ODFW hatches plan to combat scammers.

Byline: Mike Stahlberg The Register-Guard

Did you hear the one about the fisherman who "lost" his nearly depleted combined harvest card and, for only $6.50, got a replacement with all 20 punches remaining?

No? Well, apparently a good many unscrupulous anglers did hear about that unbelievably good deal.

Which helps explain why honest anglers will have to jump through more hoops in the future to get a salmon/steelhead/sturgeon tag replaced.

The Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission last week adopted new rules regarding the duplicating of lost, stolen or mutilated harvest tags.

Effective April 1, 2005, replacement combined harvest cards may be issued only at Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife offices. Also, anglers requesting duplicate harvest tags will be required to sign an affidavit attesting to the loss and acknowledging that providing false information is subject to penalty under state law.

The commission hopes the rule change will deter the abuse of what has become a well-traveled loophole.

From 1992 through 1998, replacement tags averaged about 1 percent of all tag sales.

But "lost tag" claims have been skyrocketing ever since, peaking at 3.2 percent in 2004. The rise was triggered by sharp reductions in annual bag limits. In 1997, the quota for salmon and steelhead was reduced from 40 fish per year to 20. In 2004, the surgeon quota was cut from 10 to five fish per year.

Last year, 7,411 anglers purchased duplicate tags.

"This increase in the number of duplicate tags issued has raised concern that some anglers are purchasing a duplicate tag in order to harvest more than the yearly quota of salmon, steelhead, halibut and sturgeon," an ODFW report to the commission said. "Oregon State Police, in the few criminal investigations that were successfully prosecuted, found that the anglers fraudulently applied for a duplicate tag in order to keep angling and keep fish in excess of the annual bag limit."

Indeed, one game warden tells of making routine license checks at a popular salmon hole below the Sandy River hatchery in the fall of 2003. Of the first nine anglers he checked, all nine had duplicate tags.

Existing duplicate-card regulations make cheating financially attractive.

A salmon fisherman who uses all 20 punches on his original card can purchase what's known as a "hatchery harvest card." It costs $12.50 and provides the right to take up to 10 additional fish, all of which must have a hatchery fin-clip.

Compare that with a duplicate card that costs half as much and provides twice as many punches, plus resets the odometer on wild fish.

No wonder some anglers have consistently been "losing" and replacing as many as four or five tags per year - without ever losing their fishing license.

ODFW officials suspect such patterns indicate the lost-card scam is providing cover for commercial poaching.

The OSP has successfully prosecuted a few cases, but only at the cost of much investigative effort. Troopers lasts week cited a Portland guide who, along with his juvenile son, had been issued 11 duplicate tags in three years.

The premise behind the new rule is that requiring an angler to purchase a duplicate tag, in person, at an ODFW office rather than from a clerk at a sporting good store "will reduce their comfort in purchasing a fraudulent duplicate tag and result in a reduction in the number of these tags sold," according to the staff report.

The downside is that lost tags will no longer be able to be replaced seven days a week. An angler who loses his tag on a weekend will have to wait until 8 a.m. the following Monday to purchase a replacement.

A bigger inconvenience is that all anglers will now have to travel to one of 23 ODFW offices located throughout the state to file their lost-card application. Last year, 97 percent of all duplicate tags were issued by 600 "point-of-sale" license agents, mostly sporting goods stores.

Mike Stahlberg can be reached at [e-mail].