New Regulation re: Culling

[HawgTide]

It looks like there is a new regulation regarding culling for 2004. I didn't see this in '03 regs, so I assume it is new. I first noticed this rule on a Tournament Rule sheet and now I see it as a State Reg for '04.

Here's the reg:

"Once a limit of fish has been reduced to possession, no culling or live well sorting of that species is allowed."

What are your opinions/interpretation of this reg? The wording is confusing at best.

My interpretation is this means that once you have caught your limit, you can't throw back a smaller fish and keep fishing. You can however release the fish you just caught (the last one of the limit) and continue fishing.

Your thoughts please.

[Mark Christianson]

Well, I fish mostly bass, no bass ever hit my livewell(except tournies), so to me, its fine.
Although, it will make the tourney fishing a bit more interesting.

If I am fishing panfish for some food, I am fine leaving one fish out of my limit, if they are hitting good.

A better question:
How many fisherman are going to get surprised by this rule this summer?
I know one person out here on FM that will bring up this question:
"Prove to me I am fishing for bass since my livewell contains a limit? I am fishing for Pike!"
It is true, that this will be a problem for law enforcement, time and time again.

PS - This is the first I have heard of this as a state rule. What else are they going to surprise us with?

[HawgTide]

I guess I should have stated that it only really applies to me if I'm fishing tourneys as well. I have yet to keep a fish from MN waters in the 4 yrs I've been here. This was just a discussion I was having with some folks at work. One guys interpretation was that you can cull all you want as long as you don't have a limit. Once you have a limit, you have to stop fishing for that species. And like you said, you could claim you are fishing for pike. But, that won't work in tournaments because you could be asked under oath or polygraph, so you better not be lying. I think this reg was instituted because of tournaments, in which it will have the biggest effect.

I've never heard the phrase "reduced to possession" and that leaves it open to interpretation on my part. If they would say, once it hits your live well, it stays there, or you may cull until you catch your limit, or something along those lines, it would be easier to interpret.

[Guest]

I think this reg has been around for quite a while. This is why Bass tournaments in the state tend to have 5 fish limits for individuals or 8 or 10 fish Team tournaments. Once you box your limit, you are done. The extra fish allows one to cull out a small fish thus keeping you under the possession limit. No culling is a special reg. on some bodies of water.

The intent of the law is to keep walleye and panfish fisherman from sorting the catch once a limit is in hand.

[bigdog]

The "no culling once you have a possesion limit" has been around for awhile. I was not aware of it and was fined about 8 years ago. Had a limit and was still fishing, caught a large fish and was going to sort, found out you could not.

[Dan Wood]

As noted above, this doesn't affect tourney fishing. The limit is 5 per person, so 10 per boat... You can still keep your 5 or 7 or 8 or whatever for the paticular tournament in your livewell and cull (2 person limit is 10). Just can't keep 10. The most I've seen in a tourney is 8 fish to weigh - so you can keep 8 and cull from those still.

[Dan Wood]

I agree that is a stupid rule. I don't really see a lot of purpose (you can cull all day long with 4 fish, but not with 5)... When you limit culling in a tournament you start to lose some of the skill portion of the event. It becomes more strategy and/or luck.

That still isn't as bad as those on the border waters that have the no-cull rule in effect (no culling any fish).

Wish I could fish that Anoka tourney, but I'll be in Canada chasing the elusive muskie...

[Mark Christianson]

The tourney in Anoka has a rule this year, that once number 5 is reduced to possession for the team, you have to go weigh in. You are done fishing. What is stupid, is that you can cull all you want with 4 in the well, so I don't see what the big difference is if you have 5 in the well.

dump!