"T hat was quite the goal your son scored at the hockey game on the weekend,” I said to my night patrol partner Mick Bakke.

On that particular night back October of 1994 we were patrolling west of Loon Lake; we had an aircraft as our “eye in the sky” and about eight ground units out, as part of a planned enforcement operation. I really enjoyed working with Officer Bakke because the night would go by rather quickly as we mostly boasted to each other about how good our boys were in hockey, and how some day they were going to make the NHL (by the way, the NHL scouts somehow missed discovering the awesome talent of our boys!). “I think this hill is a good place to pour a cup of java, as it’s going to be a long night”, I said. “Good plan”, replied Mick. “So as I was saying about that goal…….what the heck….what is that? Mick, there’s a light working the field right behind us! We’ve got some action!” It was a rare occasion that we actually found the spot lighters before the aircraft did.

It was a night patrol I’ll never forget. Spot lighters, also called night hunters or jack lighters were working a spot light in the field just south of us about 400 meters away. Us Conservation Officers consider spotlighting wildlife to be one of the most serious infractions that are committed under the Saskatchewan Wildlife Act & Regulations. Using a spotlight is unethical, unsportsmanlike and unsafe. It’s outright cheating the animal from being hunted by “fair chase” methods. Wildlife momentarily “freeze”, or are blinded by the light of the million candle power spotlight, or vehicle headlights being shone directly at their eyes. The poacher gets an easy killing shot from short range. As the blast of the rifle pierces the darkness, most of the time the poacher doesn’t have a clue if there are people, cattle, residences or farm machinery in the vicinity of where the bullets are flying.

Our Turn-In-Poacher line gets many calls each fall from landowners, who really get upset when night hunters drive through fences, shoot too close to buildings, drive over swaths, and wound animals that they shot at.

The Wildlife Regulations state that for the purpose of ensuring the safety of hunters and the public, a searchlight shall not be used for the purpose of hunting wildlife. The regulations go on to say that a searchlight may be used by trappers when conducting normal trapping operations. Spot lighters who are charged by Conservation Officers face a minimum fine of $1000 and a maximum of $100,000; also automatic forfeiture of all seized items, and the court may order the vehicle be forfeited to the Crown; and there is also an automatic three year loss of hunting rights in the province.

Treaty Indians and Metis folks (who meet the subsistence hunting criteria) cannot use searchlights to hunt on Crown or private land in Saskatchewan. However, if a particular First Nation doesn’t have a Band bylaw prohibiting use of lights for hunting, then spotlights can be used by Treaty Indians on those particular First Nations lands.

So, back to that night patrol in October of 1994. Officer Bakke and I observed the vehicle go into a series of alfalfa fields. At one point we stopped our patrol vehicle, and with our lights out, heard the poachers fire a number rifle shots within a short time period. We snuck into the field, got close to the night hunters and engaged our red and blue lights. The violator’s vehicle lights went out and they sped into an alfalfa field. We pursued, and with assistance from our “eye in the sky”, who had night vision goggles onboard, we successfully apprehended three poachers. They were using a four-door car, and had three White-tailed deer in the trunk of the car. In fact, the trunk was so full of dead deer, that they had to carry the spare tire in the back seat of the car! We arrested the night hunters and seized the deer, a .22 caliber rifle, a .303 British, a couple hunting knives, an axe and the vehicle. A backup unit arrived, and then we processed all the paperwork. It was a successful apprehension of serious resource violators……makes us feel good when we catch guys like that! I can’t recall if Officer Bakke and I ever got around to that cup of coffee later that night.

One other memorable night patrol was a couple falls ago, in 2007; we had a great night of catching poachers. Conservation Officers Brent Webster and Peter Schulz from North Battleford observed a spot lighter and tried to stop the vehicle, but a pursuit ensued. During the 10 kilometer pursuit the poachers turned their spotlight onto the officers’ patrol unit, trying to hinder the officers. Our aircraft assisted the officers, and guided in a backup unit for assistance. The chase came to a successful conclusion when the poachers’ vehicle broke down. The officers then conducted a high risk takedown on the violators. It’s very frustrating when the poachers risk their own lives and the lives of the officers and the public when they fail to stop. On that particular planned night patrol, we thought that was enough action for one night, but as the aircraft made one last circuit it picked up headlights working a field west of Meadow Lake. Officers were able to make more arrests, so we earned our paychecks that night!

