FLW Red Wing

I understand what you are saying. But I think because at catch and release tournament they have holding tanks to evaluate the fish before releasing them. I do remember that he told me that fish that are in live wells get very stressed and the water temp's aren't very good for there survival.

It was one of those conversations that has always stuck in my head. And again I am not questioning any body's ethics, I just know that the FLW comes to Devils Lake every year and to get into trouble for some thing this little would to be nuts.

[Jim Carroll]

It's illegal to cull in North Dakota. When a fish is put into your livewell it's yours and you cannot legally release it.

However, to legally hold a tournament in North Dakota a tournament permit is needed from the ND State Game & Fish Dept. and they will decide if it's to be a catch and release event or not. If so, the fish will be released if possible after they are weighed in.

Note...this does NOT mean you can legally release a fish that was in your livewell before the weigh-in and replace it with a larger fish (which would be culling and is always illegal in ND).

Jim Carroll NPAA #13

[Jim Carroll]

It's illegal to cull in North Dakota. When a fish is put into your livewell it's yours and you cannot legally release it.

However, to legally hold a tournament in North Dakota a tournament permit is needed from the ND State Game & Fish Dept. and they will decide if it's to be a catch and release event or not. If so, the fish will be released if possible after they are weighed in.

Note...this does NOT mean you can legally release a fish that was in your livewell before the weigh-in and replace it with a larger fish (which would be culling and is always illegal in ND).

Jim Carroll NPAA #13

[Juls]

Lane,
Thanks for the heads up. I'll check into that too, since we are headed in your direction in a couple of weeks. :)

Juls

[Juls]

Lane,
Thanks for the heads up. I'll check into that too, since we are headed in your direction in a couple of weeks. :)

Juls

Culling is taking a fish out of the live well and replacing it with another. Taking a fish out of the live well and not replacing it with another, would not be culling or illegal.

Also if I were a pro and lost a planar board with limited time to get to weigh-in, I would buy a new planar board!

Interesting discussion. I know Wisconsin is a "no cull" state but you can still box a fish and then release it later if it is in good condition. Tournament sure get a lot more gut-wrenching if you don't have the option to keep at least one or two fish more than your tourney limit...

From the MN DNR Fishing Regs, "Once a daily or possession limit of fish has been reached, no culling or livewell sorting is allowed."

However on Mille Lacs - "fish reduced to possession may not be released". I would assume reduced to possession means placed in a livewell?

Also - On Wisconsin/MN Border Waters (including the Mississipi river) - "it is illegal to cull fish that have been reduced to possession." Again one has to assume that "reduced to possession" means placing in a livewell. I don't know how this would work if a person possessed a WI license versus a MN license. From this, I would take it that if a tourney angler placed a fish in a livewell, he or she could not throw that fish back at any time during the fishing day. The special permits or regs that the tournament have may allow for those fish to be released after weigh in - can't comment on that.

[MNwalleyehunter]

"From the MN DNR Fishing Regs, "Once a daily or possession
limit of fish has been reached, no culling or livewell sorting
is allowed."



We were told one time by our local CO, that this law only comes into play "ONCE A DALIY LIMIT HAS BEEN REACHED" he told us that if you have two walleyes (not your limit) and you catch a bigger one it would be legal for you to put the 3rd walleye in the livewell and release one of the other ones, since you have not reached your daliy limit. But once you put your limit of fish in the livewell, you are done fishing for that species.

MNwalleyehunter

[walleye king]

Also, you can't keep more than 5 or 6 walleyes in any tournament I know of. With two anglers in the boat in MN you could have at any one time 12 Walleyes unless you had special regs such as Mille Lacs; where you could have 8 as long as they fell into the slot size.

Michael