Welcome back everyone. Today's video comes to us from Wisconsin where catfish generally speaking have a total daily bag limit of 25 fish per person. With that said, there's a catch. While the state limit is 25 per person, some bodies of water only allow anglers to keep 10 per person. Meaning that an angler may find themselves in a situation where they have to move to multiple bodies of water in order to hit that 25 day limit. In addition to that, there's bodies of water such as the St. Croix River that only allow five channel catfish per person. [music] This is why I always This is why I always stress the importance of checking the body of water you intend to fish before you go out to go fishing for the day. Anyways, an officer with the Wisconsin DNR received a tip [music] from a concerned citizen that an angler was spotted keeping over his 10 per person daily limit near the Beaver Dam. Using the information provided to him by the caller, the officer was able to locate the angler's residence where he attempted to make contact. >> Hello. >> Hello. >> Hi. My name's Logan. I'm a I'll walk around. Looking for a a Mr. >> Yeah. >> Oh, is he here? >> Logan hasn't been here. >> Yeah. >> He's in the room. >> Yeah, he's here. >> He's here? Okay, can I just have a quick chat with him? I'm so sorry to bother you so late. >> No, no, no. >> So sorry. [laughter] If I could just have a quick chat with him, I'd appreciate it. Oh, he's out and about right now? >> Yeah. >> Okay, got you. Do you know when he'll be back? >> Uh can we can we go call him really quick? >> Yeah, that's perfect. Yeah, that'd be great. Yeah, so sorry again. Does Mr. Is he speaking English? >> Yeah, he's here. >> Uh this is Warden Allen with the DNR. >> Hello, yeah. >> Yeah, who am I speaking with? >> I'm speaking with >> I'm >> Who you saying? You saying who? >> I'm with the Department of Natural Resources. >> Uh-huh, yes. >> Yeah, I I'm looking for a What's his name here? It's Mr. >> Yes, that's me. >> That's you? Okay, gotcha. Uh >> Uh no, that's my dad. >> Okay, I'm looking for a Mr. >> Uh he's at work. >> He's at work right now? Okay, gotcha. Um what I'm here for is we received a complaint about some fishing going on. Were you up at Beaver Dam today doing some catfishing? >> Beaver Dam? >> Yep. >> Uh >> Beaver Dam Lake. >> Yeah, I think so. Yes, my dad didn't go fishing didn't go work. He went fishing actually, yes. >> Okay, you both went fishing up there? Is that I'm sorry. >> Not me, not me. I'm I'm separate. I'm like out out I'm out with my friends. >> Okay, I'm so sorry about you. Do you know when your dad will be home? >> Uh no. Do you know what happened? Was that a show? Excuse me. >> Yeah, there was just a report of maybe just some over bagging on catfish and I'm just here to follow up with that. So. >> Okay. >> Yeah. >> Yes, uh he When we hang up I'm going to call him and then uh let you know I guess. I don't know what you want me to do. I think he's still there. Or he might be on the way back or >> What does he do for work? >> Uh he works at >> Okay, gotcha. He's doing packages or something right now. Okay. Yeah, if you could would it be okay if does he speak English? >> No, he >> No, he does not. Okay. Well, I'll tell you what. Why don't we set up a time and a date that works for you guys to just meet and and kind of discuss what's going on. >> Okay, yeah. That's okay. >> Would would it be possible to meet tomorrow? Or or is there is it possible tonight? >> Um >> Um, me call him and see first. I don't know what >> Okay. >> What he would prefer, you know? >> Yeah. No, that would be that would work best if we if we can meet tonight, okay? >> Okay, yeah. >> All right. I I appreciate it. >> Just hold on right there. I'm going to just call him right now. >> Yeah, I'll I'll just hand the phone back, okay? >> Okay, yes. >> All right. I appreciate it. Thank you. Hello. >> Yeah, um my dad's on his way back from the fishing trip. >> He's on his way back from fishing right now? >> Yeah. >> Okay. Perfect. >> He did say uh that's how long he told me he did say took about 30. >> 30, okay. Gotcha. Okay. Yeah, I can meet him um back here at the at the house. Do you know how long he'll be? >> He told me uh he'll be like 30 30 to 35 minutes. >> 30 to 35 minutes, okay. I I appreciate it. Thank you so much. I appreciate all the help. And then your name was uh what? >> My name is I'll be coming back to the house, too. >> Okay. >> He doesn't speak English, you know. >> I I appreciate it. Thank you so much. All right. Well, we'll chat soon. I appreciate it. Thank you. >> Okay, yeah. Thank you. >> Yep. I'll tell you what, it sounds like