Bait Question?

What size Bullheads can one use fishing Minnesota?

under 7 inches

Does anyone have a list of what you can and can’t use for bait in MN?
Is any rough fish fair game or are their certain ones you can’t use??

Sure do! Here’s everything you wanted to know…(and more) of the MN fishing laws.

05 Fishing Laws (click here)

Even covers bullhead lenght…more than you ever wanted to know!

PS Welcome to IDA!

Hello Numbertwonew. Welcome to the site. You ask hard questions! What the heck!! It’s storming out tonight and I’m not going fishing so I will attempt to answer your question.

Question?: Does anyone have a list of what you can and can’t use for bait in MN? Is any rough fish fair game or are their certain ones you can’t use??

Answer: This is not as simple a question as you may think. Follow these excerpts from the 2005 Minnesota Fishing Regulations:

Reference Page 18, 2005 Mn Fishing Regulations; Transporting fish – “All fish must be killed before transportation. This does not apply to minnows.” My interpretation: If you are going to use rough fish for bait it must be dead. Unless you are using rough fish minnows.

Reference Page 8, 2005 MN Fishing Regulations; Terminology: Minnows – members of the minnow family, Cyprinidae, except carp and goldfish; members of the mudminnow family, Umbridae; members of the sucker family, Catostomidae, not over 12 inches in length; bullheads, ciscoes, lake whitefish, goldeyes, and mooneyes, not over seven inches long; and (6) leeches. My interpretation: Bullheads and suckers are rough fish but bullheads under 7 inches and suckers under 12 inches are considered minnows and therefore legal to transport and use as live bait.

Rough fish – Carp, buffalo, sucker, sheepshead, bowfin, burbot, cisco, gar, goldeye, and bullhead.
My interpretation: It is illegal to use rough fish for live bait but they may be used for cut bait except for carp which are specifically prohibited and provided those rough fish did not come from infested waters listed on pages 80 – 81 of the MN Fishing Regulations.

Reference Page 17, 2005 MN Fishing Regulations; Angling Methods. “Using whole or parts of game fish, goldfish, or carp for bait is unlawful. My interpretation: Pretty clear – no sunfish, perch, etc, etc, or carp. Now if you live in Wisconsin, you can use any darn thing you want.

Now the tough part: Invasive Species Laws: – Reference pages 78 – 81 of the MN Fishing Regulations. In a nutshell: It is unlawful to: harvest minnows, frogs, or any other wild animals from infested waters for bait except for personal use from waters that are designated as infested waters solely because they contain Eurasian watermilfoil, and for commercial use by permit. My interpretation: You can use bait you catch only in that body of water if those waters are infested only with Eurasian watermilfoil. If there are any other invasive species in the waters, i.e., Zebra Mussel, you cannot harvest or use any bait taken from that water. By the way, the Mississippi, downstream of St Anthony Falls, and the St Croix, downstream of Taylors Falls, are considered “Infested Waters”.

So to answer your question: Most of us from Minnesota use bullheads (under 7″) and suckers (under 12″). You can use them live or cut up.

So you can or cannot use 8in bullheads?

Thanks Comanchero.
I have read the regs and more than once trying to figure out what I can and can’t use. I might be a little on the slow side because they seem very confusing.
I have been catching a lot of sheep head on the river and was thinking of trying them for mudcats. I’d be catching them and then using them right on the river. I think it would be OK because I am not transporting them?

Now speaking of transporting and bait. If a guy cought an 8 inch bullhead in the water he was fishing, he could use it for bait right? After all its a rough fish and the length law only applies to transporting?

Yo, daruoho. You can use live 8″ bullheads, just don’t get caught. Hello, is there anybody in there?

I don’t know why you guys always fall for his shenanagins

Hi Numbertwonew: In response to your question about it being legal to use the bait in the water you caught it in. It all depends!!! It isn’t just a transportation of bait issue, there are also invasive species considerations for the taking of bait. If you caught that rough fish in water infested with an invasive species other than Eurasian watermilfoil, you cannot use it. The Mississsippi River, downstream of St Anthony Falls, is infested with Zebra Mussels. If you caught that 8″ bullhead in the Mississippi, technically you could not use it for bait. If you caught the 8″ bullhead on the Minnesota River near Mankato, technically you could use it. Or if you lived in Wisconsin, use it and the 10″ walleye in the live well”. Reference pages 78 – 81, 2005 Minnesota Fishing Regulations.

