Guide faces stiff penalty

PALMER — A guide convicted Feb. 1 of aiding a violation of fishing rules is protesting his conviction, alleging the regulations were unclear. Prosecutors, however, are standing by the conviction, saying he should have known, and in fact did know, better.

Ray Blodgett was issued a summons Aug. 7, 2011, for fishing in the tributaries of the Talkeetna River. His clients were fishing with bait and multiple hooks. Alaska Wildlife Troopers report the waters he was in allowed only single hooks and artificial lures.

But Blodgett said he thought he was fishing Clear Creek, where what his clients were doing is allowed. Troopers say that the location was, in fact, Fish Creek.

Everyone agrees the area was once deemed to be part of Clear Creek, but major flooding in the Valley in 2006 changed those channels. Blodgett points to maps in the state’s regulation book that show the area as Clear Creek.

“They’re going to try to make it look like I’m a very bad guy here and I’m just getting hosed,” he said.

But Assistant District Attorney Christopher Orman said Blodgett is reading the regulations book selectively. A page earlier in the book clearly mentions Fish Creek. Also, he said the maps aren’t intended to be used for navigation. Out-of date information on the department’s website says to check regulations before relying on it.

“Any guide you talk to knows Fish Creek’s flow and movements at present,” Orman wrote in an email.

And, he added, there was no record of Blodgett ever trying to call state agencies to get clarification on the rules. In an interview, Orman said he called a guide to testify at trial, as well as a wildlife trooper who’d lived nearby for years and a Fish and Game biologist.

“All of these people say this is Fish Creek,” Orman said.

Indeed, it hasn’t been Clear Creek for five years, plenty of time for Blodgett to have learned that, he said.

Blodgett has a different take on the elapsed amount of time.

“Five years they’ve had to change that book,” he said.

Orman said that in his closing remarks to Blodgett’s jury he harped on a few pieces of information, some of which came from Blodgett’s own mouth, particularly when a trooper confronted him, asking if he knew where he was fishing. Blodgett responded that, “There’s still Clear Creek water flowing into this stream.”

“He knew that if it was Clear Creek then he wasn’t in violation of the regulation,” Orman said.

Blodgett said he thinks his case should be a warning to anglers not to trust what they find in the state’s regulation books. If it can happen to him, what chance does the average fisherman have?

“I live in Houston, my house is 20 miles from the ocean and I’ve fished every drop of it,” he said.

But Orman said that with that kind of experience, Blodgett should have known better. What are guides for if not to know the regulations and keep clients on the right side of the law?

“He gets paid for knowing the regulations and knowing where to take people to fish,” Orman said.

Blodgett was on the wrong side of the law at least once before. In 2007, he was ordered to pay $10,300 in fines and do 40 hours of community service for fishing a day after the king salmon season closed. In that case, clients made a video of the outing in which Blodgett says that the season had closed the day before.

Now, he faces similarly steep fines, the possible revocation of his guiding license and confiscation of the $45,000 boat he was using at the time. A judge will decide Feb. 27 at sentencing.

“I’m still working through my sentencing memorandum to figure out what my recommendation is going to be,” Orman said. “A $10,000 fine didn’t work last time.”

Blodgett said he fears what could be a catastrophic blow to his livelihood.

“This ain’t no laughing matter,” Blodgett said. “Will I get my boat back? Will they take my license for 10 years?”

Contact reporter Andrew Wellner at Andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.