Would this be considered illegal?

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BuffaloPolypteridae

Feeder Fish
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Aug 5, 2013
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Buffalo
So bowfins are rare in my immediate area, but a couple hours away they're allll over the place. So would it be illegal to catch some juvies this summer and move them to a natural pond on my friends land? I know its illegal to catch natives for your tank but would just moving them from natural to natural habitat be? The pond is huge and deep, not sure on exact dimensions but somewhere around 30 feet by 60 feet and he says its 20 to 30 feet deep

We've been looking for juvies for sale but want to get at least a dozen and haven't found anyone with that many. For catch and release fishing, he has LMB, longnose gar, and chain pickerel in there already.

If anyone can point me towards a vendor that usually has them that would be great! As I'd rather not take from the wild population illegal or not

Also wed like to get some burbot or eelpout for the same reason

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Eelpout wouldn't survive that pond, they are coolwater and adults are way less hardy than the young ones.

Bowfin juvies should be available soon and you can order them online.
 
That's the thing we haven't found a farm or even a vendor that has a dozen plus at a time, biggest group I've seen was 5 on aquabid

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I would check with you local DNR to see if its legal or not, they really are very cool fish, and its hard to get large groups because Bowfin will are very territorial and its hard to raise them without them eating and killing each other unless you have a large area and lots of dithers and structure....if you regularly feed them you wont need to get a huge number they are very smart and you will see them at feeding time.....and they will breed on their own in a pond.
 
I would imagine that it would not be legal to do this but I have no idea. I know many ponds stocked in similar ways however. A pond in my area in central WI was stocked with fish from northern WI where theres better lakes and healthier fish. The owner of the property the lake is on drove a huge truck with a large tote in the back and filled it water. Drove up north and caught many fish and through them in there with an aerator and drove them back and dumped them in the newly made pond. Now the pond is nicely stocked with natural reproduction.
 
If the pond is private with no outlet than it is probably legal. if it has even a trickle connecting it to other waterways than it is an illegal stocking in almost every state. Most states also prohibit the transportation of live game fish and this is the law you really want to check. Stocking is the only real reason to transport a fish live, so if it is illegal than the authorities will not take kindly to it. The fines in some states can be thousands of dollars.

Another thing to consider is watersheds, since watersheds are connected, the ecosystem is fairly the same. If moving between different watersheds, native or not you could also be transporting things like parasites that different populations don't have. So simply because the fish are in both places, does not mean it is acceptable to mix specimens of the same species from various areas
 
Which is also why I asked on here, if its just going to be bad for everything then we won't do it and try to get small guys from a farm or aquabid hopefully we can find someone with a lot at once if not we'll have just keep stocking periodically. If they're under 7-8 inch they'd be eaten in the large natural pond. I don't believe there is even a trickle but one side is heavily wooded and planted and we rarely go in there so I'll check with him if there is some outlet

he would raise them if we had to get babies, in his smaller man made pond that has mosquito fish he breeds to supplement the pond and has some pumpkinseed's in and a bunch of native frogs I think he might have some gar juvies also but not big enough to take out a bowfin unless it was like 2 inch. We don't want to feed them pellet since we feel that may take away from the prey drive and make them harder to catch once we put them in the big lake for fishing (catch and release).

I'll check the watershed maps and hopefully one of the areas known for bowfin is in the same, if it turns out to be legal haha we will be giving the DNR a call for sure.

Bowfins are such great fights and such a unique fish I hope we can manage this. Anyone know how large a territory they need? So we don't overstock and end up with dead bowfin haha

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The watershed thought was more of an idea of why it is bad to transport fish around. If going into a closed system it isn't such a big deal but obviously you want to stock the healthiest fish around. If you can catch and stock your own. Also trap baitfish and other prey items to try to get an idea of any possible parasites
 
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