Just a Little Early
By Sr. Agent Winston Michel

One night Sr. Agent Jamie Folse and I, Sr. Agent Winston Michel were patrolling Stephensville in St. Martin parish. We had been receiving complaints in the area since last hunting season of a particular subject hunting at night. We had spent many very cold nights last year trying to catch this person. We had no luck. This year we thought we would try to work the complaint earlier in the season. Even though it wasn’t very cold yet, we thought we could maybe get the jump on him.

We were scheduled to work till 2:30 a.m., but at about 9:00 p.m. we noticed a boat with no running lights traveling toward us shining the banks. We thought it was a little early but they were going extremely slow to be just riding or going to a specific location. As we watched the subject he continued to shine the banks along the canal. When he passed us he shined his light right on us. We thought he had seen us. We decided since he probably had seen us we would stop him. We figured we would at least get a running light violation out of the deal.

When we stopped the boat we saw that there were two subjects in the boat. Both the driver and his passenger had loaded .22 rim fire rifles next to them. When we asked them what they were doing the driver said going to get his dog. (Yeah ok, isn’t that always the excuse?) Well, why do you need a loaded gun to get your dog? He said we always bring one. I said, “I guess you always idle around and shine the banks on the way there.” He didn’t say anything. Well of course that story didn’t fly. He then told us that his dog was about a mile and a half father down the bayou at his uncle’s camp. So much for that excuse.

They were cited for hunting wild quadrupeds at night with artificial light and hunting from a moving boat. The .22 rifles were seized along with the bullets. This case is still pending.