FishingBeforeOpening

[ChrisW]

I am going to be entering the Lake Sharpe RCL. I will be opening the family lake home up on Sun. in MN after the trip. I really want to catch a few fish but the MN opener is a week away and I will be back in Houston by then.

My questions are:

There are fish that can be caught all year, right (perch, crappie, sunfish)?

What would you guys think if you saw a boat out a week early fishing? I would never keep an illegal fish out of season, so obviously all walleye and northern would have to be returned.

I want to fish Lake Sharpe and still want a few days on my good old lakes at prime time which I don’t get to do often.

[Mattman]

I usually get into some great Crappie action just before the Walleye opener. Really nice fish and usually quantity fish. I have NO problem going out and fishing panfish while other seasons are closed. And yes, some incidental Walleye and Bass get caught. Nothing can be done about that. Although don't expect to not catch a little #####, or a ticket, if you are "panfishing" with a #13 floating Rapala. Some people are targeting, obviously, other species but claim to be panfishing.

Last year I went out two weeks before the opener on a local little lake to try for Crappies. I had recently built a new Crappie rod and I had to test drive it. It's a Loomis SJ7500. Mag-light power, ex-fast action, 1/64-1/8 ounce jigs. I was using a 2" Berkley Power Grub and a 1/32 ounce Whistler jig. My first fish, on the second cast, was a 17" Largemouth. Next cast, a 15" Smallmouth. About 15 minutes later, a 16" Largemouth. I also caught about 8 Crappies, but nothing with any size. 8 to 10 inches.


Better to have and not need than to need and not have!

Matt Davis

[Daren]

Actually, here in WI, you can fish panfish year around. If you are out fishing during the closed season for other species you cannot be targeting those species. In other words, I can fish any tackle I want as long as I am fishing lures that are commonly taken by the panfish. I cannot use a large spinner bait or a musky bait but small rapalas, crappie size spinnerbaits, crappie size soft plastics, etc... are legal. Throwing lures that are obviously too big for panfish then is illegal. If you do catch a species other than those that are open then you are required to return it to the waters immediately. Also, don't get caught casting to fish that the season is closed for. If you start sight fishing smallies in the shallows then you are obviously not fishing for panfish.

[Walleye Express]

Chris.
I think your asking our opinion on whether, pursuing, catching and releasing walleyes a week before the season open's is acceptable.

Persoanlly, I see no problem with it. Thats only my personal opinion. But your state game managment athority might on certain waters in your state. And how one feels and is perseved by his fishing peres about fishing for and catching a certain fish species before the true season opens, can be a miserable can of worms.

Heres an example that I still can't get out of my craw. Back in the early 80's, when the Tittabawassee River was just starting to produce great numbers of the newly planted Saginaw Bay Walleyes, the DNR closed all fishing (this is still the law) of any species during the spring spawning time. They got this new rule/law through quickly without a big hassle, because everybody was denied the right to fish these rivers early for the sake of the new offspring fishery. About 95% of all the fishermen (including myself) agreed, this was a sound idea.

They did this on all the rivers except the Rifle, where 100 years of spring sucker dipping history superseded/prevented it. You could not fish for perch, crappies, suckers, carp, NOTHING, using any form of hook and line on those particular rivers during this time. There were so many spring spawners in the system, that a simple single hook and worm fished on the bottom, could/would catch all the walleyes a man could carry in short order.

Heres the craw part. This new fihery was very exciting. People and businesses both were ancious to get the word out to draw fishermen from all over the US to our tremendous new resource. The town was full of fishing TV celebrities well before the opener that one early year, waiting to film some exciting walleye action. Mr. Babe Winkelman was one of them. But it seemed Babe didn't want to shoot his fishing show in the mass crowds that inendated the river on the opener. So he got special permission to fish the river for 2 days before the season opened from our DNR. And if I recall it right, one of the DNR big shots was his fishing partner. And they just cleaned up, with no pressure or competition from anybody else obeying the new law.

To say I and many others were a little miffed about this NEW SPECIAL RULE made especially for a TV personality, would be an extreme understatement.