rules I should know!!!

[luvmylund]

I am heading to the dam, north of Redwing late this week and have been asked this question? If I am a non-resident and am staying in Minnesota and buy a Wisconsin license. (which allows me a larger fish limit last time I checked, correct me if I am wrong)Am I bound by the Minnesota limits? I do buy a Minnesota license irregardless.

[CrappieJohn]

Luv....Welcome to FishingMinnesota.com!

I am really not certain on this one. I do think, though, that the border water limits are the same for both states and you can only have the six in aggregate per day. The daily limit in Minnesota is your possession limit as well. I'm not sure on this point with the Wisconsin rules. If you are staying in Minnesota, fishing on a Wisconsin nr license and possess fish, they will need to be dressed out leaving the 1 square inch of skin attached and have a shipping tag from Wisconsin attached to each package of fillets. That is how I interept the rules.

Maybe to be safe you contact the DNR from the state of Minnesota.

Again, welcome to the best internet fishing site in the country!

[Pilotmound Art]

You had better check for sure on this. There was a controversy over this last year and some guys got tagged.

[JIvers]

Contact the DNR for both states, just to be safe--I have read and heard so much contradictory information on border waters regs. that I don't want to say anything.

[luvmylund]

I appreciate the input from everyone. Its been my experience that if you cant find out for sure on something that its probably not meant to be done ---- unless you are willing to suffer the consequences and I for one am not. I will stick to the Minnesota license like I always have. This was just one of those things that come up in conversation when we were sitting in the boat on one of those not so lucky days. On a lighter note, last night when I got done sending out my question, my wife asked me "if you had to put a price per pound on the fish that you have caught over the years, what would it be?--- (due to all the money one wraps up in this soul satisfying endeavour we call fishing)

I am not sure how to respond to that!!!

[nofishfisherman]

I apparently haven't invested enough into this sport since I can't catch a fish to save my life. If I was on an deserted island with nothing but the best fishing gear I might as well kiss my butt goodbye because I would never catch enough fish to survive. I am not sure if that refelcts luck or the inability to buy a boat and get to the hot spots.

[juggs]

About a month ago I got checked by a WI CO while on the WI side backwaters (makes sense, doesn't it?). I asked him what are the rules with all this border water stuff and he said the determining factor is which side of the border you're on. If you're in MN waters, MN rules apply. If you're in WI, WI rules apply. In other words, since I was fishing in WI, I could have kept a limit of 25 crappies and 25 sunfish if I wanted. According to him, if I was on the other side of the main channel, my limits would drop to 10 crappies and 10 sunnies (since there currently are experimental regs on sunnies on that particular pool--anywhere else the limit would be 25 sunnies). However, after picking up the 2005 edition of the MN rules and regs, I found no such references to either side. The rules clearly state that I could go by WI limits (plus I could use up to three lines and don't have to have my tent licensed). Remember, this is in the MN reg book. So my thought is that the CO was wrong, which is very possible since he only has jurisdiction on the WI side of the river (right?) and may not be up to speed with MN rules. My fishing partner swore up and down the CO was wrong. I guess if a guy wanted to be technical, he could just whip out the rule book to defend himself if ever threatened with a ticket in MN for over ten crappies. Sounds like there is confusion on behalf of our outdoor officials.

[CrappieJohn]

Juggs.... Whip out your checkbook at the same time you get the reg book out of your pocket. And the boarder waters of MN/WS have a limit of 25 crappies, not ten, for Minnesota license holders. Minnesota laws are specific. You are required to abide by the rules of the state of residency. Next time you venture out and meet a MN co, test your new-found Ws knowlege and see what happens.

[FisherMissis]

I hear ya, no fish... I'll let you know if I can follow Crappie Tom's suggestions well enough to catch a fish from shore. And hopefully NOT one of those UGLY ones he was writing about! (Thanks alot, CT...now I'm having NIGHMARES!)

[juggs]

Tom--Not sure I follow you. Are you saying a MN CO would ticket me if I had over ten crappies while on the MN side, in spite of the fact the regs say the limit is 25?

