Minnesota or Wisconsin license

Can anyone tell me how far up the Mississippi I can fish past Prescott with a Wisconsin fishing license? The wisconsin regs are unclear, or maybe I didn’t read them correctly. Thanks for any help

Harley

You cannot fish past Prescott. All water north of Prescott is Minnesota inland waters.

J.

YOu have to have minnesota on one side and wisconsin perpendicular to that. If you want you can come up the croix past prescot. There is some good fishing up here!

yeah… one of the most complicated rules borders within the state lies at the confluence of the croix…. if your fishing from the land on the upstream point of the croix you could cast into 3 different zones of enforcement! there are sperate rules for the St Croix, the boundary waters Mississppi and the Mn portion of the might Miss…… the DNR wanted to cleanup some of the mess and extend boundary waters rules up to the dam at Hastings…. but Im told the locals voted it down in a meeting the DNR held….. personally I think its unfortunate…. but then I did not attend the meeting and I dont know what the locals concerns were…. perhaps someone here knows? Tuck maybe?

Rivereyes,

By extending the Mississippi river boundary water regulations from Prescott to Dam #2 at Hastings, this would allow catch-and-keep fishing for walleyes and saugers at Dam #2 year round. By keeping this stretch of river under inland regulations, the walleyes season is close from, what is it…., mid February until the second Saturday in May. I think that was the main opposition to changing the regulations. Because there is no power plant just upstream of Dam #2 like there is at Dam #3, there would not be as much winter fishing pressure like there is at Dam #3. In other words, the river and Hasting public ramp are locked in ice much more frequently than Dam #3 and Everts resort.

The concern the locals had was that these fish would be easy pickings for anglers, and they did not want this to be like Red Wing. I had recommended a catch and release only on this stretch of river. That was shot down. It is unfortunate. This stretch of river is alnost overlooked by everyone. The few times the Governor extended the ice fishing seasons due to warm weather at the start of the year, we SOCKED ’em. Some VERY nice. If the intrest for catch and release only would catch on, I think there would be some possibilities. It had nothing to do with the landings.

Tuck

I thought that was the issue… that the local anglers did not want LOTS of boats in there…. and I know that if it was opened year round there WOULD be quite a few in there…… I agree with you Tuck… If extending border rules up is not an option… how about extending pool 2 rules down?…. Im always in favor of catch and release anyway…. I love to experience fantastic fishing.. and catch and release I feel is the BEST way that can happen… after all… look how MileLacs is shaping up with rules that favor a trophy fishery….

though come to think of it.. catch and release for such a small section of a pool is not likely to accomplish much fish population wise… but it WOULD allow those who enjoy catch and release fishing to experience it in another section of the river….. that I think would be a positive… so though it would not be much help… it would not harm much either…. and would provide an angling oppurtunity that does not currently exist…..

It may carry more weight if it was approached that way. Mille Lacs data has come in after the opposition had their way. It was the people of Hastings that was upset about it! They had a lot of smoke blown up there dresses about all of these poor walleyes getting masacred there…Well we as conservationist fishermen and women no that would not be the case…

Maybe it will come up again…

Yuo guys are right. It is too bad that poeple can be so easily influenced by people with little or no knowledge of the fishery. I’m sure they read the horror stories of Iowans coming up and catching all their precious saugers and walleyes.The fact is that the locals would exploit the dam area just as much. Ihope to see the stretch turned into catch adn release, those wing dams are precious in the spring. I’m guilty of fishing below the dam areas during mild winters, but I’m there for one reason and that is too get the boat wet in the middle of winter, not to ruin the fishery by catching hundreds o0 walleyes, so claims the locals. I know a couple of guys who are hastings res. and they fish the wingies all winter. The fish that they are catching are the spawners , the majority of the fish caught below the dam area are small males and the occasional 3-5 lber. Fact of the matter is that what evere you do with the regs. people will always disagree and still will exploit the fish whenever given the chance.