Harpoon Fishing

[Jmeyers]

My uncle just got back from Hawaii and said his new obsession is "harpoon fishing". He want's to get one and fish around here and Canada with it ha. I'm not sure on any regulations when it comes to this so I thought I''d ask...can you fish with a harpoon in MN? or what are the regulations?

[SkunkedAgain]

Yup, it's called spear (harpoon) fishing in a dark house.

[TSchultz]

I assume that he is diving with scuba gear and harpoon? If so then no it is not legal in mn or ontario. But there are a couple specified lakes in South Dakota where you can, I know people that have done it. You'll have to check further into the regs on specifics.

[mainbutter]

I'm pretty sure that using spear guns is legal in Minnesota under the same regulations for bow-fishing. There are a few threads on it in the spearing/bowfishing forum.

[Brad B]

Look at page 59 of the 2011 regulation book. it is legal only for rough fish.

here is the exact wording from this page.

"Harpoons (spears) must have a tethered line not more than 20 feet long, may be discharged only when the equipment and the operator are entirely under thesurface of the water, and may not be used within 1,000 feet of a swimming beach."

so yes it is legal in minnnesota but only for rough fish.

[Jmeyers]

Thanks for the help Brad, I looked in the manual for a little bit but missed that..

[Stick500]

it better be legal- I've been doing it in the metro lakes the past two summers!

BTW it's literally a blast.

at first I was bit nervous about the whole 1000 ft. from swimming area but I admit I might be skirting that overkill rule a bit sometimes- MN is the ONLY state in the union with such a rule for spearfishers- I can understand perhaps a 200 ft. rule, but that 1000 feet they came up with must have been done by a group who have no idea what the limitations are of a tethered speargun

if your uncle is looking for any helpful hints (but perhaps not my favorite secret lake) I'll be glad to let loose....

we do have some threads about this in the HSO spearfishing forum- warning! I got the fishing regs a bit wrong as I was still thinking I lived in WI and mentioned you could take panfish in MN- you can't, and I can't seem to be able to edit that old thread

here's the link spearfishing

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I steam the fillets for my 100 lb golden retriever- he loves 'em!

[Stick500]

one more thing- it sounds like your uncle needs a gun- you won't find any here in the Twin Cities but right across the river in Hudson there's a dive shop that specializes in spearfishing and they have a guy on staff who wrote a book about freshwater spearfishing.

[MuskieJunkie]

Stick

Are you free diving or on scuba?

EDIT: Got my answer from your other posts. Good stuff thanks for posting.

[Stick500]

all free diving- in the spring and summer the carp are all shallow and I do most of my shooting while cruising on the surface

it's fun to dive sometimes and I'll catch 'em wandering around down there too

oddly enuf they disappear in late summer and early fall and I don't know where the hell they go- maybe I'll have to try SCUBA sometime and see if they're deep- trying to figure it all out by checking MN SCUBA forums but don't have a straight answer yet