Saturday, February 10, 2007

Maine's Ice Fishing Regulations 2007

Just for fun, I read the entire State of Maine Ice Fishing Regulations for 2007 today. OK- it wasn't just for fun. I feel I need to know this stuff if I'm going to be a guide. Besides, some of this material might be on the guide exam.

In any case, I learned some cool things. Here are my notes:

  • You don't need a license to ice fish in Maine on 2/17/2007 and 2/18/2007. I wrote those days down, good days to take the kids ice fishing. (The Saturday and Sunday immediately preceding President's Day each year are free fishing days).
  • No ice fishing at night is allowed. You can ice fish only between 1/2 hour before sunrise and 1/2 hour after sunset.
  • The bag limits for fish per day are actually between noon of one day and 11:59am the next day. So if you only fish one day, you can catch your limit in the morning, have a huge fish lunch and go out again in the afternoon to catch your limit again.
  • Only 5 lines/traps per person
  • Don't cut off heads and tails until you are ready to cook the fish
  • Use 2" Letters on your ice shack
  • All brooks, streams, and rivers are off limits to ice fishing unless they are listed in the rule book as open to ice fishing
  • Maine resident kids can fish without a license until they turn 16. Out of state kids can fish without a license only until they are 12.


Hopefully someone else finds this material interesting too.

2 comments:

hbl said...

You read the whole dang thing? Small print and all?

So, you really didn't want to go fishing, did you?

Come on. Be honest...

Shawn said...

I would much rather be fishing. That is why I'd never read it before. I went by an ice fishing derby on Lake Winnipesaukee today. It looked like a city on ice. They had huge circus tents, a parking lot, and planes out on the ice. Not my idea of ice fishing but apparently, plenty of other people like it.