Summary for increasing the lenght of bullheads

I received a note today from the MN DNR. A letter with more info has been mailed out, but I haven’t received it yet. Once I do, I’ll post it here.

The comment period runs until July 18th, to express your opinion as to increasing the leanght of bullheads used for bait in MN and it’s border waters. At that time the MN DNR will make a rule as to any changes.

Not much…but it’s a morsal.

So, the rules cold possibly change eh? I don’t at the moment remember the reasoning why they couldn’t be used now.

In a nutshell…In MN…

A bullhead under 7 inches is a minnow…which can be transported alive. No fish (in MN) can be trasported alive (includeing in the livewell of your boat). So a bullhead over 7 inches falls into the same catagory as bluegill, walleyes or anyother fish (rough or game).

If the ‘miss and the Croix didn’t have zebra mussles…you could catch a 7+ inch bullhead and use it for bait (on the same body of water)

One small exemptiong to the rule. If your 16 or under, you can take 3 game fish home for your aquarium. See laws for the specifics.

Dark..your a silly guy…

From the MN DNR website…

Comment on proposed fishing regulation changes

The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources requests comments on its planned rule amendments governing various fish and aquatic matters. The official request for comments and all proposed rule changes are published in the March 14 addition of the State Register http://www.comm.media.state.mn.us. The department has not yet prepared a draft of the planned rules. Comments submitted will be considered in drafting the rules.

Public comments and ideas are welcome on all the changes being considered. Send us your comments regarding the proposed regulation changes.

[email protected]

Among the changes to be considered are the following:

Licenses and Permits

* Fishing contest operations and conditions that are put in permits including, but not limited to, permittee requirements, off-site weigh-ins, high use periods, live release tournaments, pre-fishing, and negative impacts to the resource need clarification. The DNR is proposing to identify and make changes that would make it clear what guidelines the DNR will use to determine when to impose such permit conditions. The DNR will be meeting with tournament organizers in March to discuss their recommendations for permit conditions.

* Clarification of requirements used for issuing exhibition and educational permits.

Minnows

* Change minnow rules to allow angling for minnows in closed waters.

* Close the Cedar River watershed (Dodge, Freeborn, and Mower counties) to commercial minnow harvest except by special permit and recreational harvest to protect slender madtoms.

Turtles

* Adopt rules concerning western painted turtle size limit, as currently provided in emergency rule.

Commercial Fishing Operations

* DNR inland commercial fishing operation areas 26, 27, 28, and 29, located in northeast Minnesota, are not assigned to any commercial operator. The DNR is proposing to change these core-fishing areas to instead utilize temporary permits to harvest commercial fish when needed.

* Change commercial operation rules to reflect recently enacted invasive species statute changes.

Fishing Regulations and Requirements

* Establish or clarify fish use, fish possession, shipping, and transportation requirements, such as transporting bullheads larger than seven inches for catfish bait, transportation of harvested sturgeon, and clarification that it is illegal to dump fish carcasses into the water.

* Add language that clarifies definitions for artificial lures, artificial flies, and jigs.

* Explore a Minnesota Muskie Alliance request to look into a December season closure and increased minimum size limits to protect trophy muskellunge from over-harvest.

* Provide additional winter trout angling opportunities for these trout lakes: Taylor and Townline (Loon) lakes in Aitkin County and Blue Lake in Hubbard County.

* Close fishing on Lake Christina in Grant and Douglas Counties to accommodate waterfowl management goals for this area.

* Close whitefish/tullibee netting on thirteen lakes: East and West Fox Lake, Crow Wing Co.; Mitchell Lake, Crow Wing Co.; Nisswa Lake, Crow Wing Co.; Roy Lake, Crow Wing Co.; Serpent Lake, Crow Wing Co; Burgen, Douglas Co.; Latoka, Douglas Co.; Victoria, Douglas Co.; O’Reilly Lake, Itasca Co; Island Lake, Itasca Co.; Little Jessie Lake, Itasca Co.; and Osakis, Todd Co. Open Devils Track Lake, Cook Co., and Elbow Lake, St. Louis Co., to this activity.

