So it is true the guides can give their fish to their clients every day if they want, meaning their can catch 5 walleye every day if they want. Hmmm that is 35 fish a week x 20 weeks=700 for only 1 guide. Hell guides take more fish then the Indians.
Wisconsin Fishing Discussion
Guides gifted fish
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Please do your part to help stop the archaic practice of guides gifting fish. Gifting is hurting Wisconsin's walleye fisheries and needs to stop. Thankfully this loophole in the law is being exposed, albeit slowly.
If your hire a guide do not accept his offer of gifted fish. Support and promote educational efforts that inform guides (and clients) about how this is hurting walleye populations. Finally, support the proposed changes in the law that will eliminate gifting.
This change isn't meant to impinge on a guides business, it's just simply to stop this one aspect of guiding that hurts every other fisherman.
That I've never heard of, sometimes an extra fish or two while your pulling.
On Lake Michigan for Trout/Salmon you also must have a Sport Trolling license and must fill out a sport trolling report for every trip you run. It asked lots of questions like how many customers, how many lines fished, time of day, what quadrant of the lake, and how many fish by species. It must be filled out right after your trip and each month the reports must be sent to Sturgeon Bay to be logged.
If a captain and mate were consistently "catching" their limits they would have questions to answer from the state.
I've hired a handful of guides over the years. Besides one exception, I can't honestly remember one guide who gifted me his fish. They may have kept one or two for themselves for a fresh meal of fish, but never their limit for me or anyone else in the boat. The exception was Lake Michigan. I do recall the captain and first mate both gifting their limits to clients. Seeing as how that is primarily a put-and-take fishery, I don't have a problem with that.
I had a guide once reach into his cooler in his truck where he had extra fillets and said "here, now at least you can go home with your limit!" I didn't ask, but I thought that was really nice of him that he had some extra frozen fish, clearly labeled, to add up to our limit. Other guides I've been with have also counted part of their fish as our limit, but I've never gone home with more than the daily bag limit, just enough fish to make it a limit.
Chat, Call, email
Fishlovme, yeah, it's confusing. I think what they generally mean is that if you have the ability to put the fish in your car, those fish would count as your daily limit (so you can't go over it). So if you were fishing and your car was right behind you, it'd count, but if it was a decent hike, it wouldn't. I am guessing it is going to be case dependent.
Most people are totally unaware of a possession limit. I'd imagine a ton of regulars are over it for species like walleye (possession limit is 10), salmon (10), panfish (50) and trout (10).
On a guided trip the customers can ask the guide his or her preferences on this issue. One guide, when asked, requested that we return the biggest fish so they can spawn again. It was no problem for us. We ended up with three limits of nice eaters and released the biggest smallies and walleye that came to the boat. It was a great day of fishing. Communicate these requests because I'm sure most clients want lots of fish and most guides want future trips to have sustainable fish to catch. The knowledge gained on a guided trip should be worth more than a meal of fish.
Right from the Fishing Regulations:
The possession limit is the maximum number of a species that you can control, transport, etc., at any time. It is twice the daily bag limit.
The daily bag limit is the maximum number that you can keep in one day (i.e., 12:00 AM to 11:59 PM) of fishing. Fish not immediately released (i.e., prior to transport) are part of an angler's daily bag limit. An angler may not possess in excess of the daily bag limit for the water while on the waters, banks or shores of that water.
For example, if the daily bag limit for a species is 5, the most you could possess or control (i.e., in your freezer, cooler, vehicle, etc.) would be 10, no matter how many days you fished. Therefore, you could only bring home your possession limit of 10.
Once you reach your limit for a species, you must stop fishing for that species. This includes catch and release.
Where it's confusing, to me, is the paragraph of possession and also the "prior to transport" part. You can have, in your possession, 10 if the limit is 5. Traveling in your car would be included. Where i'm confused is the paragraph above stating "while on the water, banks, or shores of that water." Where does "shores of that water" end? Technically we're always on the shore of some body of water at all times.
From what I've heard it's up tot he warder on the decision on all of these discussions, so if the warder wanted to bust you for having the guide's limit in addition to your limit he could. But according to what I read leave the shore (ie a gas station or something) then you could take their limit and count it towards your possession limit. Anyone agree?
Many guides send their fish home with the customers. Once on shore they all go home with the customers and as stated are part of their possession limit at that point. If it was a limit catch none would be allowed to pursue that species again on that day, but is completely legal if the customers don't have more then their possession on them or at home.
I don't agree with it, but it is not at all uncommon.
It's one of the reasons I would like to see all guides have to record their catches after each trip and send the reports in monthly like you do with a sport trolling license. When I took people Salmon/Trout fishing I have to fill out a report for each trip and send the reports in every month, but when I took them Walleye fishing there is zero requirements or records.
No problem Jerry. Glad to assist anywhere I can.
Yes, we can all go to the regulations, but just like Jerry just posted the regs can be a bit confusing at times. Possession vs daily bag is always a big question mark for many anglers.
I personally love comments such as this for real discussion. Not everyone is an idiot for asking in a community that has historically been very helpful.
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