As We've Always Heard: "Don't Count Your Chickens Before They Hatch"

That's good advice for anyone, as Josh Douglas (left) learned the hard way.

It was late June 2018, and Douglas was fishing day 2 of the Lake St. Clair FLW Tour. He had been watching the center-console bay boat bearing the insignia of the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry make its way through a gaggle of 15 to 20 boats without thinking much about it. He knew the officers were out doing random safety and license checks...nothing out of the ordinary. 

With 20-plus pounds resting in his livewell, coupled with the 17-12 he had weighed the previous day, he felt fairly certain he likely would earn a paycheck and, more importantly, remain inside the points cutoff for the Forrest Wood Cup. Things were going good for him. Little did he know, however, that his good fortunes were about to change, in a way I seriously doubt he ever could have predicted.

It all started when the officers approached his boat. Knowing they were headed his way, he reached for his cellphone and tried to pull up a digital version of his license, which he had saved in an online cloud storage. Because he was outside the range of U.S. cell service, though, he couldn't access it.

Since Ontario requires anglers to have an Outdoors Card in order to purchase a fishing or hunting license, the officer consequently relayed the information off Douglas' Outdoors Card to dispatch, in order to confirm his license status.

As the boats bobbed in the waves, the radio transmission from dispatch sounded like good news to Douglas.

"Mr. Douglas is good with a conservation license until July 1st," the voice said.

Douglas recalled that the officers looked at each other awkwardly before one of them said, "We have a problem."

The confused Douglas replied, "No, I'm good through July 1st," echoing what the dispatcher had said.

"You don't have a valid license," the officer responded. "You made an unfortunate mistake. You have a valid license, but it's the wrong one."

The officer then explained that Douglas had purchased an 8-day non-resident conservation fishing license, which entitled him to have no more than two bass in his possession. He should have purchased the sport-fishing version, which would have covered him for the purposes of competing in the tournament.

Douglas already had told the officers that he had five fish in his possession, so he was in violation of the conservation license, which triggered a citation and a fine of roughly $300 (U.S.). He also had to cull down to the appropriate limit per his license, meaning that he had to release three of his fish.

Upon releasing his fish, Douglas motored back to U.S. waters and contacted the FLW Tour tournament director, advising him of the situation before returning to the Lake St. Clair Metropark, the official launch facility for the event. There, he had to release his two remaining fish for being in violation of FLW rules regarding proper licensing.

When Douglas informed the tournament director that he'd also made every cast on day 1 in Canadian waters, his day-1 weight was wiped out, too. With less than an hour left to fish, Douglas floated around near Lake St. Clair Metropark, trying to make sense of what just had happened. He hadn't practiced at all on that side of the lake and wasn't able to muster another bite, leaving him with two zeros by his name on the leaderboard. His cup hopes were history.

The gravity of what had happened didn't start to sink in until he pulled the door shut on his truck, as he readied to leave the launch ramp.

"I was mad that it happened, but I look up to guys like Greg Hackney. He's one of the best dudes out there. He's been DQ'd before for making a cast in an off-limits area. Brandon Palaniuk got DQ'd for a culling mistake that cost him $100,000. Aaron Martens had those bolts sheer off on his jackplate, or he'd have won in 2013. It's what happens in our sport. You can do everything right, but you have to cross all the T's and dot all the I's.

"It's just the game we play. Those other guys handled it like pros, and that was my only option, for myself and my sponsors."

Douglas' misfortune not only derailed what had the makings of another solid tournament, it also submarined his bid to qualify for his first cup. While acknowledging the error was totally his fault, he made it a point to use his experience to educate other anglers and stress the importance of understanding the licensing requirements for non-resident anglers, especially along border waters and for lakes in Canada that attract U.S. anglers for fun-fishing trips.