How many lines?

[MJ1657]

How many lines are allowed in Wisconsin in the winter. I read the regulation book and its not real clear.

I thought it was two but the last two times i've fished upper clam I have seen people fishing three each.

[Brad B]

wisconsin is 3 per person year round. Page 7 of the wisconsin reg book. you can use up to 3 hooks, baits, lures thus you would need 3 rods to do this. there may be some lakes that have special regs but just read up on them if they are the lake you are going to be on. North Dakota is even more liberal and allows 4 lines in the winter. I wish minnesota would go to 2 rods in the summer and 3 or 4 in the winter. to my thinking what is the difference if you have 2 or 3. you can still only keep so many fish.

[MJ1657]

I read that but wasn't exactly sure. Thanks alot!

[CrappieKilla]

This is copied from the WI DNR HSOforum:

How many poles/rods/lines/hooks/baits/lures are allowed when fishing Wisconsin waters?

The regulation governing this part of Wisconsin fishing is not written in terms of the number or poles/rods/lines. It reads, "No person may do any of the following ... fish with more than three (3) hooks, baits or lures."

Therefore, it is the number of objects capable of catching a single fish (e.g., a baited hook, a fly, a plug or a lure) which are of concern. You can use three (3) baits each with up to three (3) hooks as long as each is only capable of catching one (1) fish. Each bulleted example below represents a legal scenario:

•1 pole with 2 baits and 1 pole with 1 bait, or

•1 pole with 3 baits, or

•3 poles with 1 bait each.

Hooks, baits and lures all count toward the total of three (3). As a result, the maximum number of poles/rods/lines is three (3) as long as you have only one (1) bait on each pole/rod/line. More than one bait per line will require you use fewer than three (3) poles/rods/lines. There is a "de facto" maximum on the number of lines that is determined by the number of baits used.

Multiple hooks on a single artifical lure do not count toward the total of three (3), only the lure itself. For example, an artificial minnow imitating lure with three (3) treble hooks, counts as one hook/bait/lure, not as three (3) hooks/baits/lures

[CrappieKilla]

I wish minnesota would go to 2 rods in the summer and 3 or 4 in the winter. to my thinking what is the difference if you have 2 or 3. you can still only keep so many fish.

I couldn't agree more!

[waterbound]

The reason Minnesota only allows the number of lines it currently does is because of the bag limits. If people were allowed to use more lines they would lower the limits, because it is expected that anglers will not be a able to catch and keep a limit on a regular basis. That being said, I rarely catch fish that are keepers anyway and I generally wouldn't mind being able to use a second line, even if it meant potentially keeping less fish.

[Brad B]

water bound,

how would it affect limits. as it is they already lowered the limit from 30 sunnies to 20 and 15 crappies to 10. so why would they need to lower the limits if they allow us to use more lines. the reason I would like to be able to have two lines in the summer because I would like to put one out with a sucker minnow for northerns and use the other for fishing sunnies.

[waterbound]

Brad, I wish I could give you the article that I read it in, but I can't find it right now. I can however, give you this quote from the DNR's HSOforum on an article about bag limits:

"Didn't catch a lot of walleyes last Saturday? The fact is, most anglers don't catch even one keeper-sized game fish on a typical day of fishing. That's not because the fishing is poor; it's just the nature of fishing.

On any given day, 95 percent of walleye anglers harvest two or fewer walleyes. This generally holds true on every walleye lake in Minnesota and across the U.S. For example, 1992 was considered the best year in modern history for fishing on Mille Lacs, one of the top walleye lakes in the United States. Yet even during that banner year, 76 percent of anglers there on any given day did not catch a fish.

It's not such a bad thing that anglers don't always or even regularly catch their limit. There simply aren't enough fish. For example, we estimate that Minnesota has roughly 18 million walleyes over 14 inches long (general keeper size). Approximately 27 million angler days are spent fishing each year. If every angler caught and kept just one walleye on average per outing, the state's entire keeper-sized walleye population would be wiped out before the year was over.

As fishing pressure increases while the number of fishing waters stays the same, anglers crop off the keeper-sized fish as soon as the fish reach keeper size. Soon, more and more small fish dominate the fish populations. Decent-sized fish become rare.

The only solution, says biologist and a growing number of anglers, is to limit the number of medium-sized and large fish that are harvested. In time, that would result in an increase in the average size of fish that anglers catch."

The idea is that with a second line more people would catch more fish and limits would need to be reduced to prevent overharvest. I agree it would be nice to have a second line in the summer to expand opportunities like you suggested about using a sucker for pike while fishing for sunnies, but I don't know how likely it is that we'll see two lines in the summer anytime soon.

[MJ1657]

That is very interesting. Thanks for posting it.

[CarpKing921]

Is Wisconsin seeing declining numbers because of the use of 3 lines? I doubt it if that were the case they would stop the practice. I might have to buy a Sconie license just to see what its like to fish 3 lines and watch the limits fly in to the boat.

[goblueM]

the problem is increased mortality. if you're fishing with 2 rods, particularly with live bait, there are a lot more swallowed hooks or delayed release times

i say this from personal experience growing up in Michigan, where you can have more than 1 line. Im not basing it on a study, but I'm pretty confident that more lines would result in more mortality in released fish

[Nick Kuhn]

Multiple lines really is only beneficial if you anchor and fish live bait. If you try to drag something while casting you tend to catch everything below you except a fish. I think carefully working a technique in a precise spot will easily outfish two lines fished lazily in an area.