Measuring fish

[wolfman-k]

I ran into something new on opener week-end on Mille Lacs, some of the guys we fished with told us that in order for a fish to be legally in the slot limit, you have to measure it from both sides? Case in point, my friend had what he thought was a legel walleye that he measured just under 20 inches, but he was told to turn it over and measure again and sure enough it was over twenty inches on one side. They told him that he could get an $85.00 ticket if he didn't release it, someone had witnessed this happening before. I couldn't find anything that specific in the regs., but is this the way that is proper? I really didn't know that it was possible that a fish could measure longer from one side to the other, but I saw it myself so it's true. When my friend measured in the boat, he pinched the tail and the mouth was closed, so he thought that was the legal way. I guess you learn something new every now and again.

[Lost]

Technically, all you need to do is measure one side of the fish. If it's measure differently on both sides then maybe the fish is rounder on one side than the other. Or maybe one of the measurements was not lined up on zero properly.

[wallyH]

You don't have to measure it from both sides. However, there's no guaranteeing that the officer will measure it from the same side you did and if it comes up greater than 20 inches you could get a ticket.

[ricqik]

I measure by laying the fish on top of the measure. I always measure it in the shortest straight measure as possible even if it means fanning the tail to make it shorter. Measuring a fish and trying to make the fish as long as possible only increases the chance of the fish being under size if the CO should measure it differently.

[Schnauzer]

I ran into a string of outings a few years back where I got checked several times. This was on Mille Lacs during the famine bite of '02. The slot was an impossible 14"-16". I never had a problem with any of my fish but I did get nervous on a couple occasions when the DNR guy measured a fish that I thought was an easy 1/4" on the safe side. He squeezed and pushed and pulled 'til he nearly got the fish to the illegal line. Since it happened a couple times, I learned to not keep one if it was close by my measurements. I was shocked how long they managed to get my fish to be. Happened more than once.

[Vickie]

Ricqik,

The standard is to measure with the mouth closed and the tail pinched (DNR rules) -- the longest measurement is what they WILL and you should go with. An example would be, say on Mille Lacs where walleye less than 20" can be kept and those 20" to less than 28" must be released. If you measured your fish at say 19 7/8" with the tail fanned - this would be over 20" with the tail pinched. You would have an illegal fish.

Be very careful in your measurements and measure both sides to be sure.

I had one this weekend that was 1/4" different.

Vickie

[ricqik]

Vickie,

good point there. In the case of slot limit, if the fish is close to being short, measure it tail fanned and if it's close to max limit, measure it tail pinched, both mouth closed of course.