Thread: What would you do...

if you hiked a ways into a backcountry creek only to stumble on a pot farm? (Stop fuckin laughing Underoos. I'm being serious here.) This very thing happened recently to a guy on the local message board, read here for some frightening (and entertaining) info, http://www.azflyandtie.com/flyforum/...ad.php?t=11451

It's got me kinda freaked out since I've been hiking into remote creeks lately.

Sadly here in my neck of the woods, remote pot farms are a rare reality. At least several to my knowledge have been taken down in the past decade. And these farms are nothing to mess with. They're often financed by Mexican drug cartels, and guarded by one or two illegals with AR15's and such, brought in by coyotes to repay their crossing "fees".

Do pot farms happen in any other maggot fishing areas? I'm sure it happens California, probably New Mexico, possibly southern Colorado.

So, what would YOU do? If you read the link above, you'll see most people are in favor of packing heat. Me, I'm not into guns. Strapping on a pistol would be the absolutely last resort. But then again, I don't want to stop fishing remote creeks.
Seriously, I'm at a loss. I'm trying to figure out the location of the creek in question. But I have this sneaking suspicion I've come close already, and the creek in question is a good creek close by.

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Had it happen this spring on the coast here in CA, just kept my head down, stayed well in the river to make obvious I was only interested in fishing and high tailed it out of there. Pretty scary especially after the few psychos we've had who opened fire on anyone that stumbles through their grows.

There was an interesting article in one of the recent issues of Outside magazine, focused on central CA. If what the article mentions is true, it is amazing the environmental impact those operations have on the land.

As far as packing heat, I think you're inviting more trouble than providing protection for yourself. I'd do exactly what snapt did but who's to say a similar situation doesn't escalate quickly and go bad fast....

http://cdfgnews.wordpress.com/2012/0...or-protection/
I could care less about pot but I do care that these assholes poach, especially wild steelhead and pollute with reckless disregard.

I have a buddy who's job it is to find and bust these guys (weird thing is, he loves to burn, but can't obviously because of his job). He has no problem with people smoking weed, but has a huge problem with these assholes who fuck up the environment. He said it's amazing what they can get into places. Large amounts of chemical fertilizer, pesticides, rodent poison, generators (buried with full mattresses on top to block sound), fuel etc... they basically leave EVERYTHING there once they harvest. Huge piles of garbage and anything left over- including the chemical fertilizer, pesticides, rodent poison and even equipment like the generators, camp stoves... you name it. Since they grow near water and in the summer, as soon as the rains come and the river comes up (or floods) all that shit gets washed into the river.

And it's not just in the back country. There's a run of tail water about 45 mins from my house we like to fish. He told us they busted a grow about a quarter mile from where we fish. And this place is far from being remote.

Scary shit. I don't want to get into the legalization argument, but if there was not big profit to be made from this...

I don't like my chances with a .45 vs a couple AR15s.

I just stumbled past a dozen plants this weekend, bushwacking through some willows in a CO wilderness and thought about how much it would have sucked if that would have been a big grow.

I'd steal some, just a little though. If it had nug on it though.

well, i now know the location of the farm, and will be avoiding the area. unfortunately, it is a good stream with some nice fish. the farm has been reported to the authorities, so maybe it'll be raided soon, and people can get back to fishing soon without that threat.

ignorance is truly bliss. if you guys are finding plants, i must have walked right by grow areas too. my area of NF is pretty popular for this sorta thing. and it's sounding too common. yikes.

the best advice i've read, from law enforcement, is to stay in the creek/river/lake so as to appear to be interested in only one thing, turn tail and leave. the signs of a grow area are pretty obvious, foot trails, inexpicable trash, irrigation tubing, gardening supplies, camping supplies, etc. just leave.

They found one up by Miller Rock a couple of summers ago in the South St. Vrain Canyon in CO. Pretty sure I've mountain biked pretty close to it but we haven't stumbled across it yet. They had quite the water delivery system as it was like 700 feet above the river. I figure I'm screwed if I stumble on one on a bike.

I have a .45, which is a pretty big round for a handgun and I'd hate to shoot someone with it at close range. It wouldn't be pretty. But it's no match for a AR 15, so I'd rather not put myself in that situation.

I would imagine that if you are obviously a fisherman and not a narc, then they have no reason to mess with you if you are simply hiking along. They don't want to bring any unwanted attention by shooting you. I wouldn't wander around the grow, but that goes without saying. As for the Southern Colorado stuff, I would imagine that those outfits are not cartel stuff, but rather legal growers that supply buds to dispensaries seeing how that is legal in CO, at least on the state level. Same for California, but I don't live there so I don't know. I think these operations probably pack heat to keep people from stealing their crop, not for scaring off fisherman going to a creek to fish. However, you can't be too careful these days.