FYI

[live-2-fish]

Question: “ In the 2015 regulations book it says fish from a body of water with size limits you must transport your fish with heads and tails. Does this mean walleyes from any lake with a slot walleyes come home whole?”

DNR Answer: “Yes, the fish would need to be in the whole. You could remove the entails by cutting along the bottom of the fish. But it must be in the whole to be measured if stopped. Please let me know if you have any more questions.”

[holmsvc]

Ridiculous

[bturck]

I believe if you have your fish cleaned by a licensed packer they only need to leave a 1" patch of skin for identification. If you transport your own fish then this rule applies...

[theharvester]

When im transporting i never have fished on a lake with slots (wink)

[bturck]

[curt quesnell]

That is some new information for me. Thanks for the tip.

[Hoey]

I do not believe there is anything new here. Reads the same as the 2014 regs. I do not see many fish being cleaned and packed this way though.

[charterboss]

Correct this is nothing new- I went back thru the manuals to 2010 --got tired of looking at it. but the same paragraph is there under the possession rules. "unless packaged by a licensed fish packer" that is the rule. The last couple of years that paragraph has been placed in more that one location--each year they make it stand out a little bit more. Got a feeling you will start to see tickets being handed out on this one more and more.

[gizmoguy]

Technicially every lake in MN has a size limit. There are statewide size restrictions that apply if there are no specific size regulations to a body of water. They are only getting a patch and a middle finger from me.

[Hoey]

The same topic and subject is also posted in the Vermillion area. Sounds like there is a difference of transport, i.e. on the water and over land....

[bucks-n-ducks]

I got an education last year from the local conservation officer on Lake of the Woods. I will say, that first of all I was in the wrong for forgetting to remove the plug from my boat so that's why he pulled me over. So when we got out he asked me if my wife and I had caught any fish, and if memory serves me right we had brought 9 off the lake and brought them to the fish cleaning shack in Warroad. I cleaned them, leaving about an inch of scales on the fillet. Well when I showed them to him, he said that he was going to have to take them because they were incorrectly cleaned. He said that with the 1 inch patch I left, he could tell there were either a walleye or a sauger and not a pike, that's it. He had no way to tell if they were over the slot limit either. So he said he could have given me a ticket for over the limit of walleyes, but he would just take the fish instead........So then we got into a question and answer session and I asked him if pretty much every fish that leaves the fish cleaning shack in Warroad is illegal, and his reply to me was yes, that pretty much everyone does it incorrect by leaving just the 1 inch piece. Good information to know.

[marine_man]

When we go to Lake of the Woods we package our fish in snow; whole... As long as they don't freeze solid, they turn out pretty good after a 3 day trip.. a little excess slime, but nothing terrible.

When you have Arnesens clean them, you essentially get a gutted fish... that's pretty much the only way to "clean" them for transport.

marine_man

[curt quesnell]

Ok Gang. Here it is...You weren't reading the rule correctly.

This is copied and pasted out of the rule book, and has read this way for several years.

What if I’ve caught fish on waters with size restrictions different from statewide regulations?

IF YOUR ARE ON OR FISHING IN WATERS with size restrictions that are different from the state-wide size restrictions, all of the fish that have size restrictions must be kept so that they can be examined, measured and counted. The fish must have their heads, tails, fins and

skin intact and be measurable.

Note ON OR FISHING IN.... The rule applies while you are ON THE WATER.

The guy with the over limit in Warroad must have had a one inch piece of skin on Sauger. (then need to be pretty much whole to count as Saugers) if a Sauger is cleaned it is counted as a Walleye.

Once you are in the cleaning house you can leave a patch of skin on Walleyes and must leave Saugers whole.

But....you never really know what the CO you are talking too will say.

Good Luck

[Hoey]

Curt - Nicely written, that is what I was picking up on too.

[live-2-fish]

Page # 23 in the rule book tells you what you have to do while on the water, tied to a dock or fixing a meal of fish while on waters with special regs.

Page # 24 in the rule book tells you what you have to do when transporting fish from lakes with special regs.