More confused now??

Yes I think I have it straight now.
The DNR thinks catfishermen all have degrees in law to figure out the rules!
Guess I better contact University of Phoenix online.

I’d say its not legal to use a bullhead from the same water it was caught (if its over 8 inches) unless you immediately put it on your hook and cast it back. Fish caught and placed in a livewell cannot be returned to the water.

Don’t listen to Durahuh. He’s been hit with a hockey puck one too many times.

Dirk raises an interesting point. His interpretation is: “I’d say its not legal to use a bullhead from the same water it was caught (if its over 8 inches) unless you immediately put it on your hook and cast it back. Fish caught and placed in a livewell cannot be returned to the water.”

Reference page 20, 2005 Minnesota Fishing Regulations. The last point on page 20 under the “Other” category states: “Any Fish that is caught and will not be utilized must be immediately returned alive back into the water. A person cannot wantonly waste a fish that is caught by leaving it or any usable portion on the ice, thrown up on the bank, or intentionally killing it and returning it back into the water unless authorized.”
My interpretation of this regulation is that the magic phrase to be used here is: “will not be utilized”. In my opinion, if I caught an 8″ bullhead in a body of water that allowed me to harvest bait, I could put that fish in the livewell with the intention of utilizing it for bait. Once I place this fish into the livewell I have reduced it to possession and therefore can no longer “release” it back into the water. But My counter argument is that I don’t intend to release it, instead I plan to “utilize” the 8″ bullhead in my favorite flathead hole and I believe this would be a legal interpretation of this point. Now let’s say I don’t catch anything with this 8″ bullhead – by this regulation I cannot discard this bullhead back into the river but must take it home. Maybe cook it up for the bride for breakfast when you come in at 4:00am.

Am I the only one that thinks all of these regulations are a bunch of crap. I find myself reading the MN Fishing Regulations at 1:00am in the morning, on a backwater cut of the St Croix River while fishing for flatheads. You gotta admit the beaucrats and legal @$$holes in the MN DNR have really put us into an ethical conundrum. All we want to do is catch fish. You have to learn all these regulations in case some guy from the DNR shows up at your house to measure the bullheads in your bait tank or crawls into your boat to look in your bait bucket. I am willing to bet the average Minnesota fisherman that fishes a few times a year has no clue as to the complexities of the fishing regulations. Last time I put my boat in at the DNR launch I watched a guy dump his minnow bucket full of fatheads into the river. I mentioned to him that was not legal – he said to me “What do you want me to do, dump them in the woods?” He didn’t have a clue.

So I can’t use 8in bullheads. And I have not been hit with that many pucks, just to many fists

Reference page 20, 2005 Minnesota Fishing Regulations. The last point on page 20 under the “Other” category states: “Any Fish that is caught and will not be utilized must be immediately returned alive back into the water.

The above makes little sense to me because as often as not I don’t know whether that first eater channel cat or decent Walleye will be utillized or not. Oftentimes while out fishing I will catch an eater channel cat or a Walleye, and put them in the livewell. Without exception, if I don’t catch any other keepers, I just release that first fish. Other times, especially if I get in late, I may release 5-6 decent fish, figuring I can always pick up a few the next day. I have a big livewell and keeping the fish alive is not an issue.

Regarding bullheads, those 8-9 inch guys make for awfully good eating.

2fishy…

The DNR is working one that wording…so at the end of the day you can release a fish in the exact same scenario you mentioned. However, they are sticking to their guns on transporting them home alive.

What I don’t quite get is, we have a law that states you can’t put fish into another body of water…stocking, so why do we have another law that says you can’t transport live fish home? The purpose of both laws is to keep you and me from catching say a catfish on the river and releasing him into a lake (for example). We have one law already…why do we need two? More control for the CO?

To answer my own question….

The “other” reason the transportation of live fish won’t change is because…to keep the fish alive…you need water and “normally” you would be taking water from one lake/river along with you.

Now the next question would be….”How is transporting water (wheather it’s infested or not going to hurt anything when it’s drained in my driveway?”

Don’t know the answer to that yet…but I’m guessing it’s the same reason that you’ll get a ticket with weeds on your trailer.

Numbertwonew….Shoot me a pm and I’ll send you the phone number to the U of P!