July 4th Fishing Tickets!

[misbehave]

Here is my long story.
Last weekend, my wife and I drove back to Pullman WA, the town where we attended college, to visit some friends and spent the July 4th weekend over there.
On Saturday, we went fishing with 5 friends of mine.
At the time when we pack up and leave, a county sheriff came to us and asked us for fishing license. None of us have any fishing license. Through out our college years in that town, we went fishing atleast a hundred times and we never had anyone check on us for license, so none of us aware that we needed license to fish there.
Anyway, the sheriff ended up giving 6 of us a $100 ticket each. That makes $600 total for all of us. We asked him does he necessary give that many tickets and he insisted he needed to do this even he doesn't want to. (yeah right, now he is 6 tickets closer to whatever quota he has to fill)

Here is the problem, we live in Seattle WA, which is about 300 miles away from their court house, but they wouldn't allow the case to be transferred nor would they allow us to request a court hearing through mail. That means if we want to fight off the fine we will have drive back there again on August 25. They wouldn't allow the court hearing date to be postpone either. We won't be able to make it because of our work schedule.
So, seems like paying the $200 to the blood sucker is our only option. We thought about getting legal service but we think it would cost a lot more than $200 in the end.
What do you guys think? Should just pay the $200 to the blood sucker or there are alternatives?

 

[volklover]

Surprised you didn't know you needed a license, I always forget how old you have to be to buy one(15,16,18?)
I would pay the money. If you go there you would get nothing out of it besides wasting your time, money, and gas!
But don't know if there is any ways around it

 

[msubullyfan]

Every state in the U.S. requires a fishing license to fish in ANY public waters for that state. Fishing licenses usually are required when you get to be 13-15, depending on what state you're in.

There is no way you can fight that one, either. It's an ironclad law that there are no "outs" for. If all six of you were fishing, all six of you deserved the tickets.

I know it stinks, but it is the law. If you've never been ticketed before, it's only becasue a law enforcement official has never seen you.

I have been an avid fisherman all my life and have always kept a valid fishing license. I'm also a big fan of requiring licenses -- they're cheap and they help the state with revenue. It costs states tens of millions of dollars per year to maintain public waterways. Fishing license revenues don't even begin to cover the whole costs of maintaining them, but it helps a lot!

And by the way -- I don't think you're being treated unfairly at all. It's a given that if you fish without a license, you're going to get a hefty fine if someone inspects to see if you have one. I have trouble believing that you didn't know that.

 

[Greg S]

I've got to agree with the others, just pay the fine you screwed up. I've had a license when I was 14, don't have it now but only because I don't have time anymore, spear fishing not pole fishing. You have to have a pet license, driver's license pretty much a license for everything except having children(boom07) . Don't really know how you didn't know you did not need a fishing license, but hey you didn't and got caught.

 

[Logan]

Did you get to keep the fish?

 

[misbehave]

Did you get to keep the fish?

No, he got them and said he needed it for evidence.
We got 5 fishes in our bucket, 3 of them were still alive when he caught us. He could have thrown the 3 that still alive back to the river, but he just dump them into his truck instead, and there wasn't any water there.

 

[protegeV]

i thought u only needed a fishing license if u were fishing from a boat...thats bulls***(rant)

 

[volklover]

WOW........speechless
Fishing license to fish!

 

[protegeV]

hmm, maybe I should have to get a shopping license to go shopping...or a walking license to use the sidewalk...

The things are BS anyways...you just go and fill out a form and they give you the "license." It doesnt actually mean anything...

 

[jdm_mp5]

I always shave in order to pass off as a youngster whenever I go fishing. Fooled them real good!

 

[volklover]

hmm, maybe I should have to get a shopping license to go shopping...or a walking license to use the sidewalk...
...

Thats why you pay such high taxes! Fish and game need people to buy license to hunt and fish! You ever see bought a hunting license? For an out-of-state resident?
I was stationed in Wa St and they wanted over $800 for being an non-resident and just 130 for residents! Fishing licenses have the same markup

 

[sam1]

that sucks. but i doubt there will be any way out of it. i remember when i used to go fishing on fernan lake all the time without a license and never saw a single fish & game officer. the same day i got my license and went fishing an officer pulls up right as we were casting out. glad i paid the 20bucks to get the license. but up here theyre really strict about that s*** too. my dad got caught without a license and was fined for not having a license, plus he was charged per fish that he had caught. the total came out to almost 700bucks.

 

[protegeV]

wtf? i woulda threw them bitches right back in the water...Ive never even heard of anyone checking for those things.(dunno)