Sad day

[harvey lee]

Years ago they use to have road checkpoints where I live and some old timers tell that you could go back from the road check point for a distance and see all the dead pheasants that were thrown in the ditch.

Why not have some?

[hanson]

Tom-

You know I was having a chat with my grandpa about fishing and he told me the same thing, they used to have "Fish Checks" on the highway. He fished Lake of the Woods most of his life and they always had to pull over at the fish check. The COs would ask if you were fishing and take a look at your catch.

The problem is, I don't believe the violations are happening off the ice, they are happening out on the lake. Once folks are set up in the permanent houses, they feel like they have a "safe haven" to do what they want- fishing multiple lines, keeping overlimits, cooking walleye, etc. Hey, at 1am, who's watching, right? The COs can't enter at will so the "surprise" factor goes out the window, and then you don't have to let them in either. IMO, changing that law was one of the biggest mistakes made in awhile.

The DNR would have to have the ability to search permanent ice houses which they currently don't have.

[Mjen]

After seeing this, guilt has made me post a confession. While fishing up there a few weeks ago a walleye (small) got off my line and swam under my house. After many attempts to retrieve, I was unable to get fish. It was the middle of the night and I went back to bed hoping it would find it's way back down a hole. Being groggy when this all happened I forgot about the fish till I lfted my house to remove for the season two weeks later and there was that fish frozen 6" under the ice. I am sorry to say I left a fish on the lake. It's a first for me. I have always obeyed the laws and make every effort to keep my place on the lake clean. This bummed me out.

[Eric Wettschreck]

Don't beat yourself up too badly. The difference between intentional and accidental is, oh, huge.

[swedishpimple]

I am not a lawyer or law enforcement officer, but I believe that in MN now it is illegal to have any kind of "Check Points" This is true for game laws or drunk driving.

Last spring on any area river I witnessed the C.O. on multiple occassions give tickets for overharvest while other fisherman stood there and watched. Then the C.O. went over tickets the guys watching. So many guys had fish over the 20" limit. I am not sure if people don't know or just don't care. I think the reality is they just were too lazy to measure the fish or carry a tape measure with them.

[Sutty]

Now see I just get home from Red and ended my ice fishing season on a good note. Caught some fish had some fun, even ate some of Fosters corned beef and cabbage from the Tall Tales saturday night. Now I wake up on Monday and was going to post my report and I am reading all this doom and gloom.

I agree it looks bad and I have a big problem with some people's ethics or lack of should I say. I bet most of it though is just some legal fish that people decided to eat while they are up there and they didn't want to pay 8 bucks to westwind to cook their fish. I am sure some of them were from after the season closed and some were too big which is a shame to eat the egg producers. But with the thousands of fisherman on Red over the winter it only takes a small percentage to make it look bad on the ice.

I don't mind a CO stopping and checking me, I am not doing anything wrong. A CO is always welcome in my house. But I also don't want one ripping open the door in the middle of the night especially if my wife is with me

I think the rule being broken for the most part is the eating of them on the lake, not being over limit and hurting the resource. I may be wrong and I hope I am not but I think most people out there are following the rules for the most part, they just want to eat some fresh fish while they are there.

Now before anyone gets on my case and thinks I am one of the people throwing fish in snowbanks and feading crows I am not. I have had a few fish dinners over at the Foster place, septic system issues not withstanding .

A few of my friends and I helped Pat this weekend pull a couple of his houses off for the year and we didn't find any fish on the lake. I am sure there are many out there and maybe the areas we were in had less traffic but for what its worth no crow food other than some minnows.