Minnesota walleye poaching for vikings games

[Greenhorn]

Unpopular opinion: I'm glad they caught him. People keeping limits day after day and keeping freezers-full of fish destroys fisheries.

 

[Zogman]

YUP! ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ What he just said!

 

[db-2]

no problem with him being punish for the crime.
It just the way LEO handled the case. db

 

[LBrandt]

Maybe the warden was having a fish-fry after work. LB

 

[Twitch]

Maybe the warden was having a fish-fry after work. LB

Haha….hey guys little impromptu fish fry at my place tonight. I got the fish you bring sides and beer

 

[v193]

i bet this warden has plenty of white bass in his freezer he doesnt need walleye....I think ive seen him lined up along Devils Lake

 

[Kurtr]

SD used to have a possession limit that included your freezer. Not sure if they do now? But I remember in the 90's our over zealous GW went through a guys freezer. Thawed out all his fillets and matched em up. This guy was a snow bird, and took a bunch of fish south with him for the winter. Now the reason they checked him is they would see him fishing ALL THE TIME. Multiple times a day. But unless they checked him they never knew if he was legal or not. They couldn't catch him on the water so they checked his freezer. I can't remember how many he had but it was A LOT!

So the funny part is this.... This old guy was waiting trial and still wanted to fish so they said, ok just don't keep any. He was caught again with over his limit. I guess the G.A.S. factor was kicking in good at this point in his life.

They got rid of that a few years back. 2004 ish we were killing them from shore at the water plant. I went to the bait shop one after noon and they said the warden was asking about our group so calls were made and we all had to give fish away and had a big fish fry as we would have been over our possession limit of 8 in the freezer. Next night we all got checked at our houses . Never kept over our daily limit but none of us had a boats back then so having some fish in the freezer for summer would have been nice

 

[Rowdie]

As I understood growing up each person could keep 8 in their freezer. So can your kids keeps their 8 if under 16? We used to growing up, but then I never heard of anyone every having their freezer checked until the 90's when the old man Payer retired.

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They got rid of that a few years back. 2004 ish we were killing them from shore at the water plant. I went to the bait shop one after noon and they said the warden was asking about our group so calls were made and we all had to give fish away and had a big fish fry as we would have been over our possession limit of 8 in the freezer. Next night we all got checked at our houses . Never kept over our daily limit but none of us had a boats back then so having some fish in the freezer for summer would have been nice

in 2004 I think the limit went up to 14..?? Somewhere in there you could keep 28 fish in your freezer. I remember taking kids out shore fishing all summer long and limiting. With no smelt, we were getting them from shore all summer. Insane limits.....56 or so

 

[snow1]

It happens all over When I lived in LaMoure. We had the meat fisherman that would go down to the Dam in the spring and catch there limit in the morning. Come back at noon. Then come back in the evening and do it again. The same 8 or 9 people were there everyday. The bite would last about 2 weeks and they were fishing it 3 times a day till the bite stopped. They kept every fish they caught. We had a Game Warden in town and it never stopped them.

I witnessed a similar situation sitting watching the locals near mohall on a bridge pounding walleyes one fall day,we stayed back glassing the circus,after a few minutes a warden rolled up behind my truck,with cocltail in hand I was a bit nervous as he exited his truck and strolled up to mine,he too was glassing from a far,we chatted he ask a few questions about certain fellers on the bridge,like how many fish,who did what what vehicle etc...he told me these folks would limit out and come back in a different family vehicle but wearing the same jackets and coveralls...,we watched this warden nail a couple folks,he was a busy man,this stream was off a waterfowl refuge and the warden was a federal agent.

 

[Jiffy]

Pollert never checked them? That’s hard to believe.

 

[Bacon]

There are always pigs when it comes to fishing. And a lot of times they aren’t out of staters.

 

[NG3067]

Wonder if a MN a resident could just purchase a ND license to cover the freezer limits?

 

[snow1]

Wonder if a MN a resident could just purchase a ND license to cover the freezer limits?

Not a chance,mn regs are to strict,couple summers ago I read a north dakotan was busted in minnsewta for his minnesota cabin freezer was full of walleyes he caught in minn,he claimed freezer limit and didn't fare well in court.

