Reg changes for miississippi river?

A buddy has been fishing pool 4 near the dam 3 days this week, and got checked by a creel survey crew. He was told that there is a new possession limit of 6 eyes/sauger, not a two day possession limit of 12. Also was told that the sauger size limit is now 15 inches, as opposed to no size limit like it was before. Is this correct? If so, I’m going be be embarrassed for not picking up on the changes before this. Just read the wi regs on line, and regs shown are as i understood them to be from before, not as my buddy described. Going to try to get over to Pool 4 or 5 in the next couple weeks, so figure I’d better know.

You may have to call your WI state office of your dnr and see what they say about their own regulations.

If it differs than what the survey crew said, I’d let them know. Was the survey crew from WI or MN?

With a MN licence, we’ve always been limited to a one day possission limit of 6 in aggregate, and there is no Sauger minimum size, just 15″ on Walleyes.

let us know what you find out.

Jack

Link to WI Dnr’s Regs<<

Z-Man, on page 60 of the current WI Regs, nothing has changed.
15 inch min on walleye, no size on sauger. Possession limit is double the daily bag.

Since the creel folks are MN DNR folks, I’m guessing they are talking about MN rules. In that case, 6 eyes/saugers is the possession limit. That hasn’t changed either.

Unless I’ve miss read your post, nothing has changed.

PS Just checked the MN-WI border water rules for MN. On page 63 it lists the possession limit as 6 with a 15 inch minimum for WALLEYEs as 15 inches. Does not mention a size for sauger.

Not sure what that was all about?

Daily limit is 6, possession limit is always twice the daily limit.

For WI…Phigs

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Daily limit is 6, possession limit is always twice the daily limit.

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NOT IN MN. I can assure you this is a fact, I have the ticket to prove it. I’m not sure where this came from but I can’t count how many Minnesotans where surprised when I told them possession is NOT twice daily bag limit. Must be a old law that old timers taught us young folk.

There’s an echo in here. LOL!

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Just checked the MN-WI border water rules for MN. On page 63 it lists the possession limit as 6 with a 15 inch minimum for WALLEYEs. Does not mention a size for sauger.

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WI has a possession limit of twice the daily bag limit.

When anglers come from states other than WI or MN, I always suggest they purchase a WI license, for this very reason.

I’m thinking Z’s friend misunderstood the creel survey guys.

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Daily limit is 6, possession limit is always twice the daily limit.

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NOT IN MN. I can assure you this is a fact, I have the ticket to prove it. I’m not sure where this came from but I can’t count how many Minnesotans where surprised when I told them possession is NOT twice daily bag limit. Must be a old law that old timers taught us young folk.

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Not sure exactly what you were ticketed for ?

If you live in Minnesota and even have a Wisconsin license you must follow the Minnesota rules for the border water. Correct?

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Daily limit is 6, possession limit is always twice the daily limit. Not sure exactly what you were ticketed for ?

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If he holds a Minnesota license you are only allowed a possession limit of 6 fish ,same as a one day bag limit.

That is what is figured but did he have 12 fish on his possesion or did they actually check his freezer ? Which I really doubt.

It wasn’t on the Mississippi. Back in the day when I was young and dumb and “to smart” to read the regs. I assumed possession was twice daily bag limit for walleye cause that’s what I was told all those years growing up.

So we were on a gang buster bite for MN opener just hammering the 15-17″ male walleye. We all kept our Saturday limit of 6 fish. Then went back out Sunday and kept another 6 for a big fish fry we were going to have. The CO asked to see all our fish. Thinking we were legal we showed him Sunday’s catch and Saturday’s catch all filleted up nice in the bottom of the cooler under ice.

He was pretty cool about it since we weren’t intending on breaking the law. We were just to dumb to know the law. So, we go a ticket for the illegal fish and he only took the illegal fish letting us keep our legal limit.

Lesson learned. READ THE REGS EVERY YEAR.

Since then (2002) I can’t tell you how many guys try to argue with me that the law states possession limit is twice daily bag limit. I spend a fair amount of time trying to educate them that that is NOT the case anymore.

