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Question regarding walleye season closing


pegleg

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Ok here is a question for you and hopefully somebody can answer it....

A bunch of us are pulling our wheel houses up this weekend for one last run at the walleyes. We are planning on going up Friday and come back Sunday morning. If the weatherman is correct and we get 6 - 10" of snow on Sunday morning, I might stay until Monday morning.

Now the question is can we have walleyes on the lake after midnight Sunday night or do we need to pull the houses off by midnight with the fish and park on shore because hopefully we will have walleyes in our cooler...

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Well, you don't have to pull your HOUSE into shore until Feb 28.

And it's definitely legal to still POSESS your limit of walleyes on Feb 26 (just don't know what a CO would think of you posessing them ON the LAKE).

SO . . . I see the real question here as "do you need to or SHOULD YOU take your Walleyes into shore Sunday night".

If it were me, I'd keep them in the cooler. You probably won't get checked. And if you do, tell the truth of when they were caught. If the legality of possesing them ON THE LAKE within 24 hours after the close of season is challenged, I'd take the positiion of "how is them being in the COOLER any different than them being in the FREEZER".

AND I'd take that question to the Judge if it has to come to that.

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That's one of those that if your honest with the officer, then there shouldn't be a problem. If its cold enough outside, freeze them up and you could (kind of) prove that they were caught before 11:59pm. I wouldn't suggest having them flop around the inside of the house, but that's just me. If you want to be safe take them into shore, fillet them (according to state regs), and go back out and fish for some jumbos. Chances of you getting questioned is low, but it always seems that is when they check.

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I would not risk it.All the times i have been checked on that lake it seems like they only have one motive and that is how issue you a ticket.If you are any where out side the rules they have no mercy,you should know better.I have had them many times do all they can to squezze or stretch a fish to get it out side the slot.Burl.

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From my experience with the dnr, I would have to say it is illegal to possess the fish on the lake after midnight. This comes from my encounter with the dnr when I possessed LOTW walleyes on Winni. A couple of the walleyes were outside the legal slot on Winni. We had receipts for LOTW, but the officer still gave us a warning citation for this.

Is it right or wrong? It doesn't matter it's on page 11 of the regs. I can't find anything about possession on the last day of the season though. Hopefully this helps you out a little.

Versus

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You better fillet them and eat them fast, you cannot fillet slot limit fish on the lake. However, it would be a good midnight snack. smirk.gif

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Thanks for the info guys..... leaving here shortly and we won't do any fileting on the ice. If the storm hits and we can't drive home Sunday we will just park our fish houses at the Blue Goose and wait out the storm until Monday a.m. Don't tell our wives about this plan though... Good luck to everybody this weekend it could be a wild weekend out there.

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  • Your Responses - Share & Have Fun :)

    • leech~~
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