Jan 24 drag bite

Mine taste good too Herb because I freeze them in water with a little salt. I’ve ate catfish that were older then a year and they were still good, my taste buds couldn’t tell the diffrence. I do catch fish for some old folks that I know because its hard for them to get around, Stans 92 and his wife Georgie, and Ralph and Orvie, half the time they have the door open when I come over with thiers. All of them love fresh catfish fillets. Thiers nothing wrong with giving your friends and neighbors fresh fish.

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Nice fish Dan. How does it work with giving away so many fish? If you give your fish to your clients is it still considered your limit or is it now part of their limit? Im assuming when you said those fish did not make it to your freezer then you must of sent them with who ever you where fishing with. I dont keep many fish but see the practice of giving fish away is still very common. Have always wondered how that works with limits and whos fish it actually is.

Might have to try and get down there myself next week if I cant get back on pool 2.

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Anyone have a answer on this?

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You can sign your fish over to your guide (or anybody) as long as it is kept in records and each bag of fish is dated and labeled along with the customers DNR #. As for keeping them after the trip, if the clients want to take them home whole you have to sign over your catch to them in the same manor. A client can not catch a guides limit, he has to catch them himself.

Yes you could just write down your friends DNR # on your fish and keep extra limits in the freezer, but if the DNR wants they can (and will) call up the person and ask when they fished with you and if they left any fish. If the stories dont match you are going to be fined, just like jeff foils did with his waterfowl guiding service. He’s headed to prison.

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Well I hate to call you out Dan but I too think that you are taking more than you should be. I know your a good guy and you donate most of your fish and thats great but you need to draw the line somewhere. You said “90% of my trips I’m guiding people” well I have been following you and I know this is far from the truth. I dont look down on guides that let thier clients keep a limit thats your job but the guide doesn’t need to keep his everytime too. Here are your stats since January 2nd; You have fished pool 4 ten times (not including today), your boat has kept its legal limit every time, your boat has brought in 96 walleye/sauger, of those 10 days you were by yourself not guiding 5 times, at least 3 and maybe all of the other days you were not guiding you were with your buddys. I would imagine you broke the 100 fish mark tonight. I don’t think you should be trying to feed the world at pool 4’s expense. Just my opinion

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For some reason I feel the need to set the records you keep about me straight, I’ve been on the water 14 times, I’ve went solo 3 times and whenever I have someone in the boat, client or friend I receive money for it so I’d call that guiding!

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What’s so funny is that this guy has nothing better to do than to track how many times Dan hits the river and how many fish he’s got. What’s even better is Dan corrects him with even more times on the water!!!

Dan you rock!! Let the cry babies cry and keep doing what you’re doing. Your clients pay to get on fish. I’ve yet to meet a better fisherman much less a better man than you are.

Those that question his ethics need to look in the mirror. Dan made fish for a church group. I know he’s given fish to those in times of need. Heck when I was laid off he would bring me fish from time to time if I couldn’t get out with him. No one is more caring or more giving that River Dan and no one has more respect for the river than this man. If you question it, then you’ve never had the pleasure to meet Dan.

Now that the DNR has pillaged his home and found nothing illegal, I think it’s time to put all this BS to rest. This is over and done with. By the way Dan, I know of other sites that you can post reports and not take a rash of flack for being completely legal.

Well I’m going to “cry” some more Sandman. Those numbers were pretty close to accurate when they were posted. Dan posts his every fishing move on facebook. I was disapointed to see that he said he was out even more time knowing that there were that many more walleyes knifed. I dont very often get involved in these kind of threads but when I see something this unethical going on I am going to speek up. This has nothing to do with Dans clients, its Dan himself that can’t resist filling the livewell every chance he gets. I know pretty much all the other guides on 3 and 4 and none of them are keeping there own limit everytime just to give them away. Of course they keep some now and then and of course there is nothing wrong with that. For those taking Dans side I don’t blame you he is a good guy and a great river rat, but the whole point of this is that those who have any respect for our resources dont want to see someone “gifting” as many fish as Dan has been over time. Keep in mind most of the people you give fish to don’t buy a fishing license, a boat, rods, reels, bait, tackle and so on they dont give back to the resource like we do when we purchase this kind of stuff. There is nothing wrong with some “gifting” to the needy or the elderly or of course there are always times when you owe someone something but keep it within reason one meal is enough to someone that has nothing invested. Lets keep in mind to that just because you throw back anyting over 17=18″ (Which is a great guideline) doesn’t mean its ok to keep as many as you can everytime. Its kind of like Quality Deer Managment, let the little ones go so they can grow. We all enjoy battling a big fish, the more fish that are taken out of our waters decreases our chances of doing that. Bottom line here is that River Dan has been keep more fish then what is considered ethical. Nobody wants to see someone setting a bad example on these public sites. And lastly keep in mind that all of us that have spoken our minds about this issue are doing it because we care about our resources not because we don’t like this guy or that guy.
I’m done…I think…..Dan good luck out there man but keep this stuff in mind

I’m sure Dan is a nice person. I’m also sure he does a lot of nice things for others. That’s not my concern — this isn’t a personal issue. My concern is that he is taking advantage of the letter of the law to the detriment of the resource and the other people who enjoy it.

I like reading about others’ fishing experiences. So I think Dan should keep fishing and keep posting about how he does. But stop with this “take a limit home every time I can” crap. It’s unsportsmanlike.

I really think Dan should stop and think about the number of fish he is removing from the river. It isn’t right what he is doing. If you spend some time thinking about it I bet you’ll eventually agree.

At the rate that Dan’s eating fish from P4 he’ll soon have a few extra bends in his spine, have a green glow to him at night, and will no longer need rain gear because the water will run off him like the freshly treated seats in my truck. At least this way he’ll be easier to tailpipe at night.

Come on guys.
Really?
Serious?

Think about all of this?
There are about 4 or 5 “well known, respected” guides on this website that do the same thing Dan does every single day. I recall one guide being booked every single day for 45 days straight a few years back on the same river. How many fish do you think that person’s boat harvested? HUH!?!?!?

I also recall several years back on this website, this specific subject being addressed. It was about fish being hung up on sticks to “show them off” for the guide. Some people complained, so the guides on this site changed their way of business and STOPPED putting the dead fish on a stick to show them off. Are you kidding yourselves that those guides STOPPED “harvesting” for their clients?

The guy is legal. If you don’t like it, lobby to change it.

But there are also guides on Mille Lacs that do what RiverDan does EVERY SINGLE DAM DAY ALL SUMMER LONG!

Get over it and get off your jealous high-horses.

Just because Dan advertises it and the other guides DON’T advertise it, doesn’t mean the other guides are NOT doing it!

Good grief! You’d think the guy was raping a spawning bed of 10lb eyes every day. That isn’t the case. He is fishing and doing it as a legal business (notice that he is a Captain???) How many “guides” today are still on the river that are “not” captains? Why don’t you go bust their balls?

The guy is legal and making a business out of it and he isn’t raping the system of trophy fish. They are just eaters.

That river has supported unGodly pressure for more years than this website has been around and the lake/river can handle the pressure and harvest. He isn’t doing anything wrong.

This is so sad. So very, very sad. The hypocrisy of all of this. How it is ok for some guides to do it, but not Dan. Do you all have something against Dan? Is it because he isn’t as popular as James, Dustin, Vandy, Randy, Jarrod and anyone else I missed on P4? (Not attacking the names mentioned and no names missed intended).