Culling Fish

[crappie10]

I read a post where these guys caught their limit early in the day and later the bigger fish started to bite and they culled all of their fish from that morning. I was thinking about that today while I was fishing and had several opportunities to upgrade, but didn't. Crappies are not as tough as other fish and I would hate to kill 2 fish, just to get a filet 1 inch longer than what I already had. On my home lake, I won't clean a crappie over 12 inches, unless I weighed it in at a tournament and except for tournaments will NEVER cull. I have seen a lot of decent keepers floating and always wonder if that is what happened. One other thing that bothers me is to have to release a small fish that is bleeding badly. I would much rather clean an 8 incher that I hooked deeply and count it towards my 10 than to let it go, but it's not worth 75 bucks
any thoughts?
jc

[GRIZZ]

Sometimes the rules don't make much sense. I think they should make an exception in all the rule books to keep deep hooked fish or fish you know are going to die.

As far as culling, I think if you have a good livewell that keep the fish healthy and they look ok I don't see a problem with culling. If they look at all weak keep em.

Personally, I think law enforcement needs a serious dose of common sense. Life is too short to chase people around because they have 2 or 3 more fish than they should. If they have 300 more fish thats another story, but even in some cases like that sometimes I think people should look the other way. I know people who really need to feed their families and if I was a conservation officer I'd be pretty easy going about stuff like that. I'm sure there are lakes and situations where overharvesting is a problem for the fishery and in those cases the rules should be followed for the sake of the lake. Just my 2 cents on the law. They all need to lighten up a bit these days.

[chaunc]

Grizz, we have a 50 panfish limit on the lakes here in n/w Pa. There's no reason anyone should keep more than their legal limit here. That limit is just panfish. You can also keep 6 walleyes, 2 stripers over 18", 6 bass over 15", and 2 pike or musky or 1 of each. And thats per person. Take a kid fishing and you can double everything. If anyone here gets caught over the limit, LOCK EM UP ! It's just pure greed.

[crappie10]

I agree that if they need the fish, heck they can have mine too, but the ones I heard about aren't starving, just greedy. The lake is NOT a supermarket, everyone would like a meal or two and not everyone can catch a limit. People that take way over the limit are hurting the lake and all who use it. Years ago, the wardens knew who needed the food and probably did look the other way.
A lot of the tickets now are just for being stupid, either miscounting, mismeasuring or not caring. I don't want a 75 dollar ticket or the points. In Illinois, 12 points and they take your license.
jc

[gabowman]

If slot limits were on the lake I fish then I'd throw that 'dead' fish back before I'd pay a $75 fine. Hate to, but that's just how it would have to be. Unfortunately, there cannot be exceptions to all the rules or there would not be many rules, just alot of exceptions I guess.

[naildriver]

Yeah, and the eagles have to eat too

[crap-king]

Personally, I think law enforcement needs a serious dose of common sense. Life is too short to chase people around because they have 2 or 3 more fish than they should. If they have 300 more fish thats another story, but even in some cases like that sometimes I think people should look the other way. I know people who really need to feed their families and if I was a conservation officer I'd be pretty easy going about stuff like that. I'm sure there are lakes and situations where overharvesting is a problem for the fishery and in those cases the rules should be followed for the sake of the lake. Just my 2 cents on the law. They all need to lighten up a bit these days.
__________________
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if we could bottle common sense and sell it we would be rich

[PieEye]

Culling in Illinois is against the law with the exception of sanctioned tournements. Now why a b%&ss fisherman can toss a dead bass back to avoid a deduction and nobody else can upgrade is beyond me. Overlimit is an overlimit. undersize is undersize. I know of no one that really depends on the days catch to eat. If thats the case... and I have seen the feezers and yes I said FREEZERS. full in Mississippi. They were plugged in to some pretty nice motor homes. Maybe they ought to be working at a job instead of fishing. Even min wage pays better than most fishing trips. I know they cost me when I go.

[slabsrus]

We often set our own personal size limit depending on what body of water we are fishing,and stick to it. If one particular lake has tons of specks in the 6 - 8 inch range then we will only keep them in that range and release any shorter or longer, plus one slab each. Slabs will also be determined by lake. Some lakes here an 11 incher will qualify as a slab whereas the next lake we might not keep a slab under 14 inches. I personally will never keep more than the legal limit and wish that other would not but I will not go out of my way to get them in trouble for doing so.

[TJ Adams]

I generally try not to keep anything under 10". and most of the time I can still limit out with over 10" crappie...Just me though... As far as keeping a fish thats dying. If he is under size and will get me a fine I'll throw him back...And yes there needs to be some common sense used by Game and Fish..But if I have a fish that is going to die thats legal I'll throw back a healthy fish and keep that one..

As far as Bass it's catch and release..Period!