New IA fish regs

Need feed back on Ia.new no culling,sorting,highgradeor replace any fish already in poss.Pemitted blackbass tourn exempted.Fish in live well,stinger, basket is part of daily bag limit.

This rule has been in affect for years (forever possibly) in MN. Makes sense to me. I guess I don’t see any reason to pull a fish from the live well to replace it with another… and taking one off of a stringer is definitely out of the question in my mind.

The exemption for bass tournies will cause a fuss with some.

I like james have no problems with the new laws. Fishing in wisconsin and minnesota all my life i have grown accustom to laws such as these. James is right a fish on a stringer should probely never go back. I say probely cause it seems there is always an exception to the rule. Does this mean that once i have a limit of walleyes i will be kicked off the water like i hear happens at redwing when guys have limited? I dont even know if those reports are true.

I don’t have a problem with it except for the bass tournies being exempt. What makes those any different from other species’ tournaments?

Once you’ve kept a limit of fish, you need to leave the water or go fish for a different species. Solution? Leave yourself 1 short of a limit and enjoy.

I’m pretty sure I read in the 05 Iowa regs that you CAN continue to fish after limiting out but you must release all additional fish immediately.

Dave

This is what happens when you walk away from a post that’s half finished. 10 replies by the time yours is posted!

Haasfish,

I’m not sure how you stand on these reg changes…

But here’s my thoughts from MN.

I grew up in a small town and we had good …but spotty eye fishing and GREAT panfish fishing. It was common practice to sort through the catch of the day. If you had 5 eyes, you kept fishing and tossed back the smallest one on the stringer…The goal of the day was to take home a limit of the biggest fish…the bigger the better. Same with sunnies. Eyes went on a stringer dragged beside the boat and the gills were in a net until we hit shore. The only people that had a live well were the big name guys on TV.

Many times when replacing these fish, they would float away belly up.

Most DNR’s have realized that their job is to protect the resource, weather it be fish, animals…or habitat. (I know this could be argued by many, but this is their task..)

With this in mind they have gone back a revisited there laws. One example (in MN) is our rough fish law. At one time it was against the law to return carp, dogfish ect to the water. Most people just left them on shore…they didn’t want to take them home but didn’t want to break the law either… Now, this is viewed as wasting a resource.

We are allowed to return them to the water.

So, to sum all the above up, (IMO) to replace a new fish for one that is already in our possession on a stringer or in the warm water of a live well would be wasting a resource or at the very best, lowering the resources chance of survival.

I would support this type of law in MN, if MN didn’t have it already.

As James mentioned, bass tourneys exempted doesn’t make sense to me.

The new regs won’t be a problem for me at all, but what bothers me about the whole deal is the fact that there likely won’t be much enforcement of them. Hell, we still have guys here on the Miss. keeping slot fish that are supposed to go back in the water. No enforcement out there. TIP hotline is no good when your cell can’t get signal. All the wardens are sitting in warm trucks checking deer, pheasant, and coyote hunters. The Iowa DNR’s budget got cut 600,000 last year and the wardens who retired never got replaced, making them very shorthanded. In short, the only people who will abide by the new regs will be the honest fishermen who can read and comprehend. I know those are some harsh words on Iowa, but that’s what I think about it.

Not being against or toally in favor of new reg my ? is returning a fish in your possesion a vilolation ? Why exempt permitted(state permits some tourn)bass tourn? My livewell as good as theirs. Catfish,crappie,walleye,pike&muskie tourn that different?

Either exempt all or none. Don’t discriminate.
I see this new law being broken so many times and in so many different ways it becomes laughable. I know the intentions are good on the DNR’s part, but like I said earlier, enforcement will be the deciding factor.

I too have no problem with the new regs, but I thnk Herb has said most of the things I would question. Well intentioned, but probably won’t get enforced. No reason to discriminate. good for all or noone.

dave

Can someone point me in the right direction as to find more info on what the heck you all are talking about.
jc

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enforcement will be the deciding factor

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Not to be disagreeable…but I humble disagree…sort of…

MOST people, once they understand the why’s will follow the rules. Of course there’s always people like my brother in law that won’t wear a seat belt because the government says he has to…

But then I agree…enforcement is education…at times..

Just got off the phone with THE fella from the IA DNR that drove the law. Sorry, forgot his name.

This will help you understand or “fuel your fire”.

Black Bass exemption. Because of the popularity of bass tournies they made the exemption. The thought behind this was because most tournies have there own rules to protect the bass. Rules for live wells ect. Now Mr. DNR couldn’t say that no bass would ever die because of the culling exemption, but he felt it would be very limited. He also mentioned that when the get a permit from the DNR, they (the dnr) can place “special conditions” on them to ensure the resource is being take care of.