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I'm guessing this pig poarcher lost his salmon for a) no license or proper tags or b) over limit,as one king allowed daily two in possesion these days if he caught them in mn

as far as gifting fish/game one needs gifting tags in mn,also family members can take daily limits as long as residing at same address where fish are residing and proper licensing,our co's can't police everyone just like most states but when folks can't help being pigs or brag the hammer comes down/called karma.

 

[johnr]

I suggest staying the fuck out of Minnesota.

 

[wjschmaltz]

I think some are missing the point. He clearly broke the law. And it sounds like him and LE have a long history that probably goes much further than what even his previous tickets show. But at the core of it, I simply do not agree with this law and I don't agree with LE being able to dig around in freezers in most cases.

Referring back to a point someone made earlier in this thread I have plenty of friends and family that farm and only ice fish. They may pull 10 limits all winter and freeze it to consume throughout the year. Somehow these people would be more of a fish hog than people fishing year round and keeping 30 limits but eating them immediately? If this law was applied in ND my Dad couldn't even go out and catch a few limits a year to freeze and have a fish fry when all his kids are home. The tragedy of commons isn't lost on me and at the surface all points made so far are valid (in some instances people are stacking up 200 walleyes per family from their local small pond and that's kinda effed up), but this debate can't be had with generalizations and I still think this is a silly law. In contrast is it OK for a family to stack up 200 walleyes a year from Devils Lake? I say yes as long as they follow daily and possession limits. Harvestable surplus is what fish and game are and should be managed for. Maybe they don't have that same surplus in MN.

In my case I have 3 months that salmon run and I can fill my freezer for the year. Where I fish is about 2.5 hours away and we usually make 4 day weekends out of it. Between me and my wife, the daily limit is 6 and the possession limit is 12. After two days when we have our 12 we vac seal the fish and freeze them (thus removing them from our possession limit) and catch 12 more before going home. Completely legal and not sorry about it. oink oink. I have seen plenty of people abuse it too by fishing evenings and mornings for example and probably freezing those fish the same way - I obviously do not condone that at all.

 

[Kurtr]

As I understood growing up each person could keep 8 in their freezer. So can your kids keeps their 8 if under 16? We used to growing up, but then I never heard of anyone every having their freezer checked until the 90's when the old man Payer retired.

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in 2004 I think the limit went up to 14..?? Somewhere in there you could keep 28 fish in your freezer. I remember taking kids out shore fishing all summer long and limiting. With no smelt, we were getting them from shore all summer. Insane limits.....56 or so

No it was 06 the limit went up. Ya kids could have a possession limit. it was like that in 11 again i had the pontoon then and filled the live well up a few times with 8 people fishing. Ya Gary wouldnt be the one to go checking freezers unless you deserved it. I hunt with him all the time he is my father in laws best buddy.

 

[snow1]

I suggest staying the fuck out of Minnesota.

Ya know juanr,one would think that's the best scenario with the great fishing in the dakota's,however last check on non-rez fishing licenses over 25k license sold to north dakotans,quite a few have summer places in western minn.ottertail county .

 

[Greenhorn]

I think some are missing the point. He clearly broke the law. And it sounds like him and LE have a long history that probably goes much further than what even his previous tickets show. But at the core of it, I simply do not agree with this law and I don't agree with LE being able to dig around in freezers in most cases.

Referring back to a point someone made earlier in this thread I have plenty of friends and family that farm and only ice fish. They may pull 10 limits all winter and freeze it to consume throughout the year. Somehow these people would be more of a fish hog than people fishing year round and keeping 30 limits but eating them immediately? If this law was applied in ND my Dad couldn't even go out and catch a few limits a year to freeze and have a fish fry when all his kids are home. The tragedy of commons isn't lost on me and at the surface all points made so far are valid (in some instances people are stacking up 200 walleyes per family from their local small pond and that's kinda effed up), but this debate can't be had with generalizations and I still think this is a silly law. In contrast is it OK for a family to stack up 200 walleyes a year from Devils Lake? I say yes as long as they follow daily and possession limits. Harvestable surplus is what fish and game are and should be managed for. Maybe they don't have that same surplus in MN.

