encounter with a GW that ended up with me getting a lecture, the rest have been good. On the way home from a get together when I was 17-18 years old, my girlfriend and I pulled over on the county road for a few minutes. A game warden just happened to be roaming around with his lights off and go suspicious of us. He came and knocked on the window, and realized we were not doing drugs like he thought. He did lecture us on our activity, and suggested we find somewhere else to make our stops.

I did have a GW visit with me at PK Lake when we pulled the boat out. He asked for my Fishing License, looked at it and said thanks. He also let me know he would not be looking in the boat for fish, as he had watched us throw them back all morning, and he then said it was a good day, as he saw us release 98 fish. That was the exact number we caught. To this day I don't know where he was hiding.

I don’t appreciate a lecture from anyone. I tell them to skip the bullsht and write the ticket. Only had one bad game warden experience but many small town law enforcement wanting to straighten me out for speeding. I even had one cop in Haughton, LA tell me to pass the word on to all of my oilfield trash friends to slow down in his town.

You never know with TH

I did not get a ticket , but did get threatened . A friend and I were saltwater shore fishing for about 2 hours in south Texas . We watched several " locals " { with no license as I did ask them ] catch and keep undersized redfish , over the limit numbers and even caught one with a cast net . We had each caught our 2 fish limit of legal redfish and were getting ready to leave when I brought in a legal black drum [ they look a lot like a redfish ] and threw it in the cooler with the reds . Before we even finished loading up a GW comes racing up and says we were over the limit and has his pad out . After being shown the drum he got mad and said he would be there to get us later if we did anything wrong . He watched us for about 2 hour to give us a ticket but some how never saw the others break many laws .

LOL. I was doing a job down in Brownsville and my wife came to visit. I drove us down the beach near Boca Chica so we could have a little privacy, it didn't take long for the windows to fog up. Never saw the BP coming. BAM BAM BAM on the window and then a flashlight in my face. Wife was freaking out and trying to cover up. I was necked and they already saw me so what the heck, might as well get out. Ever tried to shake another man's hand when you're necked? For some reason, they don't want to.

Your right!, in my whole life I have never had the desire to shake the hand of a naked man.

Well finish the story...did he ruin the moment after he left.....

I've had 6 or 7 encounters with Wardens over the years and all have been respectful and professional. I received one ticket, completely my fault, and the rest have been routine. I'm sure some can be jerks at times, but they have a pretty touchy job, so get the benefit of the doubt ... so far.

My experience as well. Received a written warning for something he could have ticketed for.

No Sir. I was 25 yrs old then and jumped right back in there for the win, and then clothed myself and drove back to Port Isabel like a proper person.

We drove ALL the way down there far away from everybody so we could do some freaky stuff like you know what on the beach, just laying out there looking at the stars, listening to the waves, and making babies. NOPE. "Excuse me Sir are you an American Citizen"? FML.

I have only had 1 encounter while deer hunting since 1977. It was last year at our deer lease gate after an evening hunt. The 2 wardens stopped and had to back up. Little chit chat and I offered to show license. I had forgot to sign back of mine and he asked me to sign it when I got home. It was dark and they walked to back of truck with flashlight for a look. Shot the bull a little more and shook hands before leaving. Very pleasant.

The thing I would do next time would be to talk less. Let them do all the talking and only answer questions with as few words as possible.

or over the limit and slot fish,

We have a group of 20+ that gets together every year for a dove hunt, we get stopped every year. One year we all bought licenses on line and the HIP cert was missing. 20+ guys at the local hunting license dealer getting HIP cert printed out. The Game warden visited us one more time that evening and all was well.

Had one bad but not so horrible experience with a game warden just a couple years ago. Was fishing the White Bass spawn on the Sabine river above Toledo Bend. It's normal to get checked there, and I run legal anyway, so no worries. In fact, my record is being checked 3 times in one day by the same warden there. Anyone who fishes there that time of year knows that river gets very busy during the run, more so on nice weather days.

