this will be my 22nd year fising the river and i think your 100% right!!! if you can hook them in the mouth you don't need to be fishing!!! but i think the snagging has gotten better.but its still BAD!!! i do remember a day when youd feel the fish hit you in the leg there was so many on the river. good luck to you all this year...i do think we'll have a better run this year..

 

Not sure about all year, but I know that during the run I see tons of DNR officers watching for snags and for limits. I have even heard of DNR officers in plain clothes fishing along side everyone and busting people who keep snags.

 

i wasnt saying all year, during the run. and yes they have field officers dressed in waders fishing the river like the average joe and when the not so in intelligent joe keeps a snagged fish they get a hefty fine.

 

Just hit the fish before your rig gets to 12 o'clock and they'll never be "snagged" :T

 

Just hit the fish before your rig gets to 12 o'clock and they'll never be "snagged" :T

Thanks for the tip.


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yea when you see a guy that has his arms in the water up to his shoulders you can put a safe bet on hes keeping snagged fish because he doesnt want anyone to see him unhook his rig from the dorsal fin.

 

I fish the run pretty hard from the beg of March to late April and I see close to a dozen illegally kept fish every year. Most guys play by the rules IMO but there will always be guys that never learn. Sometimes I wish there was some type of class people could take to be able to write up tickets during the run. That would definitely stop people from snagging. There are simply not enough game wardens...

 

You should define what you believe to be a "snagged" fish.

I'd wager that about 90% of the fish I see kept in the river every year are hooked outside-in on the opposite side of the fish's face that the angler is standing, with the hook going through the thin skin between the cheek and the lips. If you ask a CO about that, you will get a different answer every time as to whether or not that fish is foul hooked.

Most of the fish are hooked at a 45 degree angle downstream from the angler. Like AH said..if you hook 'em before your rig gets to 12:00, you likely have a fish in the mouth. The further downstream, the greater your odds for a foul hooked fish.

The exception to this rule is the guy who uses the black streamers. He fishes directly downstream, and he uses forceps to get the hooks out of his fish.

If we are snagging them, we must be damn good at it. I typically will land a dozen or so fish every year that are hooked through the nostril...what are the odds of that happening?

I haven't seen a fish kept that was hooked anyplace away from the face in a long time. Not since they busted those guys in the Tracker boat a few years back. The use of floaters had drastically reduced the number of belly-hooked and tail-hooked fish.

And before all the lake guys start chiming in about the "river snaggers" ruining the fishery and such, trust me....from what I saw on the big pond last year during the jig season, what happens on the river pales in comparison to what happens on the big pond. We have one hook...you all get one really big hook...and that little gem called a stinger, which just happens to come into play on most catches.

To each his own...that is how it is, and that is how it should be left alone. Nobody walks out of that river with more than four fish on their stringer.

 

Couldn't have said it better myself. Very well put BFG.

 

I haven't fished the Maumee or Sandusky run for several years now,I'm pretty much just into bass fishing these days.Back in the day,snagging was way more intentional than what it appears to be now,it was very easy to see a guy's intentions just by watching the way he fished.Again,I don't fish the runs at all,so I have no vested interest about what goes on at either place.I tend to agree with what BFG said,if I understood it correctly.If a guy is fishing legally,which means no intentional snagging,and he accidentally foul hooks 4 fish,and keeps them,those 4 fish will be leaving the river the same as with a guy that removes 4 caught in the mouth.I wouldn't do it,and most of you wouldn't do it,so why worry about some guy that does? It happens on the lake,the bay and in the rivers every spring to some extent,I wouldn't let it lessen my fun any by worrying about what others may be doing.If I saw someone intentionally trying to snag fish,that would be different-to me.It's the same thing in bass fishing(other than sight fishing),sometimes you'll get a solid hit,and the bass may be hooked somewhere other than in the mouth,and in a lot of states that is considered a legal catch.This happened at a big Bassmaster TX a couple of years ago,many bass were foul-hooked,but were legal to keep because they were unintentionally snagged.My opinion on the walleye runs,if you're intentionally trying to snag fish,you're an a-hole and should be busted to the fullest extent of the law,if you keep an unintentionally snagged fish,you're incredibly stupid considering all the LEO's present,but if you do either,I could care less you're not going to ruin my day.

 

i didnt post this thread because im worrying about what other people are doing, i posted this thread just to see what other fellow maumee run fisherman thought about the subject, i simply said if you cant legally catch a walleye during the spawn and catch your fish legally then you shouldnt even be fishing the run. and to the guys that go down there and intentionally snag fish, you shouldnt be fishing at all. because on most days you can go down there and snag 10 fish before you legally cath your 4.

 

!

" i do remember a day when youd feel the fish hit you in the leg there was so many on the river. "


Those days have not gone anywhere my friend..i feel them bumpin my legs at least once or twice each spring in the river..still a lot of fish there!

