Illegally tagged Musky

We encountered something alarming on the Chippewa Flowage today during our fish survey. We captured a musky on the west side with a red zip tie attached to one of its pectoral fins.

Obviously something like that would not get attached to the fish on accident and that is not a method we (DNR) would use to mark fish. This leaves us to believe that an angler is marking muskies on their own. While I suspect this is just someone who is curious and wants to do their own “study”, we need to make sure people know it is ILLEGAL to mark fish like this. Here is the actual law that pertains to this: s. NR 20.05(14) No person may capture, tag, mark or attach any object and release wild fish unless issued a (Scientific Collectors) permit by the department pursuant to s. NR 19.11.

This particular case provides a good example of why it is illegal for anglers to tag fish. The zip tie was slowly sawing through the fin, mutilating the fish unnecessarily. Wardens have been notified and will be looking for this kind of thing on the water. Please share this message through your groups so we can make people aware of the situation and that they cannot tag their own fish.

Max H. Wolter