Poacher Says He's Just an "Expert Fisherman"
by Joe Kafka, AP writer, January 3, 1997

PIERRE -- In a fish story of major proportions, the one that didn't get away was a poacher convicted of having 47 more walleyes than the law allows.
    A tip from another fisherman resulted in the confiscation of three coolers full of fish and the arrest of a poacher and his brother, both of Chadron, Neb.
    The coolers contained 110 walleyes.  Each man was entitled to have eight.
    The poacher pleaded guilty earlier to poaching 47 fish and was sentenced to a year in jail.  Most of the jail term was suspended, but he will have to spend two days behind bars for each fish over the possession limit.
    He was also fined criminal penalties of $50 a fish, or $2,350.  His fishing and hunting privileges in South Dakota were revoked for five years.  In addition, the state Game, Fish and Parks Department is going to ask him for civil penalties of $50 a fish.
    He told jurors that he isn't no poacher.  He admitted catching several hundred fish below Oahe Dam over the period of three days in September, but said he threw back all but eight.  He said those fish were in a fourth cooler.  "I would say I'm an expert fisherman," he said.  "I caught more than my possession limit. I did not keep them. I was looking for one to hang on the wall."
    The poacher said the 110 fish found in an adjoining motel room occupied by his brother were caught by the brother and another brother.
    The poacher was brought from the jail to testify on behalf of his brother, telling jurors that he and the second brother caught the walleyes.  The second brother, who also lives in Chadron, was not present when the arrests were made, and he was not charged.  He apparently arrived a few minutes later and left for Chadron with his brothers' wives and children.
    After a day of fishing, the second brother said he was not happy with all the fish his two brothers were keeping.  The poacher said none of the fish in the three coolers were caught by the first brother.
    But Hughes County Deputy State's Attorney Dave Siebrasse said the first brother was in on the poaching.  One of the two motel rooms the three brothers were staying in was used for fish cleaning, the prosecutor said.
    "They caught them together.  They cleaned them in the room in an attempt to conceal it," Siebrasse said.  "There were fish guts.  There were scales.  There was slime in that room."
   The poacher's attorney said his client had just the legal limit of walleyes in another cooler.  Authorities charged his client only because he was in the adjoining motel room, the defense attorney said.
    "It's a fish story," the attorney told jurors.  "Its a red herring.  They can't prove this, and they're embarrassed and they're mad."
    Game warden Lee Leuning, who arrested the men at their motel, said he didn't find a fourth cooler.