 

I honestly cant remember the last time I seen people that were attempting to snag. There used to be "crews" down there that worked together. The floater has made it so easy to get fish most of the guys have gone legit. I do see a few of them that still keep a "close" one if given the opportunity.

 

i know of one group of guys that still work together and keep every single snagged fish caught. they fish at shroeder farms religously. i fished next to them a couple of times and couldnt even believe that they never get caught. the one guy refers to himself as "one of the only maumee river outlaws left" and it might sound stupid but im not making that up. hes a true dumbass. he brags about snagging fish.

 

i know of one group of guys that still work together and keep every single snagged fish caught. they fish at shroeder farms religously. i fished next to them a couple of times and couldnt even believe that they never get caught. the one guy refers to himself as "one of the only maumee river outlaws left" and it might sound stupid but im not making that up. hes a true dumbass. he brags about snagging fish.

Why not turn them in then?

 

Last year when I walked out of the river I walked past a DNR and I said watch those guys down there.
Whether they did or didn't is beyond me.
And I don't know all of there first and last names. I know most of them
by "hey dude"

 

1543 snagged fish kept

 

More than are legally caught!

 

More than are legally caught!

wrong. ......

 

Why not turn them in then?

The DNR wtaches them do it and know they are snagging. But when a guy keeps a fish down the whole way in and unhooks it and stringers it up with the fisher never being seen, they cannot do anything about it. The few guys that still roll that way are very good at what they do

 

redhunter i agree with this statement. they have been doing it for years and are pretty good at it

 

1543 snagged fish kept

In all honesty, the hypocrisy of the regulations for the river and maumee bay in comparison to what can be done on the lake is laughable to say the least. Blade baits with two treble hooks, 1 oz. pancake shaped jigs with hook gaps 3/4" or more plus a stinger treble hook? C'mon...

But...I pretty much believe that the CO's spend the majority of their time looking for guys that are double/triple dipping limits. One year at White Street, there was a guy who was standing beside me who was struggling to catch fish. He wasn't using heavy enough weight to get his rig down into the trench. I had my four, and noticed his issue. I gave him a 3/4oz. egg sinker and told him to shorten his lead a bit and in no time at all he had his four. A voice from above called down and he was asked to exit the river. When I left, he was standing at his car with the CO...and a cooler that had probably 15 walleyes in it. Ooops...that had to be expensive...

I remember the 5/8oz. leadhead days....handling 40-50 fish in a couple hours and having to toss them all back. That...was snagging.

In today's world down there, I don't keep 'em if the hook doesn't penetrate a lip or go from the inside-out. I don't have the jack in my pocket to pay for a stupid snagging ticket when I can toss a questionable fish back and keep at it. Regardless of what anyone says, the situation down there is light years different than it was only 15 years ago.

Myself and a few others that I know were some of the first to start using floating jig heads down there and everybody laughed at us when we made the switch. People can say what they want about Gary Lowry from Maumee Tackle, but that guy drove the train when it came to influencing the switch to floaters. I'm glad to see the change, if for no other reason I rarely see fish that are dragged through the current with a hook stuck in their belly.

 

redhunter i agree with this statement. they have been doing it for years and are pretty good at it

And in the grand scope of things, it probably doesn't matter. There are liars, cheats, and crooks everywhere in society and the river is no different. I am not going to potentially risk my personal safety by being the nark at the end of the line.

Let the guys do their jobs, and kudos to them when they catch someone breaking the law. They'll never get them all, but I would think it is getting more difficult for guys to get away with such things, given that the vast majority of fisherman that I see down there are at least attempting to do it right.

 

And in the grand scope of things, it probably doesn't matter. There are liars, cheats, and crooks everywhere in society and the river is no different. I am not going to potentially risk my personal safety by being the nark at the end of the line.

Let the guys do their jobs, and kudos to them when they catch someone breaking the law. They'll never get them all, but I would think it is getting more difficult for guys to get away with such things, given that the vast majority of fisherman that I see down there are at least attempting to do it right.

Ultimately accountability fall on the individual. And if you break the rules, eventually things catch up to you. But if you do as you are allowed then you never have anything to worry about. In all reality anyone can lie cheat and steal their way into their bag limit. By I takes a real fisherman to get it legitimately. I'd rather go home empty handed every day, than know I had to snag a fish to catch one. But then again I have character. And so do the rest of you guys. I'd be interested to hear when you guys are going out to the run and where you guys are gonna be fishing it at.


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I'll be trying it in a couple weeks. Depending on the water level
I'll either be at Orleans or buttonwood. All of the guys I normally
Fish with hate the run so 90% of the time I go down there alone.
I love going down there I think of it as a northwest Ohio past time.
And the fact that I meet someone new every time I go to the river.
Hell two years ago I was fishing next to an entire family from Tennessee
that came up just for the run. I think its cool how many people it attracts
from all over.