Are punishments harsh enough for unethical fisherman?

[goober]

To start let me say I fully support our Fish & Wildlife department in Alberta. I was raised to be an all around ethical outdoorsman. I do have a big problem with things I see going on all around us on the lakes in our province. I have witnessed total ignorance to catch limits and simple fishing rules all over the place this year. I hear some say it is just the "old retired guy's" that think they can treat our waters the way they did as kid's, FALSE! Some say it is the young people coming up, FALSE as well!! It is all age groups just not doing the research needed to fish new waters or just not caring at all!! While at Snipe Lake this week I saw and talked with a group of people fishing the lake for the first time. I noticed the hooks they were using and asked them if they were aware of the hook size limit (10 mm from shaft). They had no clue and could care less. The one guy even said big deal what are they going to do fine me a hundred bucks? At Lake Isle this summer a neighbor was charged for having walleye in his boat. The fine was so minimal that this winter when we stopped in for a drink with him he had a smoker full of walleye!! Lesson obviously not learned!!! I can not count how many times I have seen people keep illegal Walleye at Pigeon in both summer and winter!! I witnessed a group of people at Island Lake running 15-20 inch Pike up to there cabin as quick as they could pull them out!! This sickens me to no end!! My question is that if our fines in this province were steeper would it help? Do these fines increase with each offense?(I don't think they do) If we threw the book at these people on their first offense would it not make life easier on our understaffed F&W Officers?