he's coming back, so I'll just I'll wait outside. I'll get out of your sight, you guys. Just hear let you guys go to bed or do what you need to do and then I can just talk with the Is it your dad? >> Uh yeah. >> Okay. Perfect. Thank you so much. Thank you. >> Just turn it off. Get out of the car and turn off the ignition, please. >> Yes, he young his son >> How old is he? >> I'm sorry, what? >> Who say what? What was it? >> Were you the one I was talking to on the phone? >> Oh, no, no. >> Okay. >> I'm I'm just coming here to tell my dad. >> You're You're waiting for your dad, right? Okay. Was I talking to you on the phone or was I talking to someone? >> younger brother. >> Your younger brother. Okay. Gotcha. Are you Are you aware why I'm here? >> No. >> Okay. Got you. >> Just call me cuz they told [laughter] me there's no English here. >> Yes, no, I appreciate you coming down. Yeah, I just need to talk to your dad is uh Okay, got you. Do you know when he'll be home here? Shortly? >> Yeah, yeah, he'll be home maybe like 15 minutes. >> Okay, so a little bit. Okay, got you. I know he was out fishing today. >> Yeah. >> Do you know who he was with? >> Uh my younger brother. >> Your younger brother, the one I talked to on the phone? Or different younger one? >> I don't know who you talked with. You talked with >> Yeah, I believe so. >> Yeah, then that's not him. I got Yeah, I got a lot of brothers here. >> [laughter] >> I got you, that's all good. I appreciate it. Okay, well, I'll tell you what, no need to wait out here in the cold. Uh you can go ahead inside. I'll just have a chat with him. I appreciate you coming down and sorry to bother you so late. >> Oh, you're good. That's fine, yeah. >> Uh we just got a complaint I got to follow up on it, so. >> Okay. >> I appreciate it though, so. Yeah, when you get to your door I can pop back out and we can have a chat. All right, thank you. Hey, hey, you you're the one I was talking to? Okay, got you. Sorry, a lot of confusion here. My bad. Well, thanks for coming out. Sorry if I ruined your night. >> No, it's okay. >> [laughter] >> Hello. Hi, how are you? My name's Logan. I'm just the DNR warden. I've just got a complaint about some fishing activity on Beaver Dam Lake. Okay. Just You You two were fishing on Beaver Dam today? Okay, got you. When did you guys leave Beaver Dam Lake? >> Um left around 7:30, 7:00. >> 7:30, okay. And then where did you guys go from there? >> Oh, we just >> Just back here. Okay, got you. You got the fish in the back? >> Yeah. >> Okay. You win. Go ahead. >> Yeah, you go ahead. >> No, please, I insist. Show me the Show me the way. I appreciate y'all coming out and um >> They all look alike except me. >> Okay, gotcha. What are you guys using as bait today? >> Uh shrimp. >> Shrimp? Pretty good? >> Yeah. >> Nice. All right. Just this cooler or that cooler, too? Okay. Do you know the count? >> I probably not. >> No? Okay. Nice. You did well. Um so, I'm going to have to count all these. Um where where were you going to move them from here? Okay. I'll tell you what. Why don't we just uh line them up um and go from there, okay? >> I got another cooler if you want to just put it in another cooler. >> That would work good, yeah. If you have another cooler. I just have to count them, so Anything in this one? Just drink? >> Yeah. >> Oh, and shrimp, okay. Shrimp worked good, huh? >> [laughter] >> Just toss them in there. >> Okay. >> Oh, it's too heavy. >> 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 Okay. You got this in there. You you to Yeah, just bring down in front of me. I'd appreciate it. Good size ones, too. 15 19 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 catfish. Now, I have to say, knowing that an officer was waiting at his house, I'm impressed that he came back with all 36 fish. Now, the angler clearly made a mistake by keeping too many fish. At least he owned up to it, and by the end of the video, we'll see if he fully owned it by addressing any fines or penalties he may have faced. All right. So, um We got the ruler up here. >> Oh, this is going to be >> The neighbor. Um so, we have 36 catfish, right? Just the two of you fishing today? >> Yes. >> Okay. And then, just at the Beaver Dam Lake today? Were you on the river this or the lake? >> The lake. >> The lake area, okay. What park were you at? >> Uh Dirge Park. >> Which one was it? >> Dirge Dirge >> Dirge Park? Dirge Park, okay, got you. Let me just pull up a GPS map of that real quick. D I R C H >> D E R G E >> D E R G E >> Yes. >> Dirge County Park, yep, okay. So, are you guys familiar with the the bag limits on catfish? >> Not really. >> Okay. So, um