The reason Bass were the only exepmtion was because it’s a “heartier” fish than a walleye. Just because it’s tail is wiggleing doesn’t mean it’s going to survive. He talked about “Run and Bump” tournies..but I wasn’t sure what he was talking about…so I’ll skip it here.

Catfish tournies weren’t exempted because of many reasons. Here’s a couple. You can bank fish for cats…which leads to fish being held on stringers, buckets and pails. Most cat tournies you can weigh in your fish dead.

As far as the IA DNR is concerned, they are likely to never have an issue in the state will culling in it’s many forms…However, they plan on upping their enforcement on the rivers below the dams.

They used MO’s law…word for word because they have so many competitive outings.

Couple side notes. There will be a press release explaining what culling is. Apparently, some people think that if you go fishing and end the day with two gills, you can’t throw them back. This is not culling…this is “not wanting to clean two fish”.

He didn’t say this and these are my words not his…but in talking with him, I felt that the BASS folks put presure…no let me rephrase this…

made a good case for the bass turnies guys to cull.

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Apparently, some people think that if you go fishing and end the day with two gills, you can’t throw them back. This is not culling

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From what I understand, this is not legal in MN……once the fish is in the livewell, it can NOT be thrown back .

Maybe that is different in the new Iowa regs

I have to run Jake, but I’ll follow up on your question. It’s not really covered in this rule…

Thanks for pointing that out!

6262.0100

Subp. 5. Possession of fish while on state waters.

A. Fish that are taken by angling and not immediately
released into the water after capture are considered to be in
possession. Once a limit of fish has been reduced to
possession, no culling or live well sorting (the act of
replacing one fish with another one) of that species is allowed.

B. A person shall not angle for, including
catch-and-release, or reduce to possession any species during
its closed season.

C. Once a person or persons fishing as a party as
provided in Minnesota Statutes, section 97C.317, retain a daily
limit for a species, all fish of that species that are
subsequently taken must be immediately released into the water
after capture.

D. Length of a fish is determined by measuring from
the tip of the nose to the tip of the tail when fully extended.
While on or fishing in state waters with size restrictions that
differ from statewide regulations, including experimental
waters, special management waters, boundary waters, or any other
waters with size restrictions, all fish for which the different
size restrictions apply must be undressed and measurable when in
a person’s possession, regardless of where taken, except when a
watercraft is docked or moored to shore and a person is in the
act of preparing and using the fish for a meal.

E. It is unlawful for a person to have in possession,
regardless of where taken, any fish in excess of or outside of
the limits for that water body when fishing in that water. A
person must immediately return to the water any fish that is
taken by angling that is in excess of or outside the limits.

F. A person who is in transit on the water, taking
the most direct route back to the person’s lodging or docking,
and not fishing, may possess fish outside of or in excess of the
limits for that water body, if the species were legally taken
from connected waters.

This a new adm rule IA 2005 fishing regs! You might want to look at them before fish this year?

BrainK He was referring to bump and dump! This just measuring fish and then immediately releasing fish(Which some Ia BASS fed tourn did for a while-some may stiil do?)Counting inchesand coverting to weights to decide a winner!

You can bring up the rule changes through the Ia dnr web site.Fishing regs.

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You can bring up the rule changes through the Ia dnr web siteFishing regs.

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Thank you Joe K for enlighting these fine fishermen!

Ussually the DNR will give a explanation for rule changes and this time it was guiet until press time If there was a problem it sure was kept silent. It sure will give the walleye tourneys a new twist. I just think they should not make exceptions if this is the direction they want to go

Joe i like the way you fish! I smelled something fishy about this when I saw it!Talked to all parties on this and got different answers.Reg change opens up a can of worms& may cost fishery more than it helps

Jake, here’s the answer to your question from the MN DNR.

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The law is found in MR 6262.0100, Subp. 5 A. You may continue to cull until you reduce a limit of that species to possession. If the limit is 10 and you have two fish, you can let them go at the end of the day. However, if you have nine fish and then catch another one, then you can’t let any of them go because you now have 10 fish.

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What’s funny is that I read the statute above…and I can’t see it?

I received this note today for the MN rules on culling from the DNR:

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I neglected to also indicate that Mille Lacs Lake and border waters have a no culling rule. On these waters, if you don’t immediately release it then you have to take it home. The border water rule can be found in MR 6266.0100 and the emergency rule has the language for Mille Lacs.

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