this is a post from another message board, but it answers some questions someone had here:

Can you say OUCH really loud??? I now can.

You may remember my post last month about the DFG Ticket I received on May 31. I had just plain ole forgot and left my license at home.

Anyway I told you all I would let you know how it turned out. Seeing that today I had my day in court here is what happened.

When asked how I pled, I responded ”Guilty” before I could get another word out the Judge imposed a $690.00 fine… I politely requested “Your Honor may I please make a statement if it would please the court?” He responded “Lets hear it!” I then explained that I did posses a valid fishing license and that I had inadvertently left it at home that day. I also told him that the DFG Officer had instructed me to bring my valid license with me and show it to you (the Judge) and explained that it was purchased January 11, 2002 so I obviously had it well in advance of the citation.

The Judge responded “In that case Mr. Durham this court fines you $150.00!” I guess the look of disbelief on my face made him ask “Any thing else, do you have something to say?” I made the mistake of stating I felt the fine seemed excessive for such an honest mistake (HINT: Don’t Do That). He responded “Son you are lucky you brought your license with you, if you had a valid license, which you do but would have failed to bring it with you today I would have upheld the $690.00 fine. I will however give you a choice of paying the $150.00 fine or changing your plea to NOT GUILTY at which point we will set a trial date and have the DFG Officer present, if he says you did not have a license with you that day your fine will be $690.00 plus additional court costs.” Needless to say I shut my mouth, thanked the Judge and said I would be willing to pay the $150.00 fine today. Mind you now this was only an infraction but Holy Crap.

i hear you xcellentx. i've gotten a fishing ticket before too. i went camping in the angeles national forest a few years back and decided to go fish at the upper big tujunga creek. after 10 minutes of fishing, the DFG guy came and confiscated our fish and rounded up 4 of my other friends who also did not have a license. he gave most of us a ticket but we thought it was a small citation. so we didnt really care and we ended up taking pictures with the DFG guy and his truck. i wish we werent so nice to him when i found out how much the ticket was. the judge was cool though, he let us off by letting us get a fishing license and giving us the $150 fine. now, i never leave home without my license. too much of a pain in the ass.

i was fishing the russian river when a DFG officer came by right as i was leaving. he called me over, examined my gear, and asked if i had a fishing license, i said no, being that im 15 and dont yet need one, he didnt believe me though, and i wasnt using barbless hooks, a regulation i didnt know existed on the russian, and threatened to confiscate my gear and give me a $390 fine. he then backed down and said this was just a warning, needless to say it scared the crap outta me.

tight lines,
perry

That wasn't my post, that is from another site. Hasn't happened to me..but it makes me think more when getting my gear ready not to forget the license

I recently thought I had left my license at home on a 3/4 charter so rather than risk a fine even though I had the carbon copy on me, I bought one day for $7.50. I found my license in my bag on the boat later that day. better safe than sorry after seeing that post.