15″ walleye minimum size limit on pool 4

This may sound like a stupid question, but I got into a debate on this the other day. I’m still not exactly sure of the Minnesota regulations, so hopefully this can be cleared up, since I’m fairly new to the river fishing down there.

Is the 15″ minimum size limit only for Walleyes? Or does it apply to Sauger and Saugeye also? The regulation states “15” minimum size for “Walleye”. It gives you the catch limit for walleye / sauger, however only the lenth limit for walleye….

Can anyone shed a little light on this????

Thanks!

Walleye only. You can keep short saugers.

If you catch what you believe is a Saug-eye, I would make sure it’s at least 15 inches just to be on the safe side.

J.

Thanks Jon. That’s what I thought, but I didn’t want to have a game warden tell me different and give me a recommendation to donate to the dnr if I was wrong.

Personnaly, I would rather eat a 14″ sauger than a 20″ walleye……..better eatn’

Exactly what Jon said!

15″ for Walleye

No size limit for Saugar/Saug-eye

But it doesnt make any sence to keep them small saugars anyway, theres nothing there to eat!

Contraire, I personnaly love taking a 14″ or 15″ walleye and deep frying the filet. Perfect eating size. I like to leave those bigger fish for spawning purposes (just a personal feeling that makes me believe that I’m helping keep the walleyes around.

I’m also still a little gun shy about eating anything out of the river (old school with all the pollutants in the system).

Cool whatever works!

I cant help it but

—————
Let em go so they can grow

I’d agree with Jon J. on the saugeye part. I have been told directly by a WI Conservation Officer that a saugeye, must be 15 inches as well. The WI regs do state “15 inches for walleye”, so it’s another one of those gray areas….better safe than sorry.

Alright……..another stupid question…………Sometimes, it is difficult to tell the difference (atleast for me) from a Sauger and a Saugeye.

What are the true tale differences?

Gary, your question about identification is the reason Iowa reguards the saugeye the same as a walleye in it’s regulations for size and limits.

When in doubt.. ….It’s a walleye

If I remember correctly, a Saugeye has the spots on the dorsal fin, but also has the white tip on the bottom of the tail. No white tip – sauger.

I think i might be able to clear up the identifaction on the diffrence between walleyes and saugeyes. The saugeye has scales on thier gill plates, as saugers do. walleyes don’t have scales on thier gill plates. So if it looks an awful lot like a walleye but a little darker than one check too see if thiers scales on the gill plates like a sauger, if thier there its a saugeye. I know, we broke the state saugeye record three times in two days, two 7’s and an eight, we took them home and ate them. Great eating out of winter water.

Here is a saugeye I caught yesterday, White tip and spots on the dosal fin. Not the best pic of the tail but when you spreed the tail out there is a definte white spot!