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I personally would like to set my set lines much further than 300 yards. Typically if you're setting lines in a new spot 300 yards on some lakes isn't enough to check different areas. I have the vulture systems sensors that Will alert you to a set line going off up to a mile away.
I agree that the law needs clarification, and the ticket is a bit petty. But playing the devils advocate, the regulations are pretty darned liberal for Boysen: 6 lines and live bait! yet people still push the rules. The regulations clearly state that sleeping in a camper does not constitute attendance. From what I heard (admittedly 3rd hand from an angler that was nearby), the guys were asleep in their pajamas when the warden knocked on their camper 🤣.
every single person that I’ve ever known to camp on boysen has left tip ups out over night. Every one. And I see nothing wrong with that.
just my opinion. But isn't fishing a verb? Shouldn't someone be "fishing".
I guess my point in all this was “who cares”. Evidently a few people do.Bottom line is I don’t like the grey area. It invites in “well you were cooking lunch and didn’t see your flag.” You were talking too much and didn’t see your flag.” It looks to me like you nodded off in your chair and weren’t in attendance if your lines.”I would much rather have the RULE very lenient and let people fish how they want.
I agree with pok3s on this. The grey area is what gets me. One warden doesn't care on Friday and Saturday. Sunday a new warden is ticked. At the very least the grey area needs to be turned to black and white. Change the regulations to be more specific. Personally I think people should quite worrying about what other people are doing unless they are causing harm. I would love to see it as long as your within 300 yards you are good. To me taking a 2 or 3 hour nap doesn't justify unattendace IMO. I don't care what other guys heard from the guy a 1/2 mile away that told their cousin that told you they were in PJs. That's not what happened hear to clearify.Now obviously if people are leaving frozen tipups in the ice then they are the same ones leaving trash and everything else behind and need dealt with.
I don’t really have a strong opinion one way or another about this. But I agree with others that an effort to make things more clear has a good chance backfiring and ending up with a more restrictive regulation. The topic got me interested in the regs of other ice fishing states (ND, SD, WI and MN) and they are more restrictive. Montana is a bit of an outlier. They also don’t have a detailed descriptive definition of what attendance is: but you must be able to immediately respond to a flag, lines must be under direct supervision at all times, be within 150-200 feet and in direct line of sight at all times! They also only allow 3-4 lines per person maximum.
I would imagine that is because the lakes, on average are much busier and more popular than ours. In those popular fisheries, those guys are stacked in there like sardines. Any further than 200 feet from a line of tip ups and you’re going to have to run through 10 ice hours to get there! I believe they’re more restrictive because of the nature of those fisheries and others around, not because it’s causing harm to the fishery itself.