The Lake County District Attorney”s Office and the local courts continue to pursue and hand down stiff sentences on game violators.
According to a press release from the Lake County District Attorney”s
Office, Elias Salud-Calderon, 31, of Clearlake, was recently sentenced in a deer poaching case. Chief Deputy D.A. Richard Hinchcliff prosecuted the case (Hinchcliff oversees all fish and wildlife prosecutions in Lake County).
On July 5, 2008, Department of Fish and Game (DFG) sarden Loren Freeman received a call from an informant reporting several males standing around three dead does along Round Mountain Road in the Clearlake Oaks area.
The informant reported a vehicle license plate number to the warden, who ran the plate to determine the address of the registered owner of the vehicle. Warden Freeman responded to that address in the City of Clearlake, where he found Salud-Calderon and a co-defendant, Jose Manuel Hernandez-Medina, cleaning blood out of an ice chest. After further investigation, warden Freeman found and confiscated three deer, including a fawn, that had been illegally killed, along with a .22-caliber rifle and ammunition, a .308-caliber rifle, a digital camera and a machete.
Hinchcliff charged Salud-Calderon and Hernandez-Medina with felony conspiracy and six misdemeanor violations of the Fish and Game Code. On Dec. 15, Salud-Calderon pleaded guilty in Department Three of the Superior Court in Lakeport to misdemeanor violations of taking deer when the season was not open, taking deer without possessing a deer tag, and possessing deer without being in possession of a valid hunting license. Other charges were dismissed for those admissions.
Judge Arthur H. Mann sentenced Salud-Calderon pursuant to a plea agreement proposed by the District Attorney to three years probation, 45 days in jail, a fine of $2,295, plus the restrictions that he could not hunt or possess firearms in any area inhabited by game animals for three years. His two rifles, digital camera and machete were ordered forfeited to law enforcement authorities.
Hernandez-Medina was previously sentenced to the same terms and conditions on Nov. 10.
The Lake County courts have a reputation of being tough on fish and game violators. In fact Freeman, who was just promoted to lieutenant, and other game wardens have been very active on the lake looking for fisherman who catch and keep overlimits of crappie and bass, for unlicensed fishermen, and for boats not bearing quagga mussel stickers.
Freeman said that in one day last week he stopped 77 boats and issued seven citations for no fishing licenses. He also charged three fishermen with allegedly using small goldfish for bait, which is illegal.
According to Freeman, there are now a total of three game wardens assigned to Lake County. The DFG also has assigned a patrol boat to the lake. The boat is a large inflatable-like vessel with a 225 hp outboard.
On the fishing scene, the cold weather has slowed the action and the more successful fishermen are using minnows, LV500 lipless crankbaits and jigs. The trick to success is a super slow retrieve as the bass are very lethargic. The water surface temperature on Thursday morning at Library Park in Lakeport was a chilly 42 degrees.
WON BASS held a pair of team tournaments over the weekend. On Saturday it took 21.28 pounds to win the event. The tournament drew 20 teams. On Sunday it took 20.51 pounds to win. That tournament drew 13 boats.
The DFG has placed Lake Pillsbury and Indian Valley Reservoir back on the trout stocking list, the reason being that both lakes have more than 1,000 surface acres and fall outside the requirements placed by the DFG. However, neither lake will be stocked in the near future.
Lake Pillsbury is normally stocked in the spring and Indian Valley Reservoir in the fall. There still has been no decision made on stocking Upper Blue Lake, which remains on the list. Originally all the lakes in Lake County were placed on the no-stocking list by the DFG because of a lawsuit dealing with the red-legged frog.