* Change or add to existing fishing regulations to reflect recently enacted statute changes, make existing emergency rules permanent, or make changes to improve consistency between existing regulations. Changes include, but are not limited to, bag limits, seasons, and size limits for sturgeon, northern pike, and walleye.

Designated Waters

* During the 2002 legislative session, Minnesota Statutes, sec. 97C.003 that governed bait and barbless hook restrictions on southeast Minnesota trout streams was repealed. DNR staff are reviewing streams in this area to identify which ones should no longer have a barbless hook requirement. We are also reviewing streams with winter, early, and late catch and release seasons to determine which ones should have an artificial lure requirement or other changes. The purpose of these changes is to simplify trout regulations.

Boundary Waters Fishing Regulations

* Adopt permanent rules to replace existing emergency rules, such as those concerning North Dakota border water limits and seasons on walleye and northern pike and Canada border fishing restrictions for walleye and sturgeon.

* Changes that would improve consistency of regulations, such as Basswood Lake border waters for northern pike, South Dakota border waters for walleye and crappie possession limits, Lake of the Woods walleye regulations, and taking of sturgeon on the Wisconsin border that are the same as those on the Canadian border.

Comments may be submitted through July 18 in writing to: Linda

Erickson-Eastwood, Box 20, 500 Lafayette Road, St. Paul, MN 55155-4020;

by calling (651) 296-3325 or toll free 1-888-MINNDNR (646-6367), or by

sending an e-mail from the DNR’s online regulation page

http://www.dnr.state.mn.us. ]

you got mt support Big Guy! Now if only I knew someone to go Cattin with some starry night…when the BIG CATS bite

There shouldnt be any size limit on bullheads in MN when it comes down to using them for bait for Catfish. Bullheads are pretty much a rough fish and there is an overabundance of them in pretty much every body of water in MN. I also think that Minnesotsa should lift the law about using cut bait, If u catch a Carp or a Red tail sucker while fishing u should be able to cut it up and use it for catching catfish. A Carp and Redtail are rough fish and they are also over populating some lakes and rivers around here so instead of people catching them and throwing them back why not make use of them and use them to catch CATFISH!

I can’t find Brian’s highlighted area were it specifically mentions bullheads

* Establish or clarify fish use, fish possession, shipping, and transportation requirements, such as transporting bullheads larger than seven inches for catfish bait, transportation of harvested sturgeon, and clarification that it is illegal to dump fish carcasses into the water.

Where is it? Is there an actual “addition” to the March 14th issue that I didn’t see ?

Seeing as how I am going to start catfishing the Miss. this summer I need to know more about what kind of bait I can use. I understand that I can use bullheads under 7″ (you’ve got my support too) but that’s all I guess I understand because I thought I could use cutbait as well. Can I use willow cats from the Root River, chubs from Bear Creek and what size, gizzard shad, all rough fish and what has to be what size….do regulations change from different waters if not listed in regulations? Thanks for any help because I’m confused . Maybe I should make a different post…

Thanks, Chris

I sent an e-mail today in support of the regulation change. Now if I could just catch a 10 inch bullhead…..

Confused? Gee, I wonder why Bait laws are confusing. I haven’t had my coffee yet so I can’t even answer your question without missing some stuff I’m sure!! You cannot use game fish or parts of gamefish for bait. You cannot use carp or parts of carp for bait. Suckers can be used alive if they are under 12 inches. I’m not sure if a redhorse is considered a sucker??

The transportation deal should be OK as long as its considered a bait fish. Watch out though if your taking bait from infested waters. It may be illegal then.

Cut sucker or chub is going to be your go-to cut bait for channels. Don’t hit the water without one or both!!

Thank you for your input! It clears up some of my questions but I still have plenty more and want to be legal so maybe when I get some more time I will write up a lengthy email to the DNR and hope they answer it question by question. If I do write it and I do get a reply I will start a new post for the information I receive.

Chris

Got mine in!

