Transport of Fish w/ Size Limit Restrictions

[Stormsearch]

Planning on going to Ontario fairly shortly to a lake that has a slot limit on the walleye. A few of us would like to take some fish back home for the rest of the family to enjoy but have a question on how to properly transport fish.

In the regulations it states:

Fish caught and retained may be gilled and gutted but fish length must be readily measureable at all times for fish taken from waterbodies where size limits are in effect, unless the fish:

and one of the unless statements are:

are being transported overland.

Does that mean we can transport fish back home that are filleted out that do not have any means of being properly measured as long as they are easily identified by patch of skin and easily counted?

Thanks for everybody's feedback.

[Gary_IA]

Don't specifically know the answer to your question. It seems to me that if have cleaned fish at a resort that has length restrictions, the enforcement officers must be able to determine during inspection whether the fish comply with the regulations. Most of us do not eat head and tails but the enforcement people nead to measure. Does this mean you do not remove head, tail and skin patch until the fish goes in the pan?

Since slot and length restrictions differ from body of water to body of water, once you are on the road how do you know where the fish are from? Thus the general rule of species, numbers and identifiable skin patch, etc.

I would like to hear other opinions.

[PRD1]

We fish a conservation license so don't bring home a lot of fish but have for years been doing the following.
Fillet the fish leaving a tag of skin at least 1X1 inch on the fillet.
I leave them on the front behind where the head was.
Wash of the fillets
Mark on the bag what's in it:1 walleye 17"
Place them in 1qt zip lock freezer bags, 2 fillets from the same fish in each bag with skin tag showing.
Put enough water in the bag so it covers the fish when the bag lays flat.
Lay them in the freezer flat.
When you are heading home put them in the cooler with sufficient ice.
For Pike, we usually keep a couple 22-24 inchers.
Do the above but use one gallon zip locks.

I have not been stopped but do feel comfortable doing this.

I don't take many fish and don't take any chances on this. The conservation officers have a tough enough job without arguing with folks who have frozen six walleyes in a milk carton.

This makes them real easy to use as needed and frozen in ice they stay good for many months.

Paul

[bigfish1965]

Once you are preparing for the trip home, you may remove the head and tail. Make it easy on yourself and leave all the skin on. It's just as easy to remove the skin at home.

[marvin]

You gill amd gut the fish and ice the head and belly. If need be, break the backbone at the head and tuck the head back to make a smaller package. CO will take fish measurement with head and tail on. If you are in an area where there is only a minimum size limit, you can lop the head and tail off only if the remaining fish is a greater length than the minimum allowed keeper length. Head and tail on for any area that has an upper and lower slot size. You might think a fillet in a bag that is two inches less than the minimum allowed is good enough but unfortunately you can't prove to the CO that it wasn't the one and only walleye in Ontario with a stunted head and missing tail. It isn't worth the hassle or the ticket. Just my thoughts.