Northwest Sportsman – August 2019

nwsportsmanmag.com | AUGUST 2019 Northwest Sportsman 35

By Andy Walgamott

MIXED BAG

Egregious Sekiu

Salmon Poacher Fined

J

OTM stays in

Colorado this

issue with news

that a man who

has had his license

privileges suspended

twice before has now

had them revoked for

life throughout nearly

the entire United States.

Jeff Bodnar, 46, was stripped of his

fishing, hunting and trapping rights in late

JACKASS OF THE MONTH

A

n angler who egregiously violated

Washington’s salmon regulations

last summer was sentenced to

pay more than $3,200 in fines, and he also

forfeited his boat.

Mark Heinemann, 75, of Bainbridge

Island was caught fishing alone off Sekiu

with six lines out – all baited with lures

with barbed hooks – off two downriggers,

claimed he had only caught one fish but

was eventually found to be way over his

limit with 10 – half of which were also

illegal to retain wild salmon – and hadn’t

marked anything down on his punch card.

WDFW Region 6 Capt. Dan Chadwick

said Heinemann’s fishing setups looked

like what you might find on a commercial

boat, though added there wasn’t any

evidence he was selling his catch.

In February, Heineman was convicted

of 10 counts in Clallam County District

Court, including criminal charges for

possessing four wild coho and a king

during a closed season, exceeding the bag

limit on hatchery coho by three fish, and

failing to record any of his catch. Another

10 charges were dropped, Chadwick said.

Heinemann’s 23-foot Maxum Cabin

Cruiser, worth approximately $5,000, was

initially seized at the dock and he later

did not contest its forfeiture to the state,

according to WDFW.

While there are some Washington

waters that an angler can run two lines for

salmon with the second rod endorsement,

Sekiu is not one of them because it’s a

mixed-stock fishery.

Barbless hooks are also required on all

of the state’s marine waters for salmon.

Neither wild Chinook nor wild coho

were open at the time as well. Heinemann’s

fines included civil penalties of up to $500

for each unclipped salmon he kept.

HEINEMANN AND HIS boat were spotted

on Tuesday, Aug. 28, during a joint Clallam

County Sheriff ’s Office-WDFW patrol of the

western Strait of Juan de Fuca.

Officers noticed that he had two

downriggers deployed, the second without

an accompanying rod or another angler.

When they asked Heinemann to reel up

his gear for inspection, he brought in the

line of the rod attached to one downrigger,

but left the ball down.

So they asked him to bring it up, and

he began to but stopped part way, so they

had to ask again, after which he complied

“reluctantly,” according to WDFW.

As it came up, Heinemann unclipped

a leader from the cable and officers saw

it had a bungee attached to a flasher and

lure, as did a second that came up.

On the rodless downrigger were three

more bungee-flasher-lure rigs off the cable.

“I’ve been on the marine unit since

2007. I’ve done thousands of boardings in
      that time. I’ve never seen somebody run
      that kind of gear off of a recreational boat,”
      Clallam County Sheriff ’s Office Sergeant
      Eric Munger told the Peninsula Daily News.
      Heinemann volunteered that he had
      kept one hatchery coho, which he showed
      to the officers, though he hadn’t put it on
      his catch card.
      Between the good bite in the Straits
      at the time, all the gear he had down and
      his claim to have only one fish, the officers
      were a bit suspicious.
      WDFW Officer Bryan Davidson asked
      him again if he had any more salmon to
      show, and after Heinemann denied it,
      Davidson advised him that he thought
      there were in fact more on the boat.
      From the cabin Heinemann brought out
      two garbage bags containing nine more
      salmon, most of which had been cleaned.
      Game wardens have suggested this
      probably wasn’t Heinemann’s first try at
      running all the lines, but what led him to
      decide to break the rules so spectacularly
      that day isn’t clear. He didn’t respond to
      multiple efforts to contact him.

June by the state’s wildlife commission

after pleading guilty to unlawfully

possessing a pair of bears and a cougar, as

well as being a felon with a gun.

Previously they’d been suspended

for a 2008 case involving Bodnar trying

to sell poached bobcats out of state, a

Lacey Act violation for which he received

more than two years in a federal prison

(and which landed July’s JOTM in hot

water too). Even as his privileges were still

under suspension, he began hunting and

trapping again, according to state officials.

“Mr. Bodnar appears to possess a

complete disregard for Colorado’s hunting

laws and a total indifference for wildlife,”

said game warden Ian Petkash. “We take

these investigations seriously because of

the toll someone like this can take on local

wildlife populations.”

If Bodnar violates his ban – effective

in all 48 states of the Interstate Violator

Compact – he faces fines up to $10,000

and as much as three more months in jail.

Just doesn’t seem worth it, but

jackasses will be jackasses.

WDFW Officer Bryan Davidson poses with the boat,

trailer, downriggers, fishing rod and flasher-lure

combos seized following an at-sea inspection of

Mark Heinemann’s boat last August that turned up

egregious fishing rules violations. (WDFW)