The Fish

[gentle music] On the evening of Friday, July 12th, 1940, three Minnesota Fish and Game wardens named Dudley Brady, Marcus Wips, and Adolph Melvin Holt, who most often went by Melvin, arrived at a property on the southwest corner of Sakaka Lake in Waterville to check on a well-known fish dealer named Bryant Baumgartner.

At that time, there were about 140 people working for the state's game warden corps.

Generally, each warden was in charge of monitoring about a 650-square-mile territory.

Wardens had authority anywhere in the state, but most of the time they were assigned to areas they were familiar with.

Marcus Wips' district included Waterville, and that particular day he'd enlisted Melvin and Dudley to help him in an ongoing investigation into illegal fish harvesting.

People in Waterville knew who Marcus was, and because he took his job so seriously, there were even times when folks would get into it with him because of how strictly he enforced fish and game restrictions.

Author James Keller cited coverage by what was formerly known as the Minneapolis Tribune, which reported that throughout the 1930s and early 1940s, people were regularly being arrested for using illegal methods to harvest bullheads.

Most commonly, bullheads would bite on worms.

Anglers would go out in rowboats, toss in their lines from cane poles, and snag however many they could get.

But that method was slower, less mass catching, if you will.

But of course, people who wanted to catch a larger number of bullheads in a single trip would rig a set line or throw out a net, which wasn't allowed.

Nearly 55 years earlier, state lawmakers had signed a bill that created what was then known as the Minnesota Board of Game and Fish Commissioners.

Members of that board were appointed by the governor and tasked with selecting one state game warden and four deputy game wardens who would act as enforcement for fish and game restrictions.

The legislation that created those positions also clearly spelled out what the penalties were for violating state regulations.

Additional bills were later passed, which further clarified restrictions on fishing, specifically when it came to catching bullheads.

A bill that was passed in 1938, for example, stated that bullheads and other fish over 16 inches were legal to keep, so long as they were caught in certain ways during certain months.

This law specifically stated that it was illegal to catch and keep more than 50 bullheads at one time.

But legislation like this really upset fishermen who were relying on limitless bullhead quotas to support their families and businesses.

They reportedly wrote letters expressing their displeasure with the new law, but nothing changed.

And for the game wardens, things were equally as messy, because the wording in the latest legislation was kind of confusing.

There were exceptions on catch limits depending on what body of water you fished in, and all sorts of funky clauses.

So it was challenging for game wardens to truly enforce the possession limit laws.

On top of those challenges, being a game warden in general, at least when the positions were first created, wasn't all that and a bag of chips.

They weren't paid very much, they weren't given service weapons, except at night, and they often encountered hostility.

Also, the criminal courts didn't seem to treat the violations they cited people for as being that important.