the total daily bag limit for catfish is 25 per person, right? So, with that, you'd be okay. The issue is is that it's 10 per body of water, all right? So, you can't take more than 10 catfish out of Beaver Dam Lake specifically. So, let's say you went from Beaver Dam Lake to a different body of water, caught 10 more, that's fine. Then you go to a third body of water, catch five, you've got your 25 for your total daily bag limit, okay? Does that make sense? >> Yes. >> The issue is that these were all caught at Beaver Dam, okay? Give me 1 second. I'm going to go grab a pair of the fishing regulations. I'll hand it out to you guys. Just hang out here for 1 second, okay? Does that sound good? All right. All right, so I got you a pair of the regulations. All right. We still actually have the example for catfish. So, this example the daily bag limit on catfish for most waters is 10 in total, all right? However, the total daily bag limit is 25, okay? So, that means in a single day to get your total daily bag limit 25 as long as the daily bag limit for each body of water is never exceeded. Example, 10 from one water, 10 from another water, and five from a third water. Okay? So, that's the issue we're running into, okay? So, >> [sighs] >> Where were we going with that? Uh do you have your driver's license? How old are you? >> Um I'm 16. >> You're 16, okay. Do you have a fishing license? >> Uh no. >> You don't have a fishing license, okay. So, at 16 you are required to have one. Okay, it's 15 and younger you don't need one. Um I'll just need your info. Just real quick. Give me your driver's license. >> Yes. >> That works best. It got dark quick today. Again, I I really appreciate you guys um being cool and um helping me out here, so. >> Yes, sir. >> All right, so um couple of things here, all right? >> [sighs] >> Here's what we're going to do, all right? We got quite a few violations. I'm not going to hammer you guys with tickets or anything like that, okay? What we're going to do is I'm going to let them each pick out 10 catfish. Pick out the nicest catfish, all right? The rest I have to take, okay? Um that's just the way the state statute reads, okay? What I'm not going to do is write a whole bunch of tickets, all right? I'm going to write one ticket. It's going to be to your dad. Okay? And it's going to be for the fish in excess of the daily bag limit. Okay? Um if you just want to explain that to him real quick, just what's going on and what we're going to do going forward, okay? >> know what else I'm going to say. You said each 10, right? Or just 10? >> Yep, so they can each take 10. 10 catfish. They legally harvested 10 catfish and I'm willing to let you guys keep those 10 catfish each. So, you get 20 catfish. So, pick the nicest for 20 here. >> [laughter] >> Um I'm willing to work with you guys on that, okay? Cuz I I would hate to see these fish go to waste. And uh they're not going to go to waste. What I'm going to try and do is get them to the humane society and they use them to feed some of the wildlife in the area. So, I'm going to try to do that. Um so, at least they're not going to waste. Um but yeah, so um if you want to just pick one of the coolers you want to take, dump them into whichever one you want. Um just has to be 20, okay? Take the 10 biggest. That's a good one. >> [laughter] >> Man, I got to go down there and use some shrimp, man. You guys did well. I'm happy to see you're out there fishing. Um >> Yeah, so far today is uh the most they caught. >> Yeah, I've [laughter] had >> Usually they don't they don't get anything. They just came back. >> Okay. What's he at? >> Four. >> He has nine. >> Nine? Down, okay. All right, sounds good. If you just want to dump all these into one cooler, um I have to grab a bag. We'll put them in the bag. Um and then I'll have um just some info for you, okay? I'm going to grab a bag if you just want to dump these into that one. I'd appreciate it. Thank you. So, um the other thing you need to consider is the total possession limit. You guys familiar with that at all? So, it's twice the daily bag limit. Basically, that's how many you can have at home in your freezer. Um so, you can only have 50 per person. Okay, so sorry. Yeah, 50 per person. So, you guys should be good on that. Perfect. Is that all of them? >> Yes, that's all of >> Okay, so these two are empty? Okay, perfect. All right. So, the citation, how's it going to work? All right, it's going to come in the mail. Okay, it's going to come in the mail to the address here. Um let me just confirm that really quick. Make sure I've got all the right info. And then just in case I have any follow-up, let