Bad Experience @ the Pudd
I went to the Pudd last night with a friend who was having a bad day and needed to kill a couple hours. He didnt have any of his gear with him so I loaned him one of my rods. He keeps his fishing license in his tackle box so he didnt have it on him. So sure he was risking getting caught fishing without a license. So I decided to toss out a M&M combo for some kitties, my friend decided to start walking the shoreline tossing a swimbait.
After about an hour I see an LA County Sheriff talking to my buddy. I walked over to see what was going on and my friend had his hands on the hood of the car. As I approched the Sheriff asked what I wanted, I told him I was seeing what was going on with my friend. He told me he was checking people for fishing licenses and asked if I had one. I gave him my fishing license and ID, and rather than let me go he tells me to put my hands on the hood of the car and spread'em. "Do you have anything illegal, guns, drugs on you.", he asked. After patting me down and seeing I didnt have anything on me he tells me to keep my hands on the hood of his car and keep my legs spread.
So he goes back into his car and my buddy and I sat there for a few mins wondering what the is going on. Then the guy gets out of his car and walks over to me and starts acting like hes reaching for his cuffs as hes telling me, "You know its against the law to present an officer of the law with an ID thats not yours." Then he shows me my fishing license and says, "the name on this fishing license doesnt match the name on the ID you gave me and this isnt your ID." I look alittle closer at the ID he has in his hand and its my friends ID. So I tell him thats my buddys ID (which made him feel real stupid) and that I already gave him my ID. I glanced over into the window of his car and I could see my ID on the seat so I told him thats my ID over there.
So after about 20 minutes he let me go, probably after he ran a backround check on me. A few minutes later he let me buddy go with a ticket for fishing without a license. After letting my buddy go he sped off somewhere else. He never checked anyone else for their fishing licenses before or after targeting my buddy. There were atleast 20-30 other people fishing in our area and he didnt ask a single one of them for their licenses and many of them got there after us.
Im not sure what made this Sheriff target my buddy and I. OK, so he got my friend fishing without his license. OK, so give him a ticket. What bothers me is the way he treated us and more so myself. When I 1st approached and he asked for my fishing license and ID, he should have looked at them and then let me go and wished me a good day. At that point I had done nothing wrong and he had NO REASON to make me put my hands on his car and pat me down. He then pretty much harassed me for 20 mins while doing a backround check foaming at the mouth hoping something would come back on me.
He made many comments to us like, "The safety patrol isnt around anymore, we're running the show around here now." After all that happened there was about 30 mins left in the day. I left my line in the water as my buddy and I talked to some of the regs. Sounds like since the Sheriffs took over at the lake they have really been harassing people. One older guy said he has been carded there 3 outta the last 4x hes been there. While we were talking to people the sheriff eventually came back to the area of the lake we were in. We could see him in the parking lot going from car to car running the plates and shining his lights in the car windows. When my buddy and I left he pretty much tailgated us all the way to the front gate.
TaperSteve
PS - Outta the last 20x ive fished the Pudd ive caught a total 3 fish, 2 LMB and 1 cat. Dont waste your time fishing at a lake where you probably wont catch any fish unless your ready to be harassed.
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Originally Posted by JAG107
