Poachers keep wildlife officers busy
HUNTING/FISHING -- Spokane-area wildlife enforcement officers are still in high gear even though most big-game hunting seasons area winding down.
Here are a few highlights from the past week's officer reports:
An anonymous tip led officers to a man who had five deer hanging in his south Spokane shop, and not a tag on any of them. Busted.
In Lincoln County, an officer pieced together information from clues and tips from other hunters to track down a man who had illegally shot a large 6x6 whitetail buck.
Turns out the guy also was a convicted felon, who had not yet restored his gun possession rights.
A man road-hunting for pheasants in the Tekoa area -- it's been a tempting way to "hunt" as birds exposed themselves on the hard snowpack recently -- paid a price for carelessness. As he loaded his over-under shotgun, closed the action and shut the passenger side door, both barrels fired. "One round shot the victim in the knee and the other went through the door," the report said. He was in surgery at Sacred Heart Hospital and apparently the wound was not life threatening, the deputy said.
Fishing pressure was light last week for the opening at winter fishing lakes, probably because the weather was too wintery, officers reported.