Jackson: Why it's so difficult to crack down on poachers

The reluctance in our society that allows poachers to thrive and stops people from calling the conservation officers or state police is difficult to accept and comprehend.

There are several elements involved that help make poaching so rampant in recent times throughout the suburbs and metro area.

Because state lawmakers refuse to accept fishing and hunting as a viable source as a serious resource throughout Illinois, it has led to a lack of serious law enforcement and management.

Here are some examples of how poachers get away with ignoring the rules and regulations.

• Once a 4-star crappie spot, Beck Lake in Glenview is a mere shadow of what it used to be for local anglers. Poachers did their thing where the public couldn't see them.

• Busse Lake in Cook County has seen its share of interlopers as well, especially when law-abiding fishermen are lacking.

• Bode Lake, north of Streamwood, attracts people who contend they have every right to take as many fish they can carry in their buckets.

• Mallard Lake in DuPage still manages to hang on for fair largemouth bass despite the constant poaching.

• Bluff Lake on the Fox Chain is a major target for the retail trade. Here's where I watched poachers load up 55-gallon drums and drive away. The same truck was back in just over an hour to repeat the poaching process by loading a couple drums with fish taken without any concern as to the law.

• The T-Channel off Pistakee Lake is the target of one poacher in particular who keeps every fish, large and small.

George, a Daily Herald reader and listener to my outdoor radio talk show, recently said he was told to mind his own business when he confronted a couple suspicious characters on a shoreline of Shabbona Lake. I will not use George's last name or the town where he lives for fear of reprisals.

George said he called the poacher hotline, which connected him with someone in Springfield who told him it could take up to two hours before a conservation officer could show up at the lake.

Why have officers graduate from the state police academy when they are handcuffed by limited budgets and an uncaring state legislature.

I was also told by a retired state police officer that he and his on-duty friends are very concerned about poachers and would prefer to leave conservation-related matters to the conservation officers (which happen to have full state police powers).

Several years ago I was wading the Fox River for smallmouth bass and channel catfish. As I came around a bend near the Carpentersville spillway, I noticed a group of people stretching a net across the river. The net was obviously used to catch anything that swam by it.

I called the IDNR as well as the Illinois State Police. Neither agency showed up. That told me the "infection" created by state lawmakers has also spread to law enforcement.

All we can do is keep calling when we see something off-kilter, like the poachers at Skokie Lagoon.

This wonderful re-created fishing hot spot is a meeting place for lots of poachers who have no fear of the cops or anyone else for that matter.

Just in case you feel you can make a difference, here is the poaching hotline number: 1-877-2DNRLAW (1-877-236-7529).

• Contact Mike Jackson at angler88@comcast.net, catch his radio show 7-9 a.m. Sundays on WGCO 1590-AM (live-streamed at www.1590WCGO.com) and get more content at mikejacksonoutdoors.com.