Perch limit at Huron

[jokim_99]

If I come back to Huron State ramp what is my perch limit? The line dividing central from Western basin is close. 30 vs 10 limit.

[KPI]

It is possession limit so if you are in the central basin and limit is 10 then you can keep ten the laws apply to the water you are fishing and not where you are at not where you are returning to

[jokim_99]

Okay that is understood out on the water. But odnr is not likely to board your boat but do check at the ramp occasionally. Just want to be legal.

[KPI]

If you have 30 fish in a 10 fish your illegal if you have 30 fish in a 30 fish zone legal i have been boarded twice to check for possession limits ,if you catch ten fish in ten fish zone then move to 30 fish zone you can catch 20 more but odnr does not care where you return to with fish it is all dependent on what area your in i had a friend launch in michigan catch 6 walleye in ohio return to michigan limit was four back at ramp mdnr cited him you can take your chances on the water but i would not

[gb1234]

AI Summary...

Having 30 yellow perch when landing at Huron is within the absolute statewide daily maximum, so an officer will not cite solely because of the landing location or the number 30. Citation depends on evidence of where (which zone) the fish were actually taken.
Official zone definition and limits (from ODNR materials)

• Zones are defined by precise lines of longitude, not by the town or pier of Huron itself:
  
  • West zone (daily limit 30): Ohio waters west of the W 82? 30.000′ line.
  • Central zone (daily limit 10): Ohio waters east of the W 82? 30.000′ line and west of the W 81? 20.000′ line.
  
  
• ODNR describes the zones approximately as ?Toledo to Huron? (west/30) and ?Huron to Fairport Harbor? (central/10), and maps mark the Huron Pier Lighthouse near the boundary line.
• The controlling rule for possession (published on the official daily-limits sheet and in matching ODNR posts) is:
  It shall be unlawful for any one person to take or possess more than the maximum number of 30 yellow perch ? in any one day regardless of zone combination.This applies to anyone fishing Ohio waters or landing at an Ohio port.

How officers determine whether to cite

Officers enforce the zone-of-take limit plus the hard 30-fish ceiling:

• 30 fish is never an automatic over-limit violation under the ?regardless of zone combination? rule.
• A citation for possessing too many occurs only if there is evidence that more fish were taken from a lower-limit zone than that zone allows (e.g., more than 10 from the central zone).
• Location is established by longitude (GPS/chartplotter coordinates, smartphone apps, nautical charts, etc.). ODNR explicitly publishes the coordinate conversions and encourages anglers to use GPS-enabled devices to know which zone they are in.
• In practice, officers rely on the angler?s statements about where they fished, any GPS track or waypoint data available on the boat, visual observation of the boat?s fishing location, or other corroborating evidence. Landing at the Huron port/ramp itself does not automatically convert a legal west-zone catch of 30 into a central-zone violation.

Bottom line per official ODNR criteria: Returning to Huron with exactly 30 perch is legal if the fish were taken in the west zone (or a combination that never exceeded any individual zone?s limit and stayed ≤ 30 total). It becomes a citation if evidence shows the angler exceeded the 10-fish central-zone limit. The landing port does not change the zone-of-take rule or override the published 30-fish maximum.

[West Basin]

AI is NOT a reliable source for legal information. Whatever it tells you, you have to check it. If you want to know the answer to questions like this, talk to or call ODW law enforcement. Or look up the ODW regulations or other information provided by ODW. I did.

I talked with Matt in ODW law enforcement at the Sandusky Fisheries Unit. He told me the following:
Your limit is determined by the zone you fished in.
The dividing line between the Western Basin zone and Central Basin zone is the Lat Long line 80 degree 30 minute.
On shore, the Plantation Hotel east of Huron sits nearly on the line.
Cranberry Creek marina is in the Central zone.

Huron river / launch ramp is in the Western Basin zone. You come back there with 30 person yellow perch limit, you are OK - UNLESS you fished in the Central Basin. If you fished in the Central Basin, you are not legal with a 30 person yellow perch limit.
If anyone wants more details on how ODW determines where you fished, don't ask it here. Call Matt.

The general advice is, don't launch from a Central Basin location and go fish for yellow perch in the Western Basin, and come back to a Central Basin marina or launch with more than a 10 fish per person limit.

Resources:

https://dam.assets.ohio.gov/image/up...ailylimits.pdf

https://dam.assets.ohio.gov/image/up...Boundaries.pdf