# Wade Lemon



## TheHunted (Feb 22, 2016)

Anyone else hearing about Wade Lemon being ticketed by the DWR on antelope island?


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## colorcountrygunner (Oct 6, 2009)

Fake news. I bet Wade Lemon's outfitting company could poach the state record bighorn and the dwr wouldn't bat an eye.


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## colorcountrygunner (Oct 6, 2009)

But what would I know, I'm just a $25 tag buying knucklehead.


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## middlefork (Nov 2, 2008)

colorcountrygunner said:


> Fake news. I bet Wade Lemon's outfitting company could poach the state record bighorn and the dwr wouldn't bat an eye.


LOL


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## johnnycake (Jul 19, 2011)

colorcountrygunner said:


> Fake news. I bet Wade Lemon's outfitting company could poach the state record bighorn and the dwr wouldn't bat an eye.


I bet they think they could be poaching the state record and wind up poaching a nice, midget ram instead. But still get away with it because a janitor at the dwr office on the other side of the state said it was probably ok


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## colorcountrygunner (Oct 6, 2009)

johnnycake said:


> colorcountrygunner said:
> 
> 
> > Fake news. I bet Wade Lemon's outfitting company could poach the state record bighorn and the dwr wouldn't bat an eye.
> ...


 was it the janitor? I thought it was a dedicated hunter earning dh hours by answering phones for the dwr for the day?


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## Vanilla (Dec 11, 2009)

The state draw hunter’s field pic had the WLH logo on it. So they were out there. Haven’t heard anything else about it.


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## sheepassassin (Mar 23, 2018)

I doubt it. Just like mossback, they wouldn’t ticket someone who helps them make money. Those outfitters can do no wrong in their eyes. What is the ticket rumored to be for?


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## Nebohunter (Aug 23, 2018)

I watched his outfit go down into a closed area (due to the fire) on the Nebo this year. They were after a well known bull that crossed units. Watched em go straight through the closed area with my own 2 eyes to kill it. Wasnt to happy about that.


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## Critter (Mar 20, 2010)

Nebohunter said:


> I watched his outfit go down into a closed area (due to the fire) on the Nebo this year. They were after a well known bull that crossed units. Watched em go straight through the closed area with my own 2 eyes to kill it. Wasnt to happy about that.


The question is did you report it?

It doesn't matter if the DOW wouldn't do anything about it but it still needed to be reported.


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## Nebohunter (Aug 23, 2018)

No I didnt. I should have but I didnt. It would have been my word vs theirs, so I didnt think I would be heard. I've seen how they have been treated up there with past incidents. Nothing happened before, so why would it now?


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## Critter (Mar 20, 2010)

You never know, perhaps you would of got in touch with someone at the DOW that doesn't care for him. 

As for your word vs theirs, they had to be evidence left at the site to tip the scales in your favor. 

Until we as sportsmen and sportswomen start reporting this type of thing it will go on and on. I have reported a number of things and the reports have always been followed up on except for one.


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## ridgetop (Sep 13, 2007)

It is kind of strange that the island auction buck is not posted on their site but the public buck is.
I think that there's a lot of people that don't realize there is a big part of the island that is off limits to hunting, even for the auction tag holder.


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## TheHunted (Feb 22, 2016)

What I heard was, and I’m not saying this is true it’s just what I heard from someone who frequents AI and was on the island when the buck was killed. I heard that the buck the hunter ultimately shot was originally in an area that was off limits to hunting. The outfitter pushed the deer off of the area closed to hunting and onto an area open to hunting. The hunter then shot the deer.


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## middlefork (Nov 2, 2008)

I will admit that I have no idea that parts of the island are off limits to hunting. That being said every two track on the island has had traffic the last couple of weeks.

I thought that the two hunters had pretty much unlimited access to the island.

Everyone else is limited to 50 or 100 feet off any open trail.


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## ridgetop (Sep 13, 2007)

I think the bison hunters get to drive off road to retrieve.


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## Vanilla (Dec 11, 2009)

ridgetop said:


> It is kind of strange that the island auction buck is not posted on their site but the public buck is.
> I think that there's a lot of people that don't realize there is a big part of the island that is off limits to hunting, even for the auction tag holder.


You'd have to look at Doyle's images to see the auction buck.

And I thought that tag holders got free run of the island? Not able to drive off-road, but could still hunt almost all of it and unlike the rest of us, walk off trail? I guess there is still the closed area by the structures. WLH guiding someone in an area closed to them for hunting? Huh, that has never happened before. Weird... (insert sarcastic eye roll)

As for witnessing bad behavior be an outfitter- yes, please report it. I can't tell you how often I read about Outfitter X doing bad behavior Y and the result is always the same: not reported. It may be your word vs theirs, but maybe not. Do you not carry a phone with a camera on it while hunting? If not, do you carry a regular camera? Can your GPS shoot photos? And even if none of the above are present, the officer can do an investigation. Maybe nothing happens, but we have to start reporting this stuff when we see it. The old adage applies here as well: If you see something, say something.