One last night hunting story I have to pass on……again, dealing with Loon Lake area. At the end of September of 2006 Conservation Officers in Loon Lake had a very interesting investigation. At around midnight on September 29th Loon Lake RCMP observed a suspicious vehicle coming out of a field just south-east of town, so they stopped it for a check. The vehicle turned out to be unregistered, and further a further check revealed alcohol and a stolen handgun inside the vehicle. From interviewing the occupants of the car, it soon became evident they had been illegally hunting, so the RCMP called the Conservation Officers. By the time the investigation was completed by the CO’s and RCMP it was determined that the five occupants of the car had driven into an alfalfa field just before midnight, saw some deer and chased one in the car headlights. Then they actually drove over a White-tailed doe with the car, then jumped out and finished it off with the stolen handgun. Needless to say, the Conservation Officers and the RCMP issued lots of paperwork on that file, as numerous charges were laid.

Now to switch over to fisheries, let’s have a look at the unlawful use of lights for fishing in our province. In my 29 year career I’ve mainly seen the use of lights for catching fish as a spring fish run issue. Fish poachers use a flashlight in one hand and then have a pitchfork, gaff, snare or spear in the other hand. Poachers, sneaking around under the cover of darkness, use the light to find the fish which are in often in shallow water as they work their way up streams for their spring spawning. Of course, this mostly happens during the time of year when the fishing season is closed.

Our Saskatchewan Fisheries Regulations state that it’s illegal to use a light to attract fish for the purpose of fishing, other than a light that is part of a fishing lure attached to a line used in angling. Violators of this section face a fine of $150 plus $25 per fish, plus a victim of crime surcharge of at least $30.

As you know, there are all kinds of fishing gimmicks on the market nowadays—some work well and some not so well. Websites for companies advertising lighted fishing lures boast that these lures are especially effective in low light conditions such as night time, dark water, early morning, late evening, and deep water situations. These websites go on to say that lighted fishing lures are great for casting and even better for trolling especially when the fish aren’t biting other lures or baits. And, they are legal to use in Saskatchewan. You might want to give lighted lures a try.

Here’s a question to see how smart you are. Can an angler go out by the light of the moon and legally angle in Saskatchewan, say at midnight? The answer is yes; in fact it’s quite common. Many anglers find that walleye bite at midnight in the moonlight. Anglers who use a head lamp or small LED light clipped to their hat brim don’t have to worry that they are breaking the law……that is acceptable, to help pour your tea and bait up your hook. A few jurisdictions in North America allow the use of lights for night fishing, but we don’t allow that here in Saskatchewan. Fishing with artificial light has been around for many years. In the early days the most common method was to hang a lantern over the side of the boat. Now some anglers (in jurisdictions that allow it) use submersible lights which project light directly into the water. The theory is that light starts a natural food chain reaction by attracting plankton, which in turn brings in bait fish, and then the larger game fish move in to feed off the bait fish.

One of the weirdest and most interesting stories involving use of lights for fishing is a case that Dave Harvey, our Enforcement Chief, had many years ago. Dave and another Conservation Officer, Ivan Phillips (who is now a Park Warden in Jasper), were doing some park enforcement work in Kimball Lake campground around 11:30 pm on that particular night in June of 1980. “It was a very calm summer evening when we heard a boat going south across Kimball Lake”, recalls Dave, “and we wondered why a boat would be going across Kimball Lake at that time of night.”

The boat ended up stopping on the south end of Kimball Lake. Dave and Ivan knew there was a short portage between Kimball and the next lake to the south. After a few minutes the boat started up again on Little Raspberry Lake—a lake that is stocked with rainbow trout and splake. Dave and Ivan ran down a nature trail and ended up at the shore of Little Raspberry Lake. “When we were on the shore of Raspberry Lake we could see a weird-looking glow in the distance on the lake, and every now and then we heard a clunking noise. We couldn’t figure out what exactly we were looking at,” stated Dave. They would also hear some splashing every now and then.

Finally these unknown persons doing this unknown activity worked their way around Little Raspberry until by about 1:00 AM they were in the lake right in front of where Dave and Ivan were situated on the shoreline. Finally the two CO’s were able to ascertain what was going on. Dave recalls, “They were spear fishing with scuba gear and lights. The weird-looking glow that we were seeing was the glow of light under the water. They were using lights to attract and detect fish underwater”.

The next obvious question was how were the two officers going to apprehend these violators. Finally at 5:00 AM the two subjects left Little Raspberry Lake and began hauling a rubber Zodiak type boat, scuba tanks and spear fishing gear across the portage back to Kimball Lake. When they had finished their last load, Dave stepped out of the bush, identified himself and nabbed the surprised violators. The two spear fishermen actually had limited success at their illegal activity, as they didn’t have much for fish. The officers seized all equipment, and charges were laid. Dave remembers vividly that the fines were paid later that same day.

If you have any information on illegal use of lights for hunting and fishing in Saskatchewan, please remember that Conservation Officers need your help to preserve the province’s fish and wildlife resources. You can call our 24/7 Turn-In-Poacher line at 1-800-667-7561.