new regulations are bad

[SquirrelBait]

So if I catch 2 walleye and 4 sauger, then clean them all and put them in my cooler, Im screwed because they will all be counted as walleye? That doesnt make any sense.

[Big-Al]

It may not make sense, but that is what the regs say. If you want the 2 "extra" saugers to count as sauger, then they can only be dressed.

Undressed fish must have heads, tails, fins, and skin intact. Entrails,

gills, and scales may be removed.

Dressed fish may have heads and scales or skin removed, in addition

to gills and entrails.

Fillets are fish flesh, excluding cheeks, that have been removed from

a fish. Scales or skin may be removed or intact.

[beeonkey]

By rights you can not fillet the fish they must be able to be measured. Gill and gut them, if your going to keep them for home. If you are going to eat them only fillet the ones your going to eat. Last fall I was ticketed for a fish that I measured and another guy measured and got it for 1/16” under size. The way that CO measures is, to me wrong or incorrect. But tell him that. If you have a nose stop and pinch the tail and measures correctly on your scale, it should be good, Not to that guy. I would keep a safe ¼” from the 17” . Skin patch or not they need to be able to measure the fish in those special regulation lakes.

[Walleye1948]

B-A, aren't you only allowed a combination of 6 fish anyway? so if he has 2 walleye and 4 sauger, what difference does it make, he's already at his 6 fish limit. unless he's talking about rainy where i thnk it's a total of combination of 4 & 4. may be wrong.

[Big-Al]

Doesn't that apply to on the water only? I thought once on the highway they can be filleted. (with skin patch)

"If statewide length limits apply to the species, the head and tail must be intact so the fish can be measured."

[Walleye1948]

true, i believe you need a 1 in. patch of skin. that's how they're done at the resort when they're cleaning them to take home.

[Xplorer]

SB,

Yes, if you catch 2 walleyes and 4 sauger, or 6 sauger, and fillet them at your resort(even if you leave a 1" patch of skin on) all 6 fish will be counted as walleye's by the DNR if they check your cooler.

Some of the resorts on waters where this type of thing occurs (LOTW comes to mind first) have a stamp that they can affix to filleted fish that identify them as sauger that is acceptable to the DNR.

In order for them to be counted as sauger while at the resort I would keep the sauger undressed until just before you leave (there is no slot limit on sauger so no need to be "measurable"). Once on the road you just need the 1" square skin patch since the state limit is 6 of either in total (this is where the stamp comes in handy on Rainy and LOTW, where the aggregate total of eye's/saug's is higher than the statewide limit of 6).

BOK, the ability to "measure the fish" is only applicable on the water. I emailed Officer Steen several years ago about having walleye fillets at our campsite, sometimes for several days until we had enough for a family fishfry. He said that as long as they were at the campsite they could be filleted, but could not be transported back via water to the landing or be in violation. Anything to take home from a campsite or on a houseboat must be "undressed".

I warned a friend going up last week about not pushing the 17" mark, personally I used to only keep fish that were 13.5" to 16.5". Now, only fish up to 16.5" will go in the livewell, there are just too many variables in measuring fish. Stick-on tapes may not be correct, as they can stretch when being put on in hot weather or be off from the get-go, or stretched by the user when installed. Take a steel tape and check your sticker and see if it is right on. Then there is livewell "shrinkage" (yes it can happen, but with no minimum limit anymore that doesnt matter now) and then the pinch the tail variable. All of that is just not worth worrying about to me, and yes it means that I am throwing back a few "keepers" each year but it's never been the difference between having and not having a camp fishfry (close a couple times tho ).

I have spent almost 200 nights camped out on the Kab/Nam waters the last 10 summers and have 19 more this year, and I can tell you the last thing I want to do is worry about whether or not I will have Officer Steen/Fondie/Whoever stop me with a fish that might be in the slot. If you fish it enough you get used to releasing fish as there is alot of "overs" nowadays

Sorry for the ramble, just my .02