It’s been nearly 30 years, but many in Wyoming still remember the time when the state Game and Fish Department director was caught fishing without a license. 

In June 1995, a young game warden was checking fishing licenses on a stream near Rawlins and asked then-director John Talbott for his license. 

Talbott, then 42, didn’t have one, according to reports from the time. Then he reportedly tried to cover up his gaffe, allegedly using a forged license.

That touched off a scandal that led to him resigning in early 1996, ending a 17-year career with Game and Fish. 

Talbott, contacted by Cowboy State Daily, declined to comment about getting caught without a license and accusations of trying to cover it up.

Incident Mirrored In ‘Joe Pickett’ Novels

The incident inspired famed Wyoming author C.J. Box to mirror it in his highly successful “Joe Pickett” series of novels, describing the adventures of a fictional Game and Fish warden.

In the series’ first installment “Open Season,” Pickett gives a ticket to the Wyoming governor for fishing without a license. That incident is mentioned in subsequent novels in the popular series.

Box told Cowboy State Daily that Mark Nelson was the real-life warden who ticketed Talbott. Nelson still works for Game and Fish, at the agency’s headquarters in Cheyenne. 

Nelson did not return a request for comment. 

Talbott went on to work at Oregon State University in Corvallis. The University’s website lists him as a member of the College of Agricultural Sciences staff.  

However, staff at the OSU College of Agricultural Sciences told Cowboy State Daily that Talbott had retired from that position. 

Moreover, John Talbott is not to be confused with another former Wyoming Game and Fish Director, Scott Talbott, who retired honorably in 2019 and has no connection with the fishing license fiasco. 

Forged License?

Former Wyoming Gov. Jim Geringer took office in January 1995, and told Cowboy State Daily that he remembers the incident involving John Talbott. 

It seemed out of character, because Talbott had been with Game and Fish for a long time and had a stellar reputation, Geringer said. 

“It really struck me that John somehow slipped into that, fishing without a license, because of his integrity and professionalism,” Geringer said. 

He thinks that initially it was just a simple mistake on Talbott’s part to head out fishing without first making sure that he had a license. 

To avoid such a slip-up himself, Geringer said he bought lifetime fishing and upland bird hunting licenses. 

He’s not sure if those lifetime licenses were available at the time when Talbott was ticketed. 

The alleged breach of integrity came later, according to reports from the Casper Star-Tribune at the time. 

Talbott allegedly went through fishing license receipts at the Game and Fish office, found one bought by somebody matching his weight, and tried to pass that license off as his own, the Star-Tribue reported. 

He was later fined $400 in Carbon County Court and had his fishing privileges revoked for a year. 

Geringer said the Game and Fish Department is highly autonomous, so the call for Talbott to resign likely came from the Game and Fish Commission and not his office. 

“I didn’t have direct authority” over Talbott, he said. 

Even so, Geringer said he “had a high standard for professionalism in my terms as governor” and supported the decision. 

‘The Initial Error Was Very Human’

Mary Kay Hill was Geringer’s director of policy at the time. 

She, too, remembers the incident involving Talbott causing shock and disappointment. 

“He was well-respected. He’d come up through the ranks as a well-respected manager of wildlife,” she said. 

Most people at the time didn’t fault Talbott for fishing without a license, she said. The real fallout came from trying to cover it up later. 

“The initial error was very human,” Hill said. “I think many people could have put themselves in his shoes.”

She added that as far as she can recall, the warden who ticketed Talbott didn’t know who Talbott was at that time.

“It wasn’t somebody who was trying to nail his boss,” Hill said. “It was just an unfortunate human interaction.”

Recently retired Game and Fish director Brian Nesvik told Cowboy State Daily that the incident with Talbott happened just as Nesvik was starting his career with the agency. 

Nesvik said he wasn’t directly involved, but was proud of how his colleagues handled the matter in not giving special treatment to Talbott because he was the director of the agency.

“It demonstrated real integrity on the part of Game and Fish, because it showed we are willing to enforce the laws, regardless of who was involved,” he said.

Mark Heinz can be reached at mark@cowboystatedaily.com.