POST 25: Witness Statement and Statements of Support

A Witness Statement

After posting on Facebook asking for witnesses, I was provided with an image of a post made by "Clam Man." This post made by Clam Man stated, "Caught right across from me. Congrats...Looked like it was hooked in the mouth. Not snagged." Here is a screenshot of the statement:

Post made by a witness stating, "Looked like it was hooked in the mouth. Not snaged."

This was a wonderful post to see! I reached out via Facebook to the person who made the post asking if they would be willing to provide an official statement. 

Game and Fish should have been able to find this statement made by a witness and could have reached out for a statement. Why didn't they?

Additional Support

More people started sending me information which included links, posts and additional comments. Below are some of them: 

This post stated, "I was there yesterday, the walleye that were caught all bit. The fish coming in sideways are carp and suckers. Be sure to be able to identify fish before spouting off.  It's TRUE.  You dont need an 80,000 dollar boat to catch fish!!"

Some other posts were:

• “I was at said snagging hole last night. as well as the GnF lady. only thing getting snagged was everyones fucking lines. holy shit balls. literally i stop cuonting at 8x people were snagging each other from across the river. guys casting over top of lines. just a shit show. fished for an hour. 0 fish caught saw 1 decent sized walleye id say 24-25" caught yes caught in the mouth and 3 carp. there is without a doubt "honey hole.”
• “I have seen a few people on Instagram that said they saw it be caught. No mention of it being snagged. If people were there and saw it brought in snagged they need to publicly come forward and take their own lie detector test.”
• “I fish this spot every day in the spring during the spawn…I caught my 5 and they were all by the mouth…those fish in there were hungry.” 

These posts were made in the same public forum as the statements I made which Game and Fish pulled for their report. These public statements supported my belief the walleye was caught legally. Why were they not included in the Investigation Report?  

Statements Supporting Reasonable Doubt

 This post stated, “It is very possible that once it was netted and she rolled around for awhile the hook came out and got stuck somewhere else. If you have never seen this than you don't fish enough. Just my opinion on what could have happened before you throw stones.”

Some other posts made which supported reasonable doubt:

• “Definitely could be the net. Now one would think if he was trying hide the fact that it was snagged it would be quite odd for that same person to post a video of the hook removal. And another oddity although no way to conclusively tell exactly where it was but as lightly hooked as it appeared to be with as quickly and effortlessly as he pulled it out if it was in the fish in that part of the back you would almost always tear the hook out during the fight on a good-sized fish and especially if you're fighting something as big as 16 pounds 9 ounces.”
• “I've had that happen a lot of times with pike, and sometimes with walleyes. They throw the hook in the net and it ends up snagging it or the net or boat seat, anything is possible.   I say drop it, its been decided all ready!!”
• “if that walleye was actually caught in the back there would also be a puncture wound where blood would be coming out. So if there was no evidence of blood common sense tells me there was no hook in that fish back.”
• “I am going to choose to be happy for the angler. He wasn't there attempting to snag a fish and has been confirmed by the G&F as the new state record. I'm not sure what their procedure is, but I would like to think they would take a look in the mouth/lip area for a hole but I could be wrong. Regardless, it is the new state record."

These public posts demonstrate reasonable doubt. If my case would have gone to court, a jury of my peers would have had to debate these points.

There was a lot of support out there for me and my walleye and the posts were easy to find on Facebook. 

With all the support and reasonable doubt, I felt optimistic. I assumed Game and Fish would find these statements during their investigation and would have to consider them in their conclusion. 

To all of those that took the time to post your support for me and my walleye, THANK YOU! Your words did not go unnoticed. And if you were there when my walleye was caught and could provide Game and Fish more information, please do so. 

Changes

I made a lot of assumptions during this whole thing, and I will never do that again. Game and Fish was NOT seeking out statements to support the legal taking of my fish. 

Considering how easy it was to find public posts supporting my walleye was hooked legally, why were none of them included in the Game and Fish investigation report? Shouldn't it be required for Game and Fish to conduct a thorough and impartial investigation? 

There was a post from a witness which stated, "Caught right across from me...Looked like it was hooked in the mouth. Not snagged." Why wasn't this statement documented by Game and Fish or followed up on? Game and Fish pulled some of my statements from the same exact public threads and included them in their report, so how did they "miss" the others? Game and Fish needs to conduct better investigations and follow up on statements made by potential witnesses. 

Game and Fish's mission statement says, "The mission of the North Dakota Game and Fish Department is to protect, conserve and enhance fish and wildlife populations and their habitat for sustained public consumptive and nonconsumptive use." Maybe this is why their regulations are NOT citizen focused and do NOT give the benefit of the doubt to the public but rather the fish and other animals. Maybe this is why citizens are treated like criminals for things like not filleting a fish the right way or being too far away from fishing lines - both of which are criminal offenses by the way. Maybe the mission statement should take into consideration the fact Game and Fish is a public entity created by the people, for the people. Shouldn't their regulations be more citizen focused? 

#northdakotaslargestwalleye  #volkswalleye  #justiceforthelargestwalleye