[CrappieJohn]

Juggs....No. What I am saying is that even if you possess a non resident Ws license and a CO from Minnesota stops you ANYWHERE between the two sets of tracks, you will be ticketed for using three lines and if your shelter is not licensed the ticket will reflect that as well. If you are a Minnesota resident in possession of a resident license, you must abide by the laws of that state. If you are a Minnesota resident and have only a Ws non-resident license, you can be ticketed by a Mn co for fishing without a license if you are in this boundary area. If you fish this boundary water, you must be in possession ogf a license from the state in which you reside and those are the rules you are required to follow.

As for the crappie limit. I believe that the only fish which fall under the special regs are the sunfish. The dnr is trying very hard to get the population of larger sunfish to come back to the pool five area. Inland waters have a limit of 10 crappies, but the border waters have a twenty five fish limit. I'm re-checking the limits again this morning in the new book to be on the safe side, but unless I re-post otherwise, the crappie limit is 25 for this water.

[james_walleye]

Why are we allowed too use 2 lines a piece on the river in a boat then? Or have i been fishing illegally?

[juggs]

Ouch, my head hurts after reading that!! That's WAY too confusing. Sounds like it all depends on which state official you're stopped by and can't I fish in WI with a WI license and no MN license even if I'm a MN resident? Also, wouldn't a CO only have jurisdiction in his own state? I'm glad I'm going to Upper Red this weekend and don't have to worry about this.

[JIvers]

The issue of border regs is very confusing, as this and other threads on here have shown. When I lived in Winona, the common understanding was that you obeyed the regulations of your state of residence anywhere between the tracks. COs from different jurisdictions may interpret this in different ways--the now-retired CO for Winona County told me in the mid '90s that he went by state of residency for one's license in determining what regulations one should follow, regardless of which side of the river they were on.

Just to show what I mean about confusion, I recently bought a revised edition of the Sportsman's Connection Southern Minnesota Fishing Map Guide--this is the new version that came out in 2004, not the older versions. It includes a section on all of the Mississippi river within Minnesota. For the MN-WI border section of the river, this guide says on page 149, dealing with pools 5 and 5a, that anglers must follow the rules of the state from which they launch their boat. They repeat this point several times when talking about the Mississippi. Nowhere in the regulations do I find anything that supports this interpretation, nor did I ever hear it anywhere on the street...or on this site, for that matter. It is definitely not what the CO told me. I would hate to think guys from other parts of Minnesota would come down to the river to fish, and think that if they launch their boat on the Wisconsin side of the river they can follow Wisconsin regulations, but that is exactly what this book says.

[CrappieJohn]

Jugg....You can fish Wisconsin waters with a non -resident license as long as it is not bordering on Minnesota. If you have that license, you can fish between Iowa and Wisconsin with no trouble at all because you are a resident of neither but do possess the license from Wisconsin.

If you are a legal resident of Minnesota, you must have a license from Minnesota to fish waters that abut Minnesota. Period. Shared or not. Same applies to Iowa/Mn, South Dakota/Mn, and North Dakota/Mn waters too.

The limit for crappies in pool 5, by the way, is indeed 25 (2005 reg. book, page64).

[luvmylund]

When we put in at Everts, I asked my question, which ended up discussing length limits. In Wisconsin The fillet has to be 15" with all the skin attached, does that mean we now have to keep the big ones or what? Is this a misprint?

[CrappieJohn]

If you are fishing a Minnesota licence as your primary, you abide by Minnesota laws. In this case, you can have six walleyes or six sauger or any mix of the two totalling no more than six and ALL walleyes have to be at least 15 inches in length BEFORE the filleting begins. If you have the Ws license to fish from, you must comply with the rules for that state. Basically meaning you would have to catch fish of about 17 inches to meet the fillet minimum. There is no size limit on the sauger.

[mnz71hunt]

Conservation Officer Scott Moran - Wabasham MN is someone I know quite well.

For fishing the boundary waters between Minnesota and Wisconsin both states can patrol the waters and enforce law from railroad track to railroad track.

During hunting season, the law applies based on the state line which winds it’s way through the middle. This is the time when law becomes difficult to know for sure.