Wis. Stat. § 29.738

This is the official text of Wis. Stat. § 29.738, part of Wisconsin’s Wisconsin Statutes — the complete compiled statutory law of Wisconsin, organized into numbered chapters by subject.

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Private fishing preserves.

Official statutory text

(1) A single person may register with the department a natural, navigable, self-contained body of water as a private fishing preserve if all of the following apply:

(a) All of the use and occupancy rights in the land that is riparian to the body of water are owned or leased by the registrant.

(b) The registrant and any owner of the riparian land do not provide access to the body of water to the public by means of an easement or other right-of-way or by means of a business open to the public.

(c) The registrant held a private fish hatchery license under s. 29.52 , 1995 stats., on December 31, 1997, that applied to the body of water being registered as a private fishing preserve.

(2) No lake association, corporation or other association that is formed to establish a private fishing preserve is eligible to register under this section.

(3) A registration under this section is valid for one year.

(4) A person who is fishing in a private fishing preserve is exempt from having any sport fishing approval issued under this chapter. No person may sell or trade fish that are caught in a private fishing preserve. No person may charge a fee for fishing in a private fishing preserve or a fee for an activity that includes the privilege of fishing in a private fishing preserve.

History: 1997 a. 27 , 237 ; 1997 a. 248 s. 579 ; Stats. 1997 s. 29.738.

Status: in_force · Read it on the official government site

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About this page: Statute text is reproduced from official government publishers via the Open US Law dataset (Vaquill AI, snapshot v2026.08, CC BY 4.0). Primary legislative text like this is public domain under the government-edicts doctrine (Georgia v. Public.Resource.Org, 2020). We link every section back to its official source so you can verify it independently.