5/2/2023 0 Comments Nd game and fish"Winkelman stated that he would be interested in hearing from those witnesses because everybody, including Gibbs, is saying the opposite. "Volk stated he was 100% sure the fish was hooked in the mouth and that he had witnesses," the report reads. Volk later changed lawyers and on May 2 the new attorney advised Volk against making a statement or giving his walleye to Game and Fish without a search warrant. If it was foul-hooked in the back, how did that get there?" Volk wrote: "If it was foul-hooked, how did this hole get there? Notice the damage to the soft tissue from the string rubbing against it during the fight. He wrote that the visible hole was caused by his jig hook. This photo is posted on Tom Volk's Facebook page, showing the mouth of his 16-pound, 9-ounce walleye. Volk said that's why he hired a lawyer, who advised him and Gibbs to not meet with Game and Fish. Volk, a community prevention specialist for the state Department of Human Services, said Game and Fish leveraged the threat of criminal charges against him and Gibbs because they are both public employees and getting charged with a crime could have dire consequences. Volk's initial statements turned out to be somewhat inaccurate," Timian said. Gibbs, a Burleigh County Sheriff's Deputy who according to the report was advised against making a statement by his own attorney, told Winkelman he didn't "know why Volk would say the line was wrapped around the fish." Gibbs also guaranteed the investigator he gave no written statement. "Joe is the one who netted it and he confirmed with me in writing that, nope, it was hooked in the mouth but it was wrapped closer to the tail and he said that's why it's coming in so funny," Volk said. He said there is no large wound on the fish where the hook was stuck, something Volk said would've been obvious had he battled a foul-hooked fish for a long period. The report also included video obtained from an angler standing next to Volk, showing Gibbs netting the fish from a sandbar in the river and walking back to the bank before pulling a jig out of the walleye's left side near the dorsal fin.īut Volk said the hook clearly wasn't embedded in the fish deeply enough to believe he could've fought the walleye for 10-15 minutes in a strong river current. That includes Gibbs, Volk's friend who netted the walleye, who told Winkelman he never saw the hook in the fish's mouth and that he had "no idea how the hook ended up in the back of the fish." The investigation report says Winkelman couldn't find any witnesses who could vouch for Volk's claim that the fish was hooked in the mouth. "My entire existence in life is being judged based on five seconds of video." "The whole character of my life is being questioned now," Volk said. Volk continues to maintain he caught the fish by the mouth, accusing Game and Fish of using inconclusive evidence to deny him the record and, in the process, dragging him through the mud. That reversed a press release and Facebook post from April 22 congratulating Volk "for reeling in a new state record walleye!" The results were made public Monday, May 13, when Game and Fish issued a press release saying the department concluded the big walleye was foul-hooked and would not be recognized as a record. Game and Fish started an investigation the Monday after Easter, April 22, led by investigations supervisor Scott Winkelman. NDGF Report on Big Walleye by inforumdocs on Scribd Videos appeared on Facebook purporting to show Volk's fishing partner Joe Gibbs pulling the hook out of the walleye's back and, according to Game and Fish enforcement chief Bob Timian, messages came into the department the same day Volk caught the fish saying it was illegally foul-hooked and therefore shouldn't count as the state record. The monster was much larger than the previous record fish, a 15-pound, 13-ounce walleye caught a year ago by Bismarck's Neal Leier from the Missouri River.īut blowback from other anglers began almost immediately. Volk is the Lincoln, N.D., angler who took a 16-pound, 9-ounce walleye from the Heart River in Mandan on Easter Sunday and, aided by a premature press release and Facebook post from Game and Fish announcing the big fish, laid claim to having caught the biggest walleye in state history. , he was also given a warning ticket by the Game and Fish Department for illegally keeping a foul-hooked fish.īut that's small potatoes compared to what he's enduring on social media, he says. Doesn't hold North Dakota's coveted walleye record
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