Bad way to start the season

[Guest]

So A buddy and I decide to head out on the ice for the first itme this year. Got on the road and forgot the locators and the latern. Turned around and picked those up, stopped to get some munchies, and then off to the races. Got on the lake got set up everything was smoothe one hour on the ice I had one big perch and 2 walleyes in the bucket. Buddy had 2 walleyes. Just getten ready to fire up the lantern, and I hear my buddy mumble "DNR". No problem,.... We got licenses, we have two lines inside and two tip ups outside, and we're not making "meth". I'm thinking how proud I am to be a legit fisherman with nothing to hide. The CO asks for my license and we proudly hand him our licenses. Then i hear "whose house is this?" I said "mine" he responds "can I see your house license?" To which I'm thinking ........"son of a *****". No house license! So he says "well, the best I can do is give you a failure to display ticket" I'm thinking " Warning! Warning! God please Just a Warning!" So as hes writing me up I'm holding my wallet and holding my other licenses I had to sort through, And I notice that I have well over $100 in licenses in my wallet and here I sit helplessly being fined.

So for the rest of you. Make sure you have EVERYTHING before you head out. And I'd like to start a conversation about the sense in having house licenses, especially for portables. What do you think, should there be?

Munchies and gas $20
ticket on the ice $93
The look on my face as the CO walk away ... priceless

[AJPeacock]

Bigguns1,

I feel for you buddy.

Keep smilin, we all have a story like this.

At least YOU have ice!

Later,

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Don "AJ" Peacock
[email protected]

Lapeer, Michigan

[This message has been edited by AJPeacock (edited 11-29-2003).]

[This message has been edited by AJPeacock (edited 11-29-2003).]

[Guest]

license $20.00
Ticket $0.000
Difference buys a lot of munchies.
Next question?
If you venture out w/o a license is it only fair they do their job and give you a ticket! Ask your local bait shop (the place you bought your bait) and they will direct you in the legal direction.
If you fish without a license, why don't you take 2x the limit, and fish out of season.
Nuff said
"If you aint got nothing to hide why complain about the police doing their job"?
(something my mom said)

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I don't drive fast, I fly low.

[This message has been edited by frozenminnow (edited 11-29-2003).]

[This message has been edited by frozenminnow (edited 11-29-2003).]

[joshb]

don't listen to frozen minnow he's heartless...........evreybody f's up once in a while........sucks it costs $93, i got a falure to disply licence plate for my truck about two months ago, $83. i wanted to dismember somebody, i just can't believe some of these rediculous fines.

[silveroddo]

I know how it goes, kinda agrivates you when its obviosly just an over site. The one that kinda gets me is the 2nd year I had my 8x8 out, really nice house, vinyled, paneled, very comfortable,especialy since replacing the bad door from the year before, had my shelter tag displayed in the window. 3 days later I get a ticket for not having my name on the house, which they tracked through my CURRENT ELECTRONIC LICENSE. When I replaced the door I had forgotten to put my info back on the new one,( it was on the door since I didn't wanna put it on the vinyl.) The even better part was the issueing officer was the
(incert profanity here) that lives a half mile down the road.So any way,license- 20 bucks,lack of name on house $65.00

I've since sold that house to my little bro who has a sticker in the window of Calvin doing his thing on "MN DNR".

One thing they could do with shelter licenses is just make it a perk of buying a sportsmans license,wouldn't that me nice?
Or maybe just completelty do away with licenses for a house that is taken off when not occupied.

[gvg_uwec]

i am just glad that i started to read this stuff on FM. my gf lives in the cities nd i woulda been screwed if i had got a lisence to fish on a metro lake because i would have had NO idea that i would have needed a lisence for the shack...guess i wont take it with when i visit her over xmas break

[klbowe]

Minnesota recently went to a one time license purchase for trailers. Why not for Fishhouses ?

[brian6715]

please... 20 dollars saves you money? talk!! ok why do we have to liscence a portable in the first place? Wisconsin doesnt. 20?? Ok I'm 18, I will probably fish in minnesota for another 50 years, multiply that by 20, thats $1000. How much munchies is that?

[cwmn]

What!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?
Follow the law or pay the fine, if you don't like the law then work to change it, but please don't P#SS and moan about "I forgot this" or "I shouldn't have to do that".
Every year it's the same thing here people bitchen' because they got caught, I'm tired of it.

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Have a good one!
CWMN

[united jigsticker]

Come on guys, people make mistakes.

You got some Walleyes huh? That's great! Has to take some of the edge off of that ticket...don't it?

Good reminder for alot of us though. Thanks.

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Good fishing,
UJ
[email protected]

[LuckyFish]

Hey Bigguns Thanks for the reminder! It's the only thing I haven't got done for ice fishing. You probably save me 93 bucks! I haven't got the portable on the ice yet but I no doubt would have forgotten. I'm heading to the bait shop tomorrow to get mine.

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Good Luck & Good Fishing. Lucky

[Steve Foss]

Hmmm, $20? I paid $12.50 for my Minnesota resident shelter permit. Are you talking about a spearing shelter permit?

This darn Fish Trap II of mine has lived in N.D., Wisconsin, and now Minnesota. The $12.50 for a resident shelter permit sure beats the $33 for out-of-staters. There were plenty of times that, when I lived in the cities just outside Minnesota (Grand Forks, N.D., and Superior, Wis.) that I avoided fishing Minnesota because of that non-resident shelter permit.

