Fishing Regulations Booklet Now Longer Than Novel It Was Named After

The state Department of Natural Resources' 2026 fishing regulations guide has reached a word count of approximately 108,000, surpassing Hemingway's 'The Old Man and the Sea' — a novel literally about fishing — by a factor of four, while providing, in the words of one angler, 'significantly less clarity about what's actually happening.' The guide, which was 24 pages in 1990, has swelled to 142 pages of species-specific regulations, seasonal exceptions, water-body-specific exemptions, gear restrictions, and footnotes that reference other footnotes. 'I just want to know if I can keep a walleye,' said angler Ray Leader, holding the guide open to a section titled 'Percidae Harvest Regulations by Management Zone (Amended).' 'This page has three tables, two asterisks, a cross-reference to page 87, and a conditional clause that begins with the phrase notwithstanding the provisions of Section 14(b)(iii).' The guide's complexity has been attributed to decades of incremental regulation, each addressing a specific conservation concern but collectively producing a document that a recently retired DNR officer described as 'basically tax code for fish.' 'Every regulation makes sense individually,' said fisheries manager Dr. Sandra Gill. 'Slot limits protect breeding stock. Seasonal closures protect spawning windows. Gear restrictions prevent overharvest. But when you stack 40 years of individually sensible regulations on top of each other, you get a document that requires a law degree to fish a pond.' The DNR has announced plans to create a simplified companion guide. Early drafts of the simplified version are reportedly 60 pages long. Hemingway's novel, by comparison, tells a complete story about a man, a fish, and the sea in 26,601 words. It contains no footnotes, no cross-references, and no conditional clauses. The old man caught the fish. The sharks ate it. The regulations were not consulted.