Wildlife and boating enforcement officers with the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency in Area 33 (Southeast Tenn.) have been very busy protecting our natural resources this Fall.

In one case actually began in the Spring. Rhea County Wildlife Officer Brian Letner and Meigs County Officer Chris Combs, after a lengthy stakeout, caught commercial fisherman William “Bill” Sligh and his helper with multiple illegal catfish over the legal "trophy" length limt of 34 inches. Tennessee law only permits the possession of 1 catfish over 34 inches for both commercial and recreational fisherman.

Previous Articles on Chattanoogan.com Outdoors
-- Sligh Arrested
-- TWF Outraged by Commercial Fishing Violation
-- Sligh Found Guilty

Sligh was originally fined $2,244 and his commercial fishing privileges were revoked for 6 months by Rhea Count Judge Jimmy McKenzie. However Sligh and his attorney appealed the case.

On Nov. 24, Sligh plead guilty to three counts of illegal possession of wildlife in Rhea County Criminal Court. He was ordered to pay $970 in fines and court costs and was additionally placed on 18 months of supervised probation and given 100 hours of community service. He did NOT, however, lose his commercial fishing privileges.

Since the beginning of the deer season in late September, officers from across the 7-county area have been busy and have made several big game cases including hunting over a baited sites, failure to tag harvested big game animals, failure to wear fluorescent orange, hunting without permission, and spotlighting deer to name a few. Officers have also apprehended road hunters in Hamilton, McMinn, and Meigs Counties through the use of mounted decoy deer. Charges include hunting from a motorized vehicle, hunting from a public road, and hunting without permission as well as having weapons seized by the courts.

The cases have been made with the use of a robotic "deer decoy" and a video camera donated by the Chattanooga Chapter of the Safari Club International.

WATCH THE VIDEO, Courtesy NewsChannel9.com

TWRA Enforcement Officers often work in remote areas and many times work alone. On November 1, TWRA Polk County Officer Jeff Bishop, Supervisor CJ Jaynes, and his dog, Canine Officer Gus, received information about possible illegal activity taking place in the Cherokee National Forest. They responded to the area where they were able to locate the suspects’ vehicle.

Canine Officer Gus did a quick perimeter search and the three individuals were quickly located and face multiple charges, including possession of illegal weapons (for this hunt). None of the men were wearing fluorescent orange nor did they possess any sort of license.

Two of the men were found to be in possession of narcotics and one of them had an active outstanding warrant out of Fannin County, Ga.

On Nov. 28, opening day of Tennessee's duck season, Hamilton County Officer Brandon Wear and Area Boating Officer Matt Majors apprehended multiple violators on Chickamauga Lake including observing one boat “rallying” ducks by using their boat to chase ducks down and shoo them as they fly up while the boat is still under power.

This is not only illegal, but is also extremely dangerous to the people in the boat as well as the surrounding area. These individuals were also found to be in possession of lead shot which is prohibited when hunting waterfowl and charged with other license violations.

On November 15 of this year, the Hiwassee and Yuchi Refuges were closed to all forms of trespass until the last day of February in order to provide migrating waterfowl with a rest stop on their yearly migration. Boaters and fisherman are required to operate within the main river channel only when they are inside of the refuge areas.

Since the closure Officers Brian Letner, Chris Combs, and Manager Rob Klippel have each apprehended hunters who were illegally hunting on the refuge. On Thanksgiving Day Officer Letner apprehended 4 men who were illegally hunting deer on the Refuge.

A few days later on Sunday, Nov. 29th Officer Chris Combs and Manager Rob Klippel apprehended 6 individuals in 2 separate hunting groups who were hunting ducks on the closed refuge.

One noteworthy case was the capture of a 17-year-old who had killed over the limit of bucks... he was ultimately tracked down on the popular MySpace.com social networking site. Click HERE to read details of that case.

These are just a few examples of Law Enforcement Area 33 Wildlife Officers going the extra mile to apprehend wildlife violators after receiving valuable information from the public.

TWRA Law Enforcement Area 33 encompasses Hamilton, Bradley, Rhea, Meigs, McMinn, Polk, and Roane Counties in Southeast Tennessee and is made up 14 full-time enforcement officers, 1 supervisor, 1 assistant supervisor, and 2 part-time boating enforcement officers.

You may reach the officer assigned to your area by calling the Region 3 Office at 1-800-262-6704 or by calling the Poaching Hotline at 1-800-241-0767. All hunters and fishermen should store those telephone numbers in their cell phones.

Callers’ information is always kept anonymous and many times they may even be eligible for a reward when information leads to a conviction.