(a) Except as
otherwise provided, no person shall harvest and keep during any one (1) day, or
have in possession, more than the number and length of game fish specified in
the creel limits listed below. Please refer to subsection (c) of this Section.
Exceptions are listed with the regulations for each drainage area in Sections
17,
22,
25,
28 and
32 of this chapter.
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Category
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Creel and Possession
Limits
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(i) Trout (in combination includes brown, cutthroat,
grayling, golden, rainbow, salmon, tiger trout, and other trout hybrids).
Excludes brook trout, lake trout and splake.
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Lakes: six (6)
Streams: three (3). No more than one (1) trout shall
exceed sixteen (16) inches.
Streams and lakes combined: six (6)
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(ii) Brook trout
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sixteen (16)
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(iii) Lake trout and splake in combination
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six (6). No more than one (1) lake trout or splake
shall exceed twenty-four (24) inches.
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(iv) Whitefish
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six (6)
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(v) Largemouth and smallmouth bass in
combination
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six (6)
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(vi) Walleye
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six (6)
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(vii) Channel catfish
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six (6)
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(viii) Northern pike
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See drainage area exceptions.
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(ix) Tiger muskie (sterile northern pike muskellunge
hybrid)
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one (1). All tiger muskie less than thirty-six (36)
inches in length shall be released to the water immediately.
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(x) Yellow perch, black bullhead, stonecat, crappie,
rock bass, bluegill, pumpkinseed, green sunfish, green sunfish-bluegill hybrid,
freshwater drum in combination
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fifty (50)
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(xi) Burbot (ling)
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three (3)
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(xii) Sauger
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two (2)
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(xiii) Shovelnose sturgeon
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two (2)
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(b)
Except as otherwise provided in the exception for an individual water, the
total combined creel and possession limit for the trout category, regardless of
the waters (streams, lakes, or a combination of both) a person is fishing,
shall not exceed six (6) trout per day or in possession.
(c) Any fish caught that is not to be counted
in the creel limit shall be immediately released to the water with as little
injury to the fish as possible. Any fish placed on a stringer, in a container,
in a live well, or not released immediately to the water, shall be considered
to be reduced to possession of the angler and shall be killed prior to being
transported from the water of origin. No fish that has been reduced to
possession of the angler shall be released alive without prior written approval
from the Department.
(d) All fish
possessed or transported shall be kept in a manner that species and numbers can
be determined. When length limits apply, the whole body shall remain intact
(gills and entrails can be removed) while in transit or in the field. Where
length limits do not apply, a piece of skin large enough to allow species
identification (at least one (1) inch square) shall remain on all fish fillets
while in transit or in the field, except as otherwise provided in Sections
22,
25 and
32 of this chapter for walleye and sauger harvested in the Wind River,
Bighorn River and Tongue River drainages and Glendo Reservoir and in Section
28
of this chapter for lake trout harvested in Flaming Gorge Reservoir.
(e) There are no creel or possession limits
on nongame fish unless otherwise specified in this regulation or in Commission
Regulation Chapter 52, Take of Nongame Wildlife from Within Wyoming. Nongame
fish may be taken by the use of legal fishing methods during any season open
for the taking of game fish.