me just get your info really quick. What's your first name? Um and then I'll just need to see uh what rod was he using the most? What's What was the lucky rod? Oh, the blue one? That was the lucky one? All right. I just got [clears throat] to take a quick picture of it. What brand is that? Can you tell? >> Uh it's stamina drag. Uh >> Tough to tell. >> It's like we bought it from what? 7 miles like it's all used. >> Hey, man, whatever works. No, it sounds good. I appreciate that. Thank you. All right. Um so, that citation um like I said, it's going to come in the mail to the address here. Um there's going to be a court date on it. You're not required to appear at that court date. He's not required to appear at that court date, okay? There's going to be some instructions on it if you flip it over on how to take care of it, to pay it. Um you're welcome to show up to the court date if you would like. That's your prerogative. Um just make sure you take care of that citation before that court date, okay? So, make sure you pay it or else uh warrant could be issued and your Chapter 29 privileges, so your fishing and all that stuff could be revoked. Um so, don't want that. Um just make sure you take care of it before that. If you have any questions, my information will be on there, but I'll also give you a business card, okay? There you go, okay? So, my number is the top number, feel free to reach out if you have any questions. Um, I want to be a resource to you guys, so if you have questions on what the bag limits are, if you have questions on the what you can keep at home, or anything like that, please reach out, okay? I'd much rather hear about that before that hand than I have to come and knock on your door at 9:30. So, I I really apologize for the lateness of the hour. Um, obviously I've got a job to do. Um, so I appreciate um you guys being helpful with me. Um, any questions for me right now? >> Um, do you know how much the citation would be? >> I do not know it off the top of my head. I I believe it's in the $200 range, maybe a little bit more. Maybe I I again, I'm not sure. Um, just be aware you could be getting three citations today. Um, all around the same price. I'm really working with you guys cuz you guys seem like decent decent folk. Um, and I'm happy to see you out there catching fish. We just got to make sure we can only take what we can legally take, okay? >> Yes. >> So, um any questions on like the total daily bag limit, how that works? >> I don't >> the specific bag limits, okay? So, limit's 10, all right, on the body of water you're fishing, per per lake. 10 catfish, all right? But, make sure you're looking at the regulations >> the catfish or any other >> Catfish only. So, all the regulations I handed you, it it's got all the information you need, okay? Those general inland waters typically are what you're going to look for, okay? So. Do- Dodge County has some specific stuff as well, um, but all that's explained in those regulations as well, okay? Um let me run to my squad squad real quick with these, um, and then I should be able to get out of here in here, just give me like 1 minute, okay? >> Okay. >> All right, thank you. Um, again, any questions for me? Okay, I I you both coming out and helping. Um, this would be very difficult if you weren't here, so thank you for that. Um and then any questions, like I said, feel free to reach out, okay? >> Okay. >> All right, thank you. >> Thank you. >> Appreciate it. So, in the end, the officer wrote him one citation for being in excess of the daily bag limit, specifically between 26% and 50%. The angler did the charge. He was ultimately found guilty, and he was ordered to pay $243 in costs and fines. Now, did he address those fines? Yes, he did. Within a month, he had paid the fines in full. So, in all, I think this was a great interaction considering all the different ways this could have gone. I think the officer did a great job balancing safety protocols while keeping a professional and pleasant demeanor, which goes a very long way with the public. I think the family did a great job owning up to the mistake, but at the end of the day, it's still the angler's responsibility to understand and follow the fishing regulations. This officer had a job to do, and he did it. He held the angler responsible for his actions. Anyways, that's enough of what I think. I want to hear what you think. Leave your comment down below letting us know what you think of the interaction. We love hearing from you. If you like content like this, be sure to subscribe so you don't miss out on future videos. And as always, thanks for watching. >> [music]