In the first post on this topic the answer is from the DNR's office. It is not my interpretation. I asked, " Does this mean walleyes from any lake with a slot walleyes come home whole. " DNR " Yes. "

I sure hope I'm missing something.

[curt quesnell]

I see what you mean. More investigating to do.

The trouble with this is...from one CO to the next you will get different answers. I would understand if Walleyes had to remain whole for transport (I have been doing it with Saugers for a long time) but I've never done it and the CO I talked to yesterday (a LOW guy) said no, you dont have to leave Walleyes whole.

But I do know you can get a commercial fish packers license. I think it costs 45 bucks and you dont have to worry about any of that monkey business.

Good work live-2-fish

[Kaz]

Thanks Curt for the clarification.. Dick

[Bear 55]

This is good information, I do what Marine Man does old cooler fill with snow or slush ice bring them home whole. I have cleaned pike on the lake left the skin on and kept the carcass if needed. If fishing local I have brung them home live for a meal of fresh fish, flopping to frying the best.

And I understand that I am in violation doing that.

Stay Safe Good Luck

Bear55

[curt quesnell]

So I call my local CO and we read the page 24 rule...and he says, "that's not supposed to be that way"...He is doing research into it now. Check back here in a day or two...hopefully we will have something helpful

[live-2-fish]

Curt, Did your ever here back from your local CO?

[WalleyeWoman@low]

This is something that has been discussed up here many times. I called the DNR about this exact thing 2 years ago. I was told the wording is when you are "on the water". You do not need to keep a walleye whole once you have left the lake. Sauger are different, as mentioned by others.

I too am curious what your contact says Curt.

[curt quesnell]

Last time I talked to him, he was unable to find the wording in the rules that said this rule does not apply to Walleyes and Northerns. He was going to keep looking. He will be on North Country Outdoors Radio next week. We will talk about a lot of things including this new twist. I think it would suck to have to leave Walleyes and Saugers whole for transport.

NCOR returns next week for the summer and we will get to the bottom of this topic then.

[curt quesnell]

OK This is a long deal here but we went right to the actual laws concerning this. The rule book sometimes changes or omits things because it is a quite a bit of information to transfer from year to year. The actual law is 97A.551 look to #4

on this list.

To find this on your own so you can print it off to go to the

Minnesota office of the Revisor webpage and type in the search box 97A.551 and read it for yourself.

2014 Minnesota StatutesGAME AND FISHChapter 97ASection 97A.551

97A.551 POSSESSION AND TRANSPORTATION OF FISH.

Subdivision 1.

[Repealed, 1987 c 149 art 1 s 54]

Subd. 2.Fish transported through state.

A person may not transport game fish taken in another state or country through the state during the closed season or in excess of the possession limit unless the fish are:

(1) transported by common carrier; or

(2) tagged, sealed, or marked as prescribed by the commissioner.

Subd. 3.Shipping fish.

A person that has a license to take fish may make three shipments of fish in a license year to any person within or out of the state after obtaining a permit for each shipment from the commissioner. A shipment may not contain more than a possession limit of one species of fish per licensee.

Subd.

4)Walleye; northern pike.

Walleye and northern pike may be possessed, transported, or shipped in a dressed or undressed condition.

Subd. 5.Preparation and packing of fish for transportation.

The commissioner may adopt rules for the preparation and packing of fish for transportation.

Subd. 6.Tagging and registration.

The commissioner may, by rule, require persons taking, possessing, and transporting certain species of fish to tag the fish with a special fish management tag and may require registration of tagged fish. A person may not possess or transport a fish species taken in the state for which a special fish management tag is required unless a tag is attached to the fish in a manner prescribed by the commissioner. The commissioner shall prescribe the manner of issuance and the type of tag as authorized under section 97C.087. The tag must be attached to the fish as prescribed by the commissioner immediately upon reducing the fish to possession and must remain attached to the fish until the fish is processed or consumed. Species for which a special fish management tag is required must be transported undressed, except as otherwise prescribed by the commissioner.

[curt quesnell]

Leave a one inch patch of skin on the Walleyes. Saugers must be left pretty much whole