Scouting Now Illegal?

[fish dog]

This was in the DFW Q & A page today...

Abalone scouting before start time?
Question: I know I cannot start picking abalone until 8 a.m. I usually get to my spot around 7:30 a.m. If I leave all my gear on the beach, can I search the rocks to locate any abs that might be legal, mark the spots with my gloves and then at 8 a.m. go back and get them? Thanks for your assistance. (Larry P., Paradise)
Answer: Abalone may be taken only from 8 a.m. to one half hour after sunset. Take is defined as to “hunt, pursue, catch, capture or kill, or attempt to hunt, pursue, catch, capture or kill (Fish and Game Code, section 86). Searching and locating abalone prior to 8 a.m. as you describe is prohibited because it would fall within this definition of take.

So, extrapolating that out to, let's say scouting a deer zone or maybe a refuge like Wister or maybe one of the DFW fields in the IV for dove. If I go out the week before to locate a trail the deer are using or see what blind seems to have the most duck activity or what field the dove are feeding in does that fall under the definition of "take"? Sounds like it according to the above, unless I'm reading this wrong.

 

[Gspman]

??? well? umm?? i think it may be the "marking" the animal that can not and will not move withen that 1/2 or so? but who is to say that you are hunting if you have nothing on you to hunt with? id say leave the stuff in the truck if possible then go out and mark in your mind only? we all have to be carefull as the wardens need to make the state money and make hunters look bad. Sorry not "wardens" "wild life officers." im sure they have nice easy going wardens but i also know that many do not give any advise and are not very nice. stay overly legal just in case.

 

[prov1]

I agree GSP if you don't have any equipment on or with you to pursue, catch, capture or kill your fine, you can look all you want.
probably cant mark but people drop gloves, knives ect. all the time that's not illegal.

 

[ilovesprig]

WHAT PART OF SCOUTING IS TAKING?.... :-[....More anti hunting rhetoric answer from our DFW!....

 

[Deleted member 27310]

for abalone is the question, right?

 

[8SteelTown]

Am I reading the regs right that your limit is 3 per day?

 

[Bonejour]

The DFW response seems specific to abalone, and not in any way applicable to game animals with four legs or wings, or even fish that will be hunted with spear or line. Locating a mollusk in order to return to the scene a half hour later and take it seems like hunting to me. Frankly, I don't see the problem here with the warden's response.

 

[invisible man]

You can hunt/scout all you want without tools. If you use your gloves to mark them then your gloves become tools.

 

[ilovesprig]

So opening for rockfish is May 15th.......I go out and gps spots with my FF for the opener on May 14th.......That's illegal?

This crap is getting absurd!

 

[Aeon]

There have been more than a few odd answers in the dfg Q and A.

As with most things in this backwards state you need a lawyer on retainer full time. This goes for the good folks at dfg.

With the amount of poaching that goes on with abalone I wouldn't mess around leaving gloves or marking areas.

Would love to have a dfg officer come on sch and talk about this one.

 

[MJB]

It's for abs & lobster same rule.......you guys are reading into this way too much

 

[El Matavenados]

The personnel answering these questions are not lawyers, nor are they judges, and they frequently give the wrong response. I once asked the Cleveland National Forest about treestands. They said that it is a "structure", and it's unlawful to erect a "structure" without permits.

Uhhhhhhh.....right.

To say that scouting and marking a spot is "hunting" is pretty shaky, but it tells you what Mr. Green Jeans might be thinking when he writes you a ticket. If he's wrong, what's the loss to him? You've lost at least a day of work fighting it, but he won't even get a slap on the wrist.