Spent Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday at Red Wing and had a great time even though the bite was not going as good as we had hoped. We did catch some nice fish as evident by a stringer of eaters by Steve and Gary.
Here is IaJames with a nice eater. We caught quite a few of these nice size fish. Most of these fish came on hair jigs tipped with minnows.
Here are some nice eaters that we cleaned for the dinner table.
This fish came from 12 feet of water adjacent to riprap and just hammers a green and chartruese hair jig. She measured just over 28″ but was the very hefty.
We did have an experience with the Minnesota DNR on this trip. We were staying at the Parkway Motel in Red Wing and on Thursday night two in our group were checked (at the Parkway). The Warden asked for license, wanted to know how many fish were caught (many), how many were kept (none by this group of two)and wanted to look into the room/boat/truck. The Warden was allowed to do as he asked and once satisfied went on his way. On Saturday night the Warden came back again and went through the entire routine again. Again we were legal, but as the warden explained, a group from Iowa (staying at the Parkway) were caught on Thursday/Friday with 36 fish over their limit. It seems that all of these guys had Wisconsin licenses, but being as they were staying overnite in Minnesota, the interpritation by the DNR is that they are over their limit. From what the warden explained to us, if you fish with a Wisconsin license, you may have 6 fish per day, and if you fish for two days, you may have 12 fish in possession. But once you get off of the water, you must not plan on spending the night in Minnesota. Is it just me or is this real? After talking more with the game warden, he claimed that someone staying at Evert’s called and filed a complaint, saying that we were keeping more than our limit. I don’t know if that is true or not, but, as I was the one cleaning all of the fish for the party of six (I cleaned 27 fish in 3 days), I can understand how that might have happened. I assure you that we do not keep more than our limit and often times do not bring fish home.
First of all nice batch of fish. I travel to redwing myself and enjoy the good fishing. for those that do live up there they really dont understand what a great fishery they have we might spend a whole day down here for a few good fish unlike spending a few hours and limit out. these few that get pissed at us out of state folks we pay for our license and respect the laws but dont give a us all the crap for wanting to keep a mess of fish when we travel up to 4or five hours to spend our good hard earned money on your boat launch and bait and so on. As mr Holts said your fishery has one of the best growing rates of any body of water on the big river. So lets not give us out of staters so much [censored] for trying to enjoy what most of our mom and dads taught us to respect.
Hi Guys.
Keeping fish is fine and unfortunately for the non resident fishermen/women that do play by the rules which I am sure is by far the vast majority…it is those few that break the rules that create a bad stigma for everyone. Hunting, snowmobiling, off roading….they all get the same bad wrap created by the few that don’t care.
The instance you described does make sense though..if you are from Iowa(in this instance) and are coming to Red Wing and staying in MN it would make sense that you should purchase a MN license and follow MN laws.
By purchasing a WI license and staying in MN they were probably trying to get around the MN 6 walleye possession limit. According to the Fishing Regs for WI anywhere in the state except on WI/Mich border waters an angler is allowed a posession limit of twice the daily limt. MN the posession limit and daily limits are the same so by pruchasing a WI license they were expecting to keep twice the fish that MN allowed. So a gruop of 6 with a WI posession limit would be over by 36 fish in MN.
It seems like a pretty fine line but if you are staying in MN it would make sense that you should follow MN regs.
The next question would be …..what if you are from WI staying in Red Wing….then you would have a resident WI license versus being from a 3rd state and forced to purchase a Non Res license from one or the other. I would guess the same rules apply…if you are overnighting in MN the posession limit would be 6…might be a good question for the DNR.
John
Zamer It happens every spring and fall up here and its not just out of staters that double dip,they just get the attention.Being a transplant from iowa I feel for ya but the warden was just doing his job.Come back soon,its going to get better,by the way thats a real nice eye ya got there.
Stuart
One thing that Zammer forgot to say was the the big fish he got was CPRed.
I was there and it was very fat and looked to go aroung 10 lbs. As for people with Wis. licenses staying in Red wing. They can have 6 fish Sat. night and fish Sun. morning and get 6 more as long as they go home Sun and do not stay the night. Myself I will always get a Minn. licenes as always. Steve was very good to fish with as was all the guys in the party. 
I went along to fill an open seat and was very glad I did and hope that I can do it again on there next trip. I would like to thank Steve for asking me to go . I had a very good time .I always have a good time there and always will in the future. Hope to be there in a couple more weeks. Jim
I have a quick question, If I have a MN license and I stay and everts resort will I be legal or not or even if I put my boat in there and have a mn license and leave the same day???
I was told that if you have a Wis. lis. you can not stay in MN no matter how many fish you have. Even if you only have one fish. I am from IA and have a Wis lic. because we spend the summer on a lake in Barron County WI. You are legal if you have a MN lic. and stay in WI. Just a law that MN has. That’s why I take my business to WI.
Post deleted by B_Sander
I’ve got both licenses….can I use 5 rods??
Since this is so confusing, I say we just keep all Iowans and Cheeseheads out!!!
A little friday humor. Sorry.
My understanding is that it doesn’t matter which license you have, if you stay in Minnesota you must abide by Minnesota rules. I don’t have a problem with that, I just hope the word gets out so we don’t have people getting in trouble because of lack of an understanding of the rules.
Trust me……..I went around and around with the MN DNR a couple of years ago over this. I didn’t get jammed up but just trying to prevent any future problems. I first talked to the DNR office in Rochester. They said it was not problem. I then talked with an enforement officer and he informed me that the office people didn’t know what they were talking about. I asked where it explained that in the booklet you get when you buy a lic. He said it was not it the booklet, that people were just suppose to use common sense. He said it was the same in other states. I checked. It is not. MN is the only state with this law. He said it falls under the transporting law. OK……..what about people coming home from Canada or another state and what to stay night in MN? I even talked to a MN DNR supervisor who admitted that it was a horse s**t.
I just figured, here’s what MN can do with their law, and I will spend my $ in Wis.