Prepping for my trip and just going over all the various regulations for the lakes I'll be fishing. I found the Saganaga regulations kind of amusing. If you thought the 3-inch slot was tricky on Sag, try adding in the Ontario regs:

US regs
3 walleye limit, 17" minimum and only 1 over 20"

Ontario
4 walleye limit, only 1 over 46cm (18.11")

When fishing both sides of the lake and going back and forth across the border, an angler is supposed to adhere to the more conservative set of regs to ensure they're legal at all times. So if Ontario wants me to keep it under 18" and Minnesota wants me to keep it over 17", that doesn't leave a lot of wiggle room, does it?

Yea frustrating but I guess I am sort of used to it by now…most lakes I fish consistently have lake specific regs. I have a couple of acquaintances that fish Sag consistently and catching fish is fun. They regularly contribute to the hog board but catching fish to eat is just a by product. If it happens great, but not expected.

And reading the regs…between Ontario and MN you can keep 1 fish over 20” or over 18” so you will have one in the bag almost for sure. If you are by yourself that’s probably more than a meal. If you get more between 17-18” that’s gravy.

I’d like to rip on the slot limits but I’ve observed first hand the benefit. On Kabetogama for 10 years a 22” walleye would be front page news…now maybe a resort will post it if a 2 year old caught it they are so common place. The fishing has been incredible ever since instituting regs. Sorry to hi-jack your thread.

T

timatkn: "Yea frustrating but I guess I am sort of used to it by now…most lakes I fish consistently have lake specific regs. I have a couple of acquaintances that fish Sag consistently and catching fish is fun. They regularly contribute to the hog board but catching fish to eat is just a by product. If it happens great, but not expected.


And reading the regs…between Ontario and MN you can keep 1 fish over 20” or over 18” so you will have one in the bag almost for sure. If you are by yourself that’s probably more than a meal. If you get more between 17-18” that’s gravy.


I’d like to rip on the slot limits but I’ve observed first hand the benefit. On Kabetogama for 10 years a 22” walleye would be front page news…now maybe a resort will post it if a 2 year old caught it they are so common place. The fishing has been incredible ever since instituting regs. Sorry to hi-jack your thread.


T"

Not a hijack at all, good discussion as far as I'm concerned.

I am not arguing with the slots -- mostly because I'm no biologist and I am happy to acknowledge that the DNR and MNR employ professionals to make these decisions. I just find it interesting that the MN won't let you keep anything under 17, while Ontario will let you keep 4 as small as you want them. That seems like a contradiction. The only bummer is that if we find a bunch of 15-16" fish in Canadian waters -- which many consider to be ideal "eater" size -- it would be illegal to bring them back to camp in Minnesota. And with the border restrictions we also can't have a shore lunch on the Canadian side.

In practice -- you're absolutely right. We are 3 guys and we're not looking to bring frozen fish home. If we manage two fish over 17" in any part of the lake, that would be all we'd harvest for a nice meal.

IMHO MN relies on fish biologists and fish surveys to set regs…unless politicians get involved…while Ontario has the luxury of less fishing pressure to just do general regs. Most Ontario lakes are never surveyed, their version of the DNR has a fraction of MN funds.

T

timatkn: "IMHO MN relies on fish biologists and fish surveys to set regs…unless politicians get involved…while Ontario has the luxury of less fishing pressure to just do general regs. Most Ontario lakes are never surveyed, their version of the DNR has a fraction of MN funds.


T"

That is interesting, and helps explain it a bit.