In my case I have 3 months that salmon run and I can fill my freezer for the year. Where I fish is about 2.5 hours away and we usually make 4 day weekends out of it. Between me and my wife, the daily limit is 6 and the possession limit is 12. After two days when we have our 12 we vac seal the fish and freeze them (thus removing them from our possession limit) and catch 12 more before going home. Completely legal and not sorry about it. oink oink. I have seen plenty of people abuse it too by fishing evenings and mornings for example and probably freezing those fish the same way - I obviously do not condone that at all.

I get the argument, and am not shaming you and your situation, but take the same situation and add the population of Minnesota into it.

To continue playing devil's advocate, why is it bad if someone gets their limit in the morning and then comes back to get their limit in the evening? How is it different than them getting a limit one day and getting another limit the next day? In ND, the only difference is that one is legal the other is not. You could make the same argument that the law is stupid because this guy wasn't going to be able to fish the next day, so he kept 2 limits in one day.

 

[wjschmaltz]

I get the argument, and am not shaming you and your situation, but take the same situation and add the population of Minnesota into it.

To continue playing devil's advocate, why is it bad if someone gets their limit in the morning and then comes back to get their limit in the evening? How is it different than them getting a limit one day and getting another limit the next day? In ND, the only difference is that one is legal the other is not. You could make the same argument that the law is stupid because this guy wasn't going to be able to fish the next day, so he kept 2 limits in one day.

Fair. The simple reason is that we all agree that the line needs to be drawn somewhere and the vast majority have decided that’s a pretty fair and common sense place to draw it. I’ve shown up at the river here at 10 pm and smacked a limited of Reds, had a beer on the bank watching my watch and smacked another limit right after midnight more times than I can count. I’ve checked with law enforcement numerous times on the legality of it and there are typically several others on the river just like me. It’s an agreed upon law in a fishery that is managed for escapement literally in real-time and can close or have an increased limit any day of the run. I'm being repetitive, but to simplify it more, its just an agreed upon social norm while still meeting management objectives so I guess that’s what makes it OK.

“People keeping limits day after day and keeping freezers full of fish destroys fisheries” is not an accurate statement. It’s simply not true. Now if you add the word “can” in there, it’s 100% true. Everything is situational. The vast majority of anglers are going a few times a year. The next group in the majority is the guy that maybe goes a dozen weekends (likely most here). And a tiny majority are the guys that are whacking and stacking more than a couple dozen limits a year. All three user groups are taken into account when limits are set and I’d assume statistically are spread out well across bodies of water (the number of boats and user groups at the ramp in a small Kidder County lake is likely proportional to the number of boats and user groups at a large body like DL). What is always lurking in the background is that tragedy of commons. When everyone gets into the same mindset. This is what happened back in the late 90's/early 2000's when guys were hitting perch lakes and filling several 5 gallon buckets. At that point things needed to change and they did. Where I live the average user group is somewhat of a subsistence user like me who whacks and stacks so that’s how fisheries are managed and mostly everyone out there is on board.

I can see where there is not enough resource to go around and additional restrictions are needed and I’m all for it. I won’t argue that isn’t the case in MN. I known as close to nothing as you can get about the fishing in MN. I just REALLY have a hard time with the freezer portion of it is all. A guy that fishes alone and has a family of 6 legally can’t catch enough for a family meal without technically lying and breaking the law. Nontypical case obviously but just an example. Maybe if it’s such an issue they need to place an annual limit. We have several fisheries like that in AK where you need to record your catch on your license prior to leaving the water. At what point are we not allowed to apply for a deer tag until our freezer is empty of last year’s deer and so on and so forth. Just another slippery slope.

 

[db-2]

Get a fishing license every year as it is cheap at my age and the wife keeps saying one day maybe. Maybe this year i will trade my bamboo pole in for a new rod and fish. The last time i remember fishing was as a young lad catching bullheads on the Cheyene River for the cattle tank in the barn. Once has a bullhead live all winter in that half-frozen tank.

I eat steaks, bacon but once ate a fish stick at school on Friday due to hunger. Glad i have no skin on this problem to bitch about other than the warden. Do enough bitching about the elk and me and Game Warden Jason from Jamestown had a half hour visit on that today.

Any information on how to keep elk away legally please let me know. Had 100 live the whole winter on my 1.8 acres during the night and retreat to Canada during the day. db