is becoming legal finally:

https://www.wpr.org/news/dnr-rule-against-carrying-guns-fishing-repealed

Why wasn't it always?

Years back people would shoot muskies at the side of the boat rather than net them. It was considered unsafe. Way before catch and release.

Dang, my family has been fishing illegally for over 75 years in Wi.

Wisconsin rocks in most things.

Many have.

We still do that with halibut. I even shot a big ling cod that we pulled up on a skate line, it was way to big and ugly to come into the boat alive lol

yup unfortunately WI law has no shortage of old stuff that never should have been but it passed at some point and it takes a lot for them to go back and fix mistakes of the past.

I suspect a lot of states have a bunch of old junk to clean up.

lots of people been ignoring stupid laws/rules for a long time

it would be interesting the reason for this law in the first place , it easily could have been a prohibition law

it would make sense the majority of the worst laws in US history came out of that ridiculous time

Some fly fishermen in The Driftless Area (Wisconsin) encounter rattlesnakes and prefer to carry for that purpose.

Some boats were Shunk when the fish was shot while it was in the boat. I think one of the reasons for the no carry was lots of under sized fish were killed.

I wasn’t even aware of such a nonsense law. If the problem was shooting fish, make it illegal to shoot fish! If you carry and don’t shoot fish, who cares?

Exactly right. Unfortunately lawmakers routinely punish large groups of law-abiding citizens over the actions of a handful of criminals.

Another example: for many years it was illegal to carry any type of weapon while spotlighting deer in PA because of a relatively few folks jack lighting/poaching. It wasn't that long ago the law was changed to allow carry weapons while spotlighting.