Keeping fish

I know this topic has been discussed before but seems unclear on the DNR website. If you catch a “keeper” fish, can you clean it while still fishing as long as you keep the carcass?

I believe that would be acceptable. The fish would still count towards your daily/possession bag limit.

I would think you could gill and gut the fish but the head should be naturally attached to the body so a proper length can be determined to confirm that “keeper” status.

Buffalo Fishhead

walleyewizard wrote:

but seems unclear on the DNR website.

Each state may well be different in the rules they have set forth. Where will you be fishing?

Either bleed it and keep it on ice or gut/gill and put on ice, then fillet when you’re back home, motel. Having fillets in a cooler, even with a patch of skin, and having a carcass might get you in trouble if a CO decides that the carcass and those fillets equal two fish.

In MN the way it reads to me is that it depends on if the lake is covered by general regulations or special regulations. If special regulations then you cannot fillet it according to attached excerpt.

This also seems unenforceable once you’re off the water and probably everybody is breaking this rule to bring their fish home.

Attachments:

1. 

   Screenshot_20220703-122127_Drive.jpg
   

Just a classic MN regulation. Ill break that “law” every day of the week (just a metaphor). It’s a moral obligation to keep fish in the best condition possible for a meal, and that goes against that. It’s okay to break bad laws.

Thanks for the responses. Just another confusing regulation compounded by the multiple regulations on different lakes. Since I already bleed my fish I guess it wouldn’t take much to gut them too.

And those of us that live in Wisconsin….a whole different set of rules for cleaning and transporting fish to take home….

I would imagine the Canadian rules differ as well.