Make outdoor ethics count

Kay landed two big brook trout  but stopped fishing then. She'd had enough.
Outdoor ethics are like dipping snuff. It doesn't agree with everyone, and for some, it leaves them feeling cold and sneezzy. Ethics, often unlike laws, are rules that rule our pitdppr conduct.

Ethics are more easily understood when explained in this manner. Ethics are those things you wouldn't do if you knew a conservation officer was watching from a distance.

They are those hard-to-explain things that keep sportsmen from breaking fish or game laws if we knew an officer was in the area. For most of us, ethics and knowledge of our fish and game laws run hand-in-hand. We won't break the law under any situation.

Ethics keep honest people honest in the woods and on the water.

That's fine, as far as it goes, but it's a gross oversimplification of a very complex personal outdoor issue that all sportsmen must think about. And, frankly, these issues baffle many sportsmen.

Outdoor ethics are those complex but unquestionable rules that sportsmen must adhere to whether other people are watching or not. They are those things we must endorse if fishing and hunting is to survive this century.

Want a few examples? Chew on these on these little tidbits:

• I had six chances to arrow a big 10-point two years ago. He always showed up from two to five minutes after legal shooting time had ended. No one was within a half-mile of me, and no one would have known if I had cheated by shooting that buck a few minutes late.

No one, that is, except me. It would have ate at my guts like a malignant tumor until the taking of that big 10-point buck would have been reduced to a humiliating experience. It would have ruined my hunt as well as my perception of myself as a law abiding sportsman.

• One night last fall I climbed into my bow stand, tried to remove my wallet from my back pocket, and discovered it wasn't there. My bow license was home on the dresser in my bill-fold. I had a valid deer-hunting license but it wasn't in my immediate possession so my bow was stowed away in its soft case and lowered to the ground.

That evening was spent watching deer through binoculars. It was a fun evening, even without a bow in my hands.

I wouldn't have been able to eat a tenderloin steak if  I'd shot late.

• A big problem with outdoor ethics is they are impossible to legislate and difficult for many people to understand. Only one person – you or me – can deal with these ethical situations whenever a potential problem arises.
• For instance: we shoot a rooster pheasant and it drifts across a fence on set wings and falls onto posted land. Does shooting that bird give us the legal right to pursue it without landowner permission? Nope! The ethical sportsman would determine who owned the property, and make every attempt to gain permission to cross the property line.

What happens when it's virtually impossible to track down the absentee landowner? No one wants to see the game go to waste. The next decision would be to contact the closest conservation officer. If he says you can't cross the line without permission, it still remains an ethical and legal question. Cross without permission means breaking the law. Do you go or stay? Laws and ethics. Right or wrong. It always pays to do the right thing.

• We're fishing flies-only water for native brown trout and a stiff breeze puts down the mayfly hatch. Is it ethical to fish worms here? The answer, both ethically and legally, is no.
• Or, as I mentioned earlier about the 10-point buck, could I have cheated in that instance and shot? Sure, but I would have had to deal with my emotions and my personal sense of right or wrong and any resulting guilt.
• Mallards pinwheel down on a freshening breeze to spill into the bobbing decoys. It's a perfect morning, and it's five minutes before legal shooting time. Hunters in a nearby blind shoot and drop two hen mallards. Does that make it legal for me to shoot early?

We all know the obvious answer is “No” but some sportsmen would shoot any way, and be ticketed by a conservation officer. If they are not caught, they must still deal with their conscience as well as state and federal laws.

Ethics prevent us from doing illegal or quasi-illegal acts. Hunters don't shoot ducks on the water or grouse on the ground or off tree limbs. We don't snag fish, and we don't keep undersized fish or fish over our legal limit. We don't ignore slot limits wherever they exist. Such things are just not done. Buying a fishing or hunting license is no guarantee of a full game bag, a trophy buck, a hefty creel or a brace of pheasants. The license only grant us an opportunity to fish or hunt during the legal season. It offers sportsmen nothing more and nothing less than the opportunity to participate in these pastimes.

Ethical behavior is a topic as personal as the color of our morning toothbrush. It also serves as the bare-bones foundation on which our sports are built.

We are judged by our conduct, in and out of the field bu others, and those who wink at fish or game law violations or encourage any breach of ethical conduct, do themselves and others a great disservice.

If we can't fish or hunt ethically, and within the confines of the laws that pertain to these pastimes, we should not be considered sportsmen. If we have to worry about being caught by a conservation officer and ticketed, it may be necessary for some people to re-examine the reasons they fish or hunt.