legal question

[Love2Cabin]

If I go out fishing on Saturday catch my limit of crappies go home clean them put them in the refrigerator then go out on Sunday and catch 10 more I am breaking the law. But if I were to give the first limit to my sister or my neighbor who don't have a license does that make them the ones who are breaking the law?

[corncob]

Yes!

[Portlis]

I've never had a real need to know the answer to this question since I don't give away any fish that I catch, but this is something that I've always wondered about myself.

Is it even legal to give away fish to someone who doesn't have a license?

[mwal]

page 21 of MN regulations still does not say if part of your limit

• Lawfully taken fish may be transferred as a gift if accompanied by a receipt

containing: name and address of the owner, name and address of recipient,

date of transfer, description of the gift, and license number (DNR number or

transaction number) under which the fish was taken. The receipt must remain

with the gift. The recipient cannot possess more than the statewide possession

limit.

[Tom7227]

No. The above noted language does not contain any phrase about the need for the recipient to have a license.

[Savage Brewer]

MN fishing regulations are odd.

Every other state I lived in your possession limit was usually 2x the daily limit. Meaning that if the daily limit of crappies is 10, I could have up to 20 frozen in the freezer.

But that is not the case here.

MN has some odd rules. It would be nice if some of the rules would be standardized a bit.

Like for example this makes a very interesting scenario.

What If I go to Wisconsin and bring home a limit of 25 crappies (which is legal there). And then I bring home 10 crappies from a lake in MN (I am a MN resident)

This means I legally caught 35 crappies in two different states and I have them in my possession (freezer). Is that technically breaking the law as MN only allows you to have a single day limit in possession?

[outdoors247]

Quote:

Like for example this makes a very interesting scenario.

What If I go to Wisconsin and bring home a limit of 25 crappies (which is legal there). And then I bring home 10 crappies from a lake in MN (I am a MN resident)

This means I legally caught 35 crappies in two different states and I have them in my possession (freezer). Is that technically breaking the law as MN only allows you to have a single day limit in possession?

You are fine having 35 Crappies in your freezer. As long as you have your Wisconsin license there will be no problems.

[cavalierowner]

MN fishing regulations are odd.

Every other state I lived in your possession limit was usually 2x the daily limit. Meaning that if the daily limit of crappies is 10, I could have up to 20 frozen in the freezer.

But that is not the case here.

MN used to be that way, possession limit was 2x the daily limit. Don't know when that changed or why.

[rough_rider]

-you (any Minnesota resident) may only have 10 MN crappies at anytime, whether you caught them, were given them or both. I suppose my WI relatives could theoretically give me 25 WI crapies they legally harvested.

-anyone can possess fish; a license is needed to do the act of fishing.

-you may keep 10 MN crappies with your MN license and 25 WI crappies with your WI license.

-it becomes a question of ethics: yes, you may gift away your daily limit of 10 and go out and catch 10 more the next day and repeat the process; should we all do that especially on a regular basis? No.

[KrappieKilla]

Yes MN has some interesting fishing laws and its always better safe than sorry....

As a KrappieKilla (metaphorically mainly but sometimes literally) I wonder if you could go to the St. Croix, and having a MN and WI licence, keep 35 crappies?!?! Any idea on that.

[fishnowworknever]

^^^Absolutely you can do that. You're on border waters with a license in both states. At least it would only make sense you could do that

[Savage Brewer]

Yes MN has some interesting fishing laws and its always better safe than sorry....

As a KrappieKilla (metaphorically mainly but sometimes literally) I wonder if you could go to the St. Croix, and having a MN and WI licence, keep 35 crappies?!?! Any idea on that.

Not sure, but I thought I read somewhere that if you fish a border water with a licence in both states you have to follow the regulations associated with your state of residence if that applies.

[harvey lee]

I've never had a real need to know the answer to this question since I don't give away any fish that I catch, but this is something that I've always wondered about myself.

Is it even legal to give away fish to someone who doesn't have a license?

Yes, a licensed angler can give away a limit or less to any unlicensed person.

Thing to remember is, until those fish are eaten, they are still part of your possession limit.

So, lets say you gave away 5 crappie and the limit is ten. You can then only possess another 5 plus the ones you gave away, count as the other 5 of your limit until they are consumed.

if they eat the 5 you gave them the same day, then of course, you can catch and keep your possession limit of 10 the next day as long as you have no other crappie in your possession.

[BoxMN]

I don't think that is correct Harvey. But I am no LEO so won't say that I am correct. Once you gift them, they are gone, and you can keep more (not over on the same day, of course). At least that is how I always interpreted it.

Once again, those who say MN regs are confusing are 100% correct. This should be easy to find answer, but no it is not. I would guess most/many here are pretty good at reading and we want to follow the regs, but we can't even figure it out, or some of us obviously can't and I am not sure about my thoughts on it either.

Because this would be same/similar to bird hunting - if shot a limit of ducks/roosters, and gave to the farmer, then I can't hunt again till HE EATS THEM?.... I don't think that is correct, but I am not sure...

[Gordie]

Questions like this should be answered by the DNR themselves. It is very easy to do just go to there web site and ask them a question it takes less than 48 hours to get an answer. Its not worth all the he said, they said stuff or I was told this by such and such.

[Mike Dumas]

Questions like this should be answered by the DNR themselves. It is very easy to do just go to there web site and ask them a question it takes less than 48 hours to get an answer. Its not worth all the he said, they said stuff or I was told this by such and such.

Diddo :)Your BEST answer will come from the DNR themselves. If by some random chance they came to your house and counted, the "Well I asked the question and someone said that I could" wouldn't get ya out of that ticket better to ask the ones that enforce it!

[cavalierowner]

Questions like this should be answered by the DNR themselves. It is very easy to do just go to there web site and ask them a question it takes less than 48 hours to get an answer. Its not worth all the he said, they said stuff or I was told this by such and such.

That's what I always do. The answer comes quickly AND if the DNR somehow gives me the wrong answer and I get a ticket, at least I have something in writing from the DNR that enables me to fight it.

[crawler harness]

Once you have given someone your fish along with the proper paperwork, you have now turned the fish over to their possession and can go fishing the next day and keep another limit..

[Juan Grande]

The act of going back to the same body of water and keeping a limit day after day is what turns good lakes into waste lands, especially good panfish lakes.

I'm all for having a fish fry every once in a while, but taking enough for your family, your wife's family, your neighbor's family and your uncle's family (even if it is in subsequent days) is still over harvest in my book.

[NKLCOLT1911]

MN land of 10000 laws

[Juan Grande]

I was watching In Depth Outdoors with James Holst and they were fishing Lake Francis Case in SoDak. On that particular lake you had to keep the first four walleyes you iced. I guess it's pretty deep and a lot of the fish that get released die so you have to keep the first four, regardless of size. Talk about a weird law, you find a good spot and you could be done fishing for the day in 15 minutes with four 10 inchers to show for it.

[crawler harness]

Do like they did and kept 1 shy of their limit and moved to the next county and they could release fish in that part of the lake. But yeah definitely a different kind of a law

[largemarge]

each state license carries its own limit. 35 is your limit