While I understand the DNR has to get money however they can, it CAN be hard to keep everything straight.

There was no shelter license needed in N.D. In Wis., I moved there the last year you were required to put your name and address on the shack in 3-inch-tall letters (I don't think there was a shelter permit fee), so my name and old Wisconsin address are there magic-markered into the back canvas on the shack. Then the next year they discontinued the regulation. Sheesh.

So now I'm a Minnesotan, and I've magic markered my huge long D.L. number in 2-inch-tall letters on the side of the darn thing.

With the collapsible Trap II, markering it was about the only feasible way to comply with the law.

Geez, ya think I'll ever be able to sell the Trap II used?

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"Worry less, fish more."
Steve Foss
[email protected]

[boston]

I live in MN, Just bought a flip style. Is drivers license # all I legally need to display?

[chunkytrout]

My interpretation is that on a portable you have to display your shelter tag. On any shack you leave overnight on the ice, you have to have your DL#. Correct me if I'm wrong.

[upnorth]

Bigguns,

Too bad he wouldn't let you off with just a warning, sounds pretty costly to me for a simple mistake.

Thanks for sharing the info tho, hopefully the rest of us will read it and take the proper steps and get ours before venturing out

[Tofishem]

You need at least 2" block letters with DL# OR Address and Shelter license for portables.
Clam Corp makes a tag holder for portables. that works great.

[hortundra]

Laws are Laws and they will always keep one aware. Why is it that we live in a State that requires a lic for a shelter that is coming off the lake when done fishing? How about being able to use 3 lines on the ice? Seems like our neighbors on both sides have got this figured out. If a shelter lic is a must, I agree with earlier post, one time lifetime lic. The current system is inefficient and hidius.

[Poutmaster]

So you have to put your License Sticker on your house. On that sticker is your Fishing licecnse #, as assigned to you when you bought your licence and provided your name, address, D,L#, ect... And now, they have all that info right at thier finger tips. With a palm pilot they could have access to all the records in the state. So why is it in addition to my sheler tag with it's own ID tracking number on it, I have to deface my 3 portables with my D.L #? I don't mind paying the $$, but why all the overkill?

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Love them 'Pout!

[willowcat]

Nothing against the DNR I do fiel they do a great job. I even wanted to be a DNR officer when I was younger,I still do some times. But a way you can look at this situation is that with all the cuts from the state if they don't fine people for every little thing,they probably wont have a job within the next year,but chances are you'll still be fishin.

[troutman72]

you guys know that the money from fines goes into a general fund not just to the dnr. pluse think of all the licens fees they get dont you think its odd there running out of money. if theres 10000 fish houses (each year) and they get 10 buckes for each one what dose that give you. thats just fish houses now add fishing lic boat lic im not bashing the cos its the pencil pushers that have something wrong with them (in my opinion).

just my 2 cents

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Troutman72

CPR <(((<

[slick2526]

Bought a new Frabill Ultralite. Pulled it out of my care and was waking it along the grass then i noticed it became hard to pull. loked back after about 2-3 feet. What I didnt notice is that it had fallen it some short stubble like ggrass and my shell came out from being folded in between the conduit. Have 7 nice rips in the back side now. Man did I feel like a a$$ for mot looking back to check it right away. Lucklu Frabill has bvery good customer service and I will be having a new one sent out.

[SWMuskeye]

Its such a surprise to me that some of you guys would [PoorWordUsage] and moan over $12.50 for a shelter permit. How much do you pay on new equipment per year? My guess is everyone drops around $100 or so. The permit money is going to a good cause to help support our fisheries for years to come, look at the big picture and quit yer complaining!

If I had to pay $100 for a license I would support it, and I have no money to throw around since I'm still in college. Overall, its peanuts to pay the current shelter tag.

[Steve Foss]

It's my understanding under the regs that the permit sticker must be displayed as well as your name and address , or your D.L., number, in characters at least 2 inches high, and it's my understanding that's night and day, but you only need to display the sticker when you're in the shelter.

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"Worry less, fish more."
Steve Foss
[email protected]

[This message has been edited by stfcatfish (edited 11-30-2003).]

[vikingtom]

Bigguns, instead of $160 u sould of spent $172.50 and saved 50 bucks. You only need a shelter licence 4 the house you're in. Houses sitting empety on the ice need no licence on it. Think ahead. I try too.

[gilliweed]

Bigguns - I think in general most people agree with you. "call a spade, a spade" as you say. Two years ago I was fined for failure to display. I had been skiiing with the family and at the end of the afternoon decided to trol back to the cabin. Didn't even think about not having my wallet with me. I was written a ticket not two hundred yards from the cabin where my wallet and liscence were.
The problem is not the law, it is the conservation officers, not all of them would do that. But there are some out there that forget that they work for us, that they are to enforce the "intent of the law".
The laws are made by people we elect, in a round about way, they are made by us. A good officer uses his head, and will give a guy an opportunity to correct the problem, when it is a obvious mistake. Enforce the Intent. What would your friends and neighbors do in his shoes, is that not what he should do, since he works for them. Had it been me, I would have taken your name and address off your driver's liscence, and asked you to get a shelter liscence and fax a copy to my office within a week, and if you didn't I would mail you the ticket. But that is me. I hope you have a good year, good fishin.