At what age does or should a child be before you can add their number of lines to the boat? I’m not talking their limit(s), but lines. I’m by no means a game hog, far from it in fact. I just want to add my son’s rods to the trolling spread on Superior if possible. Are there any laws governing this?
I can tell you of an experiance with a couple CO’s while bank fishing a few years back.
A couple in our party had their son along and a rod leaning on the fence with line out. The CO nicely asked the young man his name and shyly he responded. The next question the CO asked was…”Son? Which one is your rod” and the boy proudly pointed to the one right in front of him.
I haven’t looked up the law, but in my mind that pretty much covered it. 
Quote:
I can tell you of an experiance with a couple CO’s while bank fishing a few years back.
A couple in our party had their son along and a rod leaning on the fence with line out. The CO nicely asked the young man his name and shyly he responded. The next question the CO asked was…”Son? Which one is your rod” and the boy proudly pointed to the one right in front of him.
I haven’t looked up the law, but in my mind that pretty much covered it.
Out of your 4500000000+ reply’s that is one of your best!I 
you and 
to you Mr K.
Glad you didn’t include the original posts in that number. 
i’ve looked into this quite a bit.
in wi you can pretty much put lines in for each person there as long as the responsible adult is licensed. the child can fish and a limit can be kept for it
in mn, the child needs to be licensed under a family license to keep a limit or fish.
Quote:
At what age does or should a child be before you can add their number of lines to the boat? I’m not talking their limit(s), but lines.
yes, brian…
I think the child has to be able to cast and reel on their own.
Quote:
I think the child has to be able to cast and reel on their own.
x2. Maybe not cast but reeling in the fish for sure
Quote:
Glad you didn’t include the original posts in that number.
Not enough numbers on my key board! 
Quote:
in mn, the child needs to be licensed under a family license to keep a limit or fish.
Only if your a non res! Mn resident children under the age of 16 can fish and keep a limit with or without a licensed adult present
Quote:
in mn, the child needs to be licensed under a family license to keep a limit or fish.
Can you site where in the regs book it says that? I have never heard that before and don’t believe that is right. Unless it is something special for non residents, I have never heard of a family license.
DT
DT
In Wisconsin the child must be able to use and handle their own equipment. With that said I believe for the most part the wardens understand there is a learning curve and realize at times there is the need for a helping hand.
Reminds me of a time, me and buddy were out, he had his young son (maybe 4 or 5) with him and we had 3 lines out. It is mid-week, a small local lake and literally, were the only boat on the water. We were drifting with bobbers, hoping for either a crappie or walleye… anyways this boat comes tooling up from across the lake… WFO and pulls up and the CO starts harassing about 3 lines and evidently he didn’t see the kid sitting in the bottom of the boat with his binocs from the landing… 
you can tell he is pissed, having unloaded his boat for this… he starts questioning the kid, which rod is yours ? The kid looks up at him and says “whatever one gets a bite… we haven’t caught shi7 all day…”… 
Welcome to Stearns county, MN… I will never forget that
“whatever one gets a bite… we haven’t caught shi7 all day..”
And that my friend is another reason I wear a PFD…so I don’t fall out of the boat from laughter!
Priceless
When my boy was about 3 we were on the ice with tipups set and along came the CO. All was fine license and equipment wise. He actually wanted to see if we were using trebles. I always use circle hooks. Anyway then he started the hassle that the kid wasn’t old enough to have his own. I got a bit ticked and we discussed age appropriate and learning etc but he was persistent. So I said Tom what do you do when a flag pops up. Show this guy. He grabbed the tipup and took off running with the line and minnow flopping behind him.
The CO laughed and said have a nice day as he walked away. I’ll be picking the kid up from college on Saturday. Looking forward to my partner back for the summer.
I asked the CO in my hometown about this after my son was born. He said that if the kid is reasonably able to tend the line by himself, it’s fine. I’m sure the definition of “reasonably able to tend the line by himself” is up to the interpretation of the individual CO.
His answer pretty much shot down my business idea of “Prop’s On-Ice Daycare/Tip Up Adventures”.
Quote:
“whatever one gets a bite… we haven’t caught shi7 all day..”
Here’s another story in Stearns county that wasn’t as funny. 3 kids are fishing off the dock catching some tiny blue gills. All three kids were able to reel in their own lines but had trouble casting them far enough out to where the blue gills were biting. So my brother-in-law is helping them by casting out their their lines with snoopy fishing rods – there are 3 lines out – one for each kid and he never reeled in a fish. CO pulls up and asks him to see his fishing license – which he doesn’t have one. He was fined because the CO saw him “fishing”. 
Yeah… I know… technically he was fishing without a license and that is illegal but this is where some common sense helps. 
The kids never fished after that. 
That one stinks Brad.
Kind of reminds me of when I was in grade school. I spent most of my summers at the now removed Crow River dam. We caught bajillions of 4 in bullheads. One day a new kid showed up and asked if he could take them off the hook for me. He never fished before and was interested in holding the fish.
Well the Game Warden (as they were called at the time) was standing on the bridge watching. He happened to see my Dad in the barber shop and told him that “if I couldn’t take a fish off the hook, I shouldn’t be fishing.”
I remember my embarrassment I had explaining to Dad that I was wrongly accused. 
You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