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## RandomElk16 (Sep 17, 2013)

Lol @ reporting people on the Nebo.

Rams can be killed there on an off-year and they don't care. The entire freaking unit was closed and they didn't care. They certainly won't mind a little hiking.


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## blackdog (Sep 11, 2007)

To people who witness illegal doings, 


there's this really neat thing that came out a few years ago, they're called smart phones, they have really cool cameras and video recorders on them. You should think about getting one.


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## DallanC (Jan 13, 2009)

blackdog said:


> To people who witness illegal doings,
> 
> there's this really neat thing that came out a few years ago, they're called smart phones, they have really cool cameras and video recorders on them. You should think about getting one.


And... like mentioned above. People did report the illegal Nebo killing. But, the DWR came up with an excuse and said it was all a misunderstanding and dropped the case. Hard to motivate people to turn in others, when the DWR drops such high profile cases.

LOL... I just remembered I actually had the rams picture on my computer... before it got deleted and scrubbed from the interwebz.










-DallanC


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## DallanC (Jan 13, 2009)

But... kudo's to the investigating DWR officer we ran into on the General Rifle hunt. He was following up on an abandoned spike that a youth killed with his dad and grand-dad... then they left it to rot. Probably wasn't the best move to literally shoot it with a bunch of other people who were standing there watching it / them.

Bad way to raise a new hunter... hope they got tracked down and ticketed.


-DallanC


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## Vanilla (Dec 11, 2009)

Rumor is WLH likes trophy animals in closed areas to their hunters. Again. 

I have no independent knowledge of this, just what is being written in other places. 

One can only hope if the rumors are true, the lesson will be learned this time, since it definitely wasn’t learned last time. After all, the real problem was just us “knuckleheads” that only pay “$25 for a deer tag” that “don’t do squat” for conservation. Wade was sure penitent after they illegally killed that ram, wasn’t he?


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## Critter (Mar 20, 2010)

It would be interesting to read the actual report of the sheep incident to see how they came to their conclusions. All I have read about it has been on these forums which can't be bias could they? 

But it still doesn't say not to report suspicious activity or others that you actually see breaking a G&F law. 

There are only so many law enforcement officers out there to try and to enforce the laws on the books and they can't be everywhere. We have to be their eyes and ears in the outdoors. If you don't want to report anything that you see then that is fine, but don't sit in front of your computer or phone and say that they won't do anything.


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## Vanilla (Dec 11, 2009)

The sheep incident facts are not in question. The DWR gave public statements on it. The facts are documented well. 

Nebo unit was not open to both statewide draw and purchase tag holders every year. They rotated. That year was the draw tag year, but the guidebook mentioned nothing about it. WLH was guiding the purchase tag holder. They called some random DWR employee in Cedar City and asked if they could hunt the Nebo on that tag, and were told yes. They promptly went up and killed the pictured sheep, against the written rule in an area closed to hunting on that tag. Someone else in the DWR heard about what happened and tried to contact WLH to correct the mistake, but the ram was already dead. 

DWR stated afterward they didn’t include that in the guidebook because it only applies to two people in the entire state every year. (Remember when I said not too long ago that the guidebook is not the entire law and they warn you it’s just a summary?) They generally send letters out to the two hunters informing them of the closed areas for their respective tags. They could find no evidence they sent one to purchase tag holder. 

Charges were sent to Juab County attorney for screening. Basically, the DWR told the county attorney the entire thing was their fault and neither the hunter, nor the outfitter, should be charged. So, the county attorney didn’t charge them. DWR pinky promised that they would do better in the future. 

All that is documented. Here is where my literary commentary comes in: WLH knew exactly what they were doing and acted quickly so they could fall back on this. I suspect the draw hunter would not have been treated with the same deference in the exact same scenario if the roles were reversed. Again, that is just my personal belief on the situation. 

Like random- I will never “get over” this. Irks me still to this day.


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## Catherder (Aug 2, 2008)

https://archive.sltrib.com/article.php?id=4476856&itype=CMSID

Irks me too. They kind of threw their own employees under the bus, and/or admitted their own incompetence IMO.


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## middlefork (Nov 2, 2008)

A couple of new banners on the north end of the island stressing the travel restrictions and threat of citation for being off the road or designated trails. Wonder what prompted that?

I saw a buck on the north end that was a very nice buck That may have been one they were hunting. I'm not sure is was better than the one they shot but it hunkered down in the sage before I could get a picture.


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## PBH (Nov 7, 2007)

Vanilla said:


> They called some random DWR employee in Cedar City and asked if they could hunt the Nebo on that tag, and were told yes....


Unfortunately, this happens far too often. Not just with hunting.

There have been numerous occasions when the state record brook trout has been "broken" by anglers catching large splake and then fleeing to biologists up north to verify them as a brook trout -- knowing full well that those biologists would be unfamiliar with properly identifying the said fish.

It's too bad that our hunting and fishing community has reached that level of competition that ethics get tossed to the breeze.

_It's strange what desire will make foolish people do_ 
-- Chris Isaak


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