Hey guys, I can’t stress enough how important it is to send your supporting opinion into the DNR. Brian and I have put in many, many hours towards this issue and we have a real shot at getting this passed. If you fish for flatheads, have thought about fishing for flatheads, or just want to support us on this issue we would really appreciate you taking 5 minutes to send an e-mail to Linda at the DNR supporting the increase in bullhead length for catfishing.

Thanks Chris,don’t forget to pass this on to all your buddies!!

I sure hope a bunch of guys take the time to comment on this… we should be able to use any size bullhead we want when we catfish. Seems odd to me that in most lakes they’re considered an out-right nuisance yet the DNR places a restriction on their size. Plus we would all benefit from more streamlined regulations…. this type of size restriction just adds unneccessary confusion.

You got my vote. Never fished for cats, but if you guys want to clean some bullheads out of our waters, I’m all for it.

Here is what I wrote if it helps. I see my spell check didn’t catch my mis-spelling of seven!

Dear Ms. Erickson,
Thanks for the opportunity to have some input into the issue of using bullheads in excess of 7″ for bait. We catfishermen and women would like the opportunity to use these fish in the 7-9″ size range to fish for flathead catfish. The fish we target are in many cases 20-50 pounds. Larger baits attract larger fish. Senen inch and smaller bullheads are hard to catch, and don’t really attract the size fish we are looking for. I imagine the 7″ requirement may have been arbitrary at the time it was imposed. The larger length makes it easier for us that catch our own bait to be more successful.
Thanks for the opportunity to speak to you on this issue!
Best regards,

Chris Tuckner
Pro Staff Director
http://www.in-depthangling.com
651-755-5452

I would like also to see a larger bait to be used. Bull heads 7″ 9″ 12″ what ever the size… Muskie/ Pike fisherman use them size suckers in WISC. ? What gives..? Maybe Bullheads are more of a game fish? Myself I’d rather catch a nice Sucker than A BullHead and Lord knows we have alot of either Critter/fish…. CROIXMAN ,,,,JEFF H.

Croixman, please email Linda Erickson and give her your input. We need all the help we can get here. Thanks!

I’ll likely post this a couple more times…although it really doesn’t make a whole lot of differance. You could use anysize sucker or bullhead for bait…as long as you catch it in the same waters…unless it’s deemed “infested”. Which the St Croix and the sippi are.

The real problem lies in the fact that a bullhead over seven inches isn’t concidered a minnow anymore…an like all other game/rough fish in MN, can not be transported a live…legally.

If you are taking home a fish in your boat’s live well (say an 8 inch bullhead, a 15 in walleye from P4 or a few panfish) and they are alive…you are breaking the law…you criminals!

I can’t see doing this to a perfectly good bullhead!

Tuck, we aren’t talking about Putz here…this is the fined kind of bullheads.

Dirk, you think the guys at In-Fisherman would pass on an email in support of this?

As soon as I get a chance I’ll pass the letter you sent me along….and ask for their support.

We couldn’t use bullheads bigger than 7″ before

UMMMM….OOOPPSSs !!!

I sent mine in..Hopefully it can happen. I also took the opportunity to mention that we could use some tighter flathead regulations put in place. I’d like to see a mandatory catch and release of flatheads on the Minnesota River. I know a lot of nice fish get caught and kept and there is no reason for it. I know of a few fish over 60 that were thankfully released though…look out state record!

I just dropped Linda an e-mail also. Hopefully anyone who reads this will take the time.

Thanks guys

Thanks again guys!

PS You don’t have to be a registered user to send and email to the DNR. Linda and her team are very good and very quick to respond to answer questions about everything the DNR does.

Since she’s been writting the rules and law books for sometime now…she’s a walking fishing regulation book!

Thought I would bring this to the top.

TTT.

Since there seems to be some new names and quite a bit of activity on the old cat board I thought I’d update again and let all the “newbies” and anyone else who thinks they may flathead fish someday that it is your reponsibility as a cat man to send your support to the DNR on this issue. Every time Flathead WI talks about bluegills, perch, etc. that sick – we’re getting scr#@#% – feeling sinks back to the pit of my stomach. Anyway, please send your support to the DNR if you haven’t already!!