I wonder if anyone knows/remembers when it was the case?

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If you live in Minnesota and even have a Wisconsin license you must follow the Minnesota rules for the border water. Correct?

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Correct. You must follow the laws for the state you reside in regardless of what licenses you hold on a border water.

Perch still have a possesion of double the daily limit???

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Perch still have a possesion of double the daily limit???

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MN REGS

Correct. (Inland) “PERCH – Continuous – 20 daily and 40 in possession”

Incorrect. (WI/MN Border Waters) “Perch – Continuous – 25”

MN REGS HERE – Possessing Fish

• Daily and possession limits are the same unless otherwise noted. Fish are in an angler’s possession whether on hand, in cold storage, in transport, or elsewhere.

• Once a daily or possession limit of fish has been reached, no culling or live well sorting is allowed. No culling is allowed on Mille Lacs or Wisconsin

border waters (see pages 33 and 64-66).

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MN REGS HERE – Possessing Fish
• Daily and possession limits are the same unless otherwise noted. Fish are in an angler’s possession whether on hand, in cold storage, in transport, or elsewhere.
• Once a daily or possession limit of fish has been reached, no culling or live well sorting is allowed. No culling is allowed on Mille Lacs or Wisconsin
border waters (see pages 33 and 64-66).

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That is 100% correct Wade!

Every winter there is alot of confusion on the possession limit regs for the MN/WS Mississippi boundry water. A simple regulation change would clear this up once and for all. Catch and release only fishing for walleye and sauger from Jan 1 through April 30 each year on all water above Lake Pepin. Place a bouy at the tip of the second wing dam below dam #3 and close the river upstream from it to all fishing for the same period. Problem solved.

Communist.

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Communist.

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Jim Lover

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Communist.

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Jim Lover

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carefull fellas…last attempted Jim -lover maced him BK…you got the mace?
Anyhow,….seems that possession limit for wi residents with wi license is 2 day’s limit. My buddy is from Illinois. going to check and see if they hav e a one day or two day possession limit. If one day, that might explain why he was told that. Hard to hide being a FIB if you have the IL registration on the boat.

Z did you mean a 1 or 4 day out of state license?

WI did come out with a one day license this year.

Ps I don’t carry mace and I like many folks from IL…now IA might be a different story.

No, I meant a 1 day possession limit. They had annual WI Non resident licesnes.
As for IL folks…I like most of them too, like my folks, sisters, etc…..

Even if you have a WI license and live in WI, you can only have 1 possession of MN fish in your freezer. How the CO would ever be able to tell, beats me.. but that’s the regs. Since you caught them in MN you must abide by the MN regulations, no matter where you take them.

Now, you could probably say you caught them on the WI side which would allow you 2 possessions of fish… but that’s getting into the moral side of it.

OK I’m putting this to rest. Just spoke with a WI DNR rep to discuss this question, and she got another person involved. they looked up the 2011-2012 regs, and 2012 to 2013 regs. The rule is: any person who has a valid WI resident or non-resident license (other than the 1 day license now offered in WI), and is fishing the WI/MN boundary waters of the Mississippi, the daily bag limit is 6 eyes/sauger, and possession limit is 12. The WI DNR has nothing in their regs reducing the possession for persons who also hold a licesne in other states,be it IL or MN, again, provided they hold a valid WI license. But the WI regs would not preclude the MN DNR from enforcing their own interpretation of their own regs. So if the MN DNR says that if a MN person holding a MN license would still be bound by a one day possession limit on these boundary waters, even if they purchased a WI Non resident license to try to get around that one day limit,(as was described in earlier posts) then I guess they can.
So there it is, right from the horse’s mouth. I will now rest in peace, and enlighten my buddy from IL.

Z? Want me to just lock this thread now?

Lock her down Katt Daddy!

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Z? Want me to just lock this thread now?

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Maybe we can come up with another provocative subject, like perhaps, start a rumor that MN license holders can only keep kitty cats, and release all eyes and sauger for the WI dudes.
Or we can lock it…..your call.