So it's about 10am, three people in my boat (including me), and we're limited with 75 sandies in the cooler, all on separate stringers. There were a few yellow bass laying loose in the cooler as well, but they are not regulated, therefore not counted. We are c&r'ing fish, just holding the spot until a buddy showed up to take over the spot when we left. I saw the GW upriver checking people, so by the time they (two of them in an old beat to hell jon boat) got to us we had all the safety gear out on the decks, licenses in hand, and ready for them. They check us all, and ask to look in the cooler. I opened it and he wanted to count the fish. I was like, sure, but the boat is a bit crowded. So we step onto the back deck and he boards my boat. The other GW is holding onto my boat while his buddy proceeds to spread fish all over the floor of my boat counting them. Every time another boat came by their raggedy old boat would slam into the side of my less than 1yr old boat a couple of times. The third time this happened I lost it. I looked at the GW in their boat and told him, "if you want to start making the payments on my boat then you can tear it up if you want, but as long as I'm making the payments you need to keep your boat off of mine". My buddy and his son in the boat with my looked at me horrified, like I had just slapped the guy. The one in my boat got an attitude and said, "sir, we are checking you and are completely within the law". To which I replied something to the effect of, "you have every right to check us, but no right to damage my equipment in the process". He stepped off my boat and left the fish laying everywhere. And they motored off.

Jane, the owner of the camp where we stay, and famous local guide on that part of the river, was tied off to my rear cleat. She was laughing her butt off because her husband, Tom, is a retired GW, and she knew I wasn't happy about how it all went down. Tom had warned us the evening before that the new guy didn't like people pooling their fish all into one cooler, so we were prepared with the stringers.

Other than that situation, I have been written one warning for being 1 fish over a four person limit on Tawakoni, a mistake the GW even admitted was easy to make on a 100 fish limit. All of my other encounters with GW's have been very pleasant, and often welcomed.

Back to the topic...

I think that making you draw a tag/permit to bowfish for alligator gar on the majority of the Trinity river was a BS move and it's pretty obviously a regulation bought and paid for by a particular guide who takes clients rod-fishing for them in that area. I would love to make it so that TPWD has to show actual data to backup reg changes they want to (or are paid to) make.

Disclaimer: I know that that's technically a fishing reg.

I was being sarcastic. I used to shoot all sorts of birds and stuff.

Was hunting Quail on Lake Whitney by Mc Gowan park where we were camped. Sitting at the pick nick table cooking steaks on the grill 4 car loads of g/w's come flying in from different direction's bailed out of their cars with guns drawn. One shouted don't move. One came up to me and said hands up, i said i am cooking and i will not burn these steaks so just shoot me.
The first thing he asked was where are the deer, I said in the woods. He said don't get smart with me i asked just what the f/// are ya'll doing. He said we know you killed a deer on the other side of the lake. I said your full of s???. we don't even have a boat, haven't been on the other side. I said do your see that dog trailer behind my truck? We have been Quail hunting. They said we are going to search your truck and trailer, i said,knock yourself out while we eat. So we started eating. When they started searching the trailer i told him be careful when you open that first door that old dog has a temper when he has hunted all day. Well when he stated to open his door he started growling then barked. he shut the door. Then i gave them a lecture on running up on me like that with guns drawn and i damn sure didn't like it with my 10 year old son sitting next to me. He told my son he was sorry. They got in their cars and left.

Then got checked dove hunting by state warden with a fed warden. They rounded us all up to check lic. and for plugs. Well i hunt with a .410 o/u had in open swung over my arm, the fed warden said let me see your gun. I said as i handed it to him if you can get more than two in this i pay you 1000.00 dollars he took it and looked at me like he didn't know what to say. The Texas warden was behind him and he got a big smile on his face and gave me a, thumbs up.

Did you have a saltwater boner

Errr . . . . , why would you want to know? Trying to conjur up a visual? No thanks. Skinner, you need not respond.

I’m concerned about you buddy, your a little off

Most wouldn't shake a naked man while others want more details.

I heard Throckmorton county got a new warden
Anyone met him ?

I am glad they eliminated the stupid rule where you could not have a rifle with you, if you had a bow in archery season. That was a stupid rule.
I always thought that filling out the back of the license with white-tailed deer kills was silly. You do not have to for eastern and Rio Grande turkey, mule deer or red drum tags. And what does it matter where and when used a tag? No one will ever use it for any kind of survey.
And the HIP Certified is silly as well. Everyone I know just throws a random number out there when asked. I have gotten my license many years with the HIP on it and was never asked about how many birds I shot. Sure, it might be a good ballpark figure (+/- 20%-30% ) for harvested birds, but not worthy of a ticket.
And why do you have to sign the license?

When they give a ticket, what are the fines? Someone listed $300 a bird for too many doves. That sounds awful steep. I know they publish a range of fine prices ($200 to $2000, or some such), but in reality, how much are the fines for the different violations?