While fishing on a lake in Northern Maine last year, my buddy and I were stopped by one of the game wardens that were patrolling the area. It was a busy holiday weekend, and the warden explained he was doing random safety inspections to ensure that everyone’s boat was up to par.
Maybe I have a guilty conscious, but no matter how closely we abide by the law, there is always uneasy when “challenged” by a law enforcement official.
We were confident the game warden would find everything in order and then continue on his merry way, and welcomed him alongside our boat.
He checked for life vests, signaling devices, registration stickers, and other required equipment and after a few minutes he was ready to let us go.
Before he left he asked us if we both had our fishing licenses.
“Oh crap, I think I left my fishing license back at the campsite”, my buddy said.
Unfortunately, we were about 8 miles from our campsite and retrieving the license would have taken an hour or more. Instead my buddy tried a different approach.
“Sir, my fishing license is back at the campsite. I know I am supposed to carry it with me at all times, but we were not even fishing when stopped us.”
The officer laughed; apparently he had heard this excuse before as his response was right out of a John Grisham novel:
“Possession of fishing tackle in the fields, forest, or waters in the State of Maine without a fishing license is prima facie evidence of fishing in violation of the law.” The warden said sternly.
It wasn’t looking good for my buddy’s cause, but the warden was otherwise pleased with our preparedness and he offered my buddy a deal.
The warden said he would take my buddy’s name and address and run it through the computer database back in his vehicle. If it was found that my buddy did not have a license, the consequences would be severe.
To my buddy’s credit, it was determined that he had a license and nothing more became of our brief interruption out on the lake.
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Sounds like your buddy was pretty lucky, I’ve known guys get pretty hefty fines in such circumstances.