Devil's Lake Fishing License Question...

[Mongro02]

Up there during the Memorial Weekend...

Fished a spot across from the Casino...A Spirit Lake Conservation Officer stopped by and told us that we were fishing on Indian Reservation and that we needed a License (Forgot what he called it) from the Casino in order to fish on the reservation. He said it was $14 or $17. He also said that all we had to do was buy that license and fish all of Devils Lake without a North Dakota License.

He said he was going to ticket us $100.00 each for not having a license...We convinced him to not give it to us at least.

We had purchased our ND Licenses assuming that was the license we needed to fish Devil's Lake.

I can understand that the Reservation might require a license to fish on their land but just wanted to confirm this and confirm that we only need that license and not a ND Fishing License.

It's cheaper anyway...$14 compared to Non-Resident...

[fisherman-andy]

I too have ranned into the tribal native american conservation officer and they said you need a tribal fishing license. This was a few years ago.

I had told the officer we were not aware that we needed a tribal license and it's hard to spot whether your on reservation ground or not if your are shore fishing instead of boating.

The Officer didn't give us any tickets, just a warning since we didn't know.

But I remember some guy saying that as long as you have a ND fishing license or something similiar you can't get ticketed for it regardless if you were on tribal land.

So I am not all so sure, be it safe and buy a tribal license if your are gonna be on reservation ground. If you boating then you'll have no problems.

[iffwalleyes]

I don't have a answer right now but I did send a email to the tribe at Spirit Lake requesting clarification on this as it is pretty grey. There is nothing in the ND regulations other than to contact the tribes for additional info so here is the number if you need it right out of the ND regulations:

Indian Reservations

Contact tribal offices for more information.

Fort Berthold Game and Fish Department, HC3-Box 2, New Town, ND 58763,(701) 627-4760.

Standing Rock Game and Fish Department, Box D, Fort Yates, ND 58538,(701) 654-7236.

Turtle Mountain Dept. of Natural Resources, Box 570, Belcourt, ND 58316, (701) 477-2600.

Spirit Lake Fish and Wildlife Department, Box 359, Fort Totten, ND 58335,(701) 766-4221.

I went to Spirit Lakes web site and was unable to locate a answer but I will post their response once I get it.