Fish shelter identification required

[HD]

News Releases
Fish shelter identification required


Minnesota conservation officers want to remind ice anglers and others that all shelters placed on the ice of Minnesota waters must have either the: 1) complete name and address, 2) driver’s license number, or 3) The nine-digit DNR number on the license of the owner plainly and legibly displayed on the outside in letters, and figures at least 2 inches in height.

This includes ice skating warming houses and other traditional structures placed on the ice, either temporarily or overnight.

Other noteworthy shelter regulations include:

Any shelter (fish houses, dark houses, warming houses, etc.) left on the ice at any time between midnight and one hour prior to sunrise must have a shelter license.
The Dept. of Public Safety now requires trailers used to haul fish houses or dark houses and enclosed trailers or recreational trailers used for fishing to be registered. See your local Deputy Registrar for trailer registration.
A tag, furnished with a license, must be attached to the exterior in a readily visible location.
Shelters left on the ice overnight need to have at least 2 square inches of reflective material on each side of the house.
A shelter license is not required on border waters with WI, IA, ND, and SD.
On border waters, shelters must comply with the identification requirements of the state for which the angler is licensed.
No person may erect a shelter within 10 feet of an existing shelter.
Portable shelters may be used for fishing within the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCAW), but must be removed from the ice each night. The structure must be removed from the BWCAW each time the occupant leaves the BWCAW.

[thunderpout]

Hunter.... Ive always wondered about the wording on the part:  "any house left on the ice at any time between midnight and one hour prior to sunset, must have a shelter license."  Does "LEFT" on the ice mean unoccupied, and/or does that mean while in use?  Just another wishy-washy worded DNR reg.    That one, to me anyways could be taken either way...   Does anyone know the true meaning of that reg?

[HD]

The reg's read....that, anything left overnight un-attended, needs to have a license.
So, if you leave your hardside (permanant) or even, your portable out overnight...and nobody is in it, it needs a license.

[deadeye]

Hunter.... Ive always wondered about the wording on the part:  "any house left on the ice at any time between midnight and one hour prior to sunset, must have a shelter license."  Does "LEFT" on the ice mean unoccupied, and/or does that mean while in use?  Just another wishy-washy worded DNR reg.    That one, to me anyways could be taken either way...   Does anyone know the true meaning of that reg?

Hey, thunder, you just change the regs with your statement.  "sunset"?   
  

[HD]

Thunder, the only thing I don't get is.....How far away can you be from it before it becomes "un-attended" or "un-occupied" ???

[boogityn]

I believe thats 200 feet. Is that the max your tipup can bee from your house?

[HD]

Dunno if that applies to fish houses or not.

[thunderpout]

Whoops!  Sunrise.... hey, with precise wordage like mine, I should be able to get that job writing, or at least proofreading DNR regs!   I thought it was 150'.... (but I could be wrong )  Here's a good one... a couple years ago Im ice fishing Rush Lake by Cambridge,  A C.O. tries giving me a ticket for an unatended line... fishing a rod in my trap, and I have a tip-up with one of those pager units on it off some rushes around  a point from me...(fish alert? ) I had to talk my way out of it... How can it be unatended if there's a dang pager on your tip up?!?!    We paced off the distance to my trap from the tip-up, and he started pacing the route around the point, I suggested that to be fair, it should be measured as the crow flies...(in a straight line)... remembering I moved my trap half a dozen times... sometimes farther than 150', but was closer than that when the CO paid me a visit, he said he saw me further away earlier in the evening, and I said you should have written me up then...  Just got a warning...  Yeah that "unattended" label is definatly a loophole or a noose, depending how you wish to apply it, eh?  I think that C.O. also said something to the effect that the distance to a second line isnt the only consideration when deciding whether a line is unattended or not....  Which means its a judgment call, kind of like a holding or interference penalty call in the NHL....  

[thunderpout]

Hunter, I suppose if they wanted to, they could write you up after midnight when you went out to get the ice out of your tip-up hole... maybe they count the time away from the house....

[HD]

We use to fish this little lake North of Leech that the crappies bit just before sunrise.
I'd drill a million holes and just bop from one hole to the next. Sometimes leaving the trap as a base.

I betcha I was a couple hundred yards away at times........

I suppose, if they wanted to be a wanker about it, I could'a got a ticket eh?

[HD]

boogityn is right...it's 200 feet from your tip-up.

But, it don't say nuth'in about distance from your house. I don't leave lines down when I'm out searching for fish, so, I don't think that would apply...but ya never know.