Late season is my favourite time of the year for fishing. The launches are bare, the weekend fishermen and jet skiers have packed it in for the year and when passing another boat on the water you can pretty well be assured that they share the same crazy passion that you do.

A small group of our good friends have started an annual fall tradition of heading down to Lake St. Clair for a weekend of musky fishing. It is always a lot of fun and there are always some decent fish caught.

On the Sunday, Adam and I were doing our trolling run when we passed a boat which had two anglers on board. The fishing regulations allow one line per angler on that specific part of the lake, but it was obvious that there were way more than two lines running in the water! We looked at each other and then back at the boat, trying to count how many lines they did in fact have out.

In order to see better, we made a turn and pulled in behind them to troll. Then we counted… one… two… three… four… five… six… seven… EIGHT lines in the water! There was no chance of there being eight people on board that little boat. I pulled out my camera and snapped a few shots of these guys, hoping that they would take the hint that what they were doing was wrong. Not a chance. They turned a blind eye and continued on. I couldn't believe the ignorance on their part! Soon enough, a boat with three of our friends in it caught on to these guys too. They also proceeded to follow them around for a while, taking more photos of them. Finally the offenders continued on to another part of the lake.

Someone asked us all afterwards why we didn't confront these guys about what they were doing. The thought of jumping on board and holding them in a chicken wing under citizen's arrest until the police arrived had crossed my mind, but thankfully my better judgement took over. Thanks, but the vigilante stuff should be saved for the movies pal! Maybe next time we'll call you to confront them while we sit back and take photographic evidence while they beat the tar out of you. Get a grip.

I'm not sure what angers me more about this whole thing. The fact that there are people out there who fail to follow regulations set out to protect the resource, the fact that the Ministry of Natural Resources has made cutbacks which has resulted in the opportunity for situations like this to happen or the fact that these idiots were brazen enough to pull such a stunt in the presence of numerous other anglers who were fishing within the regulations.

Now, here is a word of caution for all of the poachers out there! Beware of what you're doing; you never know when your illegal activities will be posted on the internet for all to see!