I'll preface this with this...I like ya Wade. You may not be able to put a face to my screen name, but we've crossed paths a bunch out there. Your videos are fun. I've given you bait on the water. We've pulled on fish at the same time. Its always more lively on the water with you out there. You're a good guy. So nothing personal...
Officers (DFG, police, military, etc.) are trained, both by formal and real-life training, to identify problems. I'm not going to walk around outside of a bank with a skimask and a trenchcoat on, writing notes on small pieces of paper to myself and then get pissed if a cop comes up to me and says "Don't even think about going in that bank." You don't even need to be a cop to get an analogy like that. How about you see me walking around your car with a pry bar and a flash light looking in the windows. I'm pretty sure you'd send a "What the fuck do you think you're doing?" my way. And it would be well deserved.
By the looks and the sounds of things (a reason you gave for measuring them on the beach was, "I measured them again because I knew you were going to hit me up."), you were measuring them because you saw DFG and wanted to make 1000% sure that you were 10000% legal (which is COMPLETELY understandable). We all know you and we've all seen you throw back some pretty rad fish. Huge props for how much you respect that fishery. But to that warden who probably isn't a BWE member and only knows you from a few similar interactions on the beach, you're just another guy on the beach trying to measure his catch when it's already too late. Who knows what he had to deal with just prior to approaching you. I think he said it perfect with his Shakespearean quote; "Me thinks thou protests too much."
BTW, Can someone point out exactly what the warden said that was so incredibly inflammatory? Its always a bit odd to me when people say that the officer didn't talk to them nice enough. Its even more peculiar when they make that statement after they've cursed, laid out their life's work, and called the officer a nazi. Try that with a real douchebag nazi cop and you'll be paying for the dent on the hood of the car made via your face when you "tripped and fell and landed on it", all according to the police report of course. I'm just saying, there are d'bags and their are D'BAGS. This guy saw something suspicious that he's probably seen a thousand times from guys that do not have the same integrity as Wade, and jumped on it. That resulted in two guys, both with valid points, having a heated discussion on the beach. That's it, plain and simple. Doesn't mean that the DFG is ran by nazis.
Wade, killer evening on the water! Enjoy the bugs. And THANKS for ONLY keeping the true keepers. You seemed stoked out there and caught a killer bbq's worth and this shouldn't distract from that. Its really no big deal. I'm sure the warden dealt with worse that night. My personal report...Dove last night in Laguna, everything we handled was borderline except for one that my buddy kept. Vis was about 5-10 feet and the surge was pretty bad where we dove ("Jack in the box" for those familiar with the area).
