Can someone enlighten me as to how they are poachers... Is it because they may have killed a bull trout due to their over handling of the fish? Doesn't seem like there is any evidence that they actually killed any fish.
From the Missoulian:
"An FWP news release announcing the plea agreement last week indicated bull trout had been mishandled by the Boughton brothers and Von Ruden during the trip, including an instance where one of the fish was caught, reeled in, netted, handled, and then released with the hook and line still attached so they could film it under water being reeled in, netted and handled again.
Some bull trout were over-handled by the three men for periods of 12 minutes or more, Sommers had charged, and FWP Region 1 fisheries manager Mark Deleray said what the men did with the fish after catching and before releasing them “will no doubt have negative impacts on the bull trout fishery.”
“We believe some of our practices could have been handled better during this trip with what we now know,” the Boughtons wrote, “but we believe FWP misrepresented this part of their case in their press release about our handling practices. Never was a fish out of water for more than a few breaths and then back into the net quickly. We feel strongly that we had no negative effects on the fishery and we never intentionally released a fish to replay it for the camera. That practice would violate the fish-handling ethos we hold dear.”
“They can deny it all they want,” Sommers said Monday. “I have the videos.”
Sommers said the men were not charged for any instance where video evidence showed a bull trout was released within four minutes of being netted.
But there were times that unedited video – FWP obtained via a search warrant for more than 2,200 videos shot by the Boughtons during the Bob Marshall trip – showed the three “messing with the fish for 15, even 20 minutes,” Sommers said. “There were some they’d release, that would just go right to the bottom and lay there.”
.
