Is it illegal or is it not?

[Wiskers]

alabass, i was not over the limit as i gave them away a little at a time. I never had over the limit in my possession at any point in time.

Here in Ky. what you are discribing is illegel. If it were not, you could just have someone running a bus route taking your fish & you could catch & give away as many as you could catch. I know this for a fact & can let you talk to the guy that paid the fine for doing just what you're talking about.

The guys he gave them to were at the cleaning station & were over the limit by 2 fish when they got checked. They told the officer that "that guy in the red boat there gave us 11 of these fish". When the guy landed on the dock the officer asked if he had given the 2 other guys any fish. He said yes, 11. He counted the guys fish & he had 17. He wrote all 3 tickets.

Be careful. Even if you give the fish away it is considered part of your dayly limit.

[Slipped Cork]

Here in Ky. what you are discribing is illegel. If it were not, you could just have someone running a bus route taking your fish & you could catch & give away as many as you could catch. I know this for a fact & can let you talk to the guy that paid the fine for doing just what you're talking about.

The guys he gave them to were at the cleaning station & were over the limit by 2 fish when they got checked. They told the officer that "that guy in the red boat there gave us 11 of these fish". When the guy landed on the dock the officer asked if he had given the 2 other guys any fish. He said yes, 11. He counted the guys fish & he had 17. He wrote all 3 tickets.

Be careful. Even if you give the fish away it is considered part of your dayly limit.

Thats exactly the way I see it.

[3's]

Here in Ky. what you are discribing is illegel. If it were not, you could just have someone running a bus route taking your fish & you could catch & give away as many as you could catch. I know this for a fact & can let you talk to the guy that paid the fine for doing just what you're talking about.

The guys he gave them to were at the cleaning station & were over the limit by 2 fish when they got checked. They told the officer that "that guy in the red boat there gave us 11 of these fish". When the guy landed on the dock the officer asked if he had given the 2 other guys any fish. He said yes, 11. He counted the guys fish & he had 17. He wrote all 3 tickets.

Be careful. Even if you give the fish away it is considered part of your dayly limit.

Pretty much sums it up. You took possession of the fish then gifted it to others. Counts as part of your daily limit. big difference between catching a small fish and releasing it and giving fish away. A couple actually cases here of folks culling fish from the live well and were ticketed becasue the warden saw them land a fish, place it in the livewell and release another fish. They were checked and had a full limit in the livewell. The warden explained that if they were to continue fishing after catching a limit they should either cull fish before contunuing or catch and release for the rest of the day.

[smashdn]

Pretty much sums it up. You took possession of the fish then gifted it to others. Counts as part of your daily limit. big difference between catching a small fish and releasing it and giving fish away. A couple actually cases here of folks culling fish from the live well and were ticketed becasue the warden saw them land a fish, place it in the livewell and release another fish. They were checked and had a full limit in the livewell. The warden explained that if they were to continue fishing after catching a limit they should either cull fish before contunuing or catch and release for the rest of the day.

So you can have the livewell full (limit) and catch a fish release one form the livewell and then put the new fish in and you are still good? Sounds like someone was arguing semantics to me.

[ceb]

Pretty much sums it up. You took possession of the fish then gifted it to others. Counts as part of your daily limit. big difference between catching a small fish and releasing it and giving fish away. A couple actually cases here of folks culling fish from the live well and were ticketed becasue the warden saw them land a fish, place it in the livewell and release another fish. They were checked and had a full limit in the livewell. The warden explained that if they were to continue fishing after catching a limit they should either cull fish before contunuing or catch and release for the rest of the day.

That's a fairly subjective way of looking at it...I can understand putting another in the livewell before taking one out, meaning that you have 21 in the livewell when the limit is 20. But then again, if you are catching and releasing, then the one you're are holding in your hand should still be in your "possession".

And following those same principles, if you cull a fish out immediately before you place the one you just caught in the livewell, isn't this the same as catch and release? You've only had 20 in the livewell at any given time...

Either way, the law is the law...

[crappieseeker]

Thanks gabowman, If what i did was unlawful, then culling fish should be unlawful as well, because you caught more than your daily creel, whether you kept them or not. I just gave mine away, which as was stated was ot over the limit at any one time. Sorry if you feel I was wrongful. I dont even eat crappie and have released more crappie than most people dream of catching, however I know some people like to eat them and have a hard time catching them, so I thought i would be helpful and give a few people dinner for a night. If you feel i was wrongful I am sorry, maybe next time i should just offer to buy them a fish dinner. Actually while i was in the process of posting this i called the game and fish division and they said that unless they actually watched me do it that they could not prove that i gave any fish away, but did say it was unlawful. So I will make sure i only give away the limit, he did say however I could catch as many as I wanted as long as I returned anything i caught over the limit. Sorry if I did any wrong, but I feel my practice of mostly catch and release before was respectful.

[pstone]

As far as what you did and culling being the same thing...I don't think so.

Culled fish are set free to be caught another day, your fish went home to supper with whoever you gave them to....not quite the same.

Yeah, it's really hard to get caught giving fish away and being over the limit. That's why the outlaws around here get thier wives to meet them at the ramp, and they "give" them to them and go catch some more. Nomatter who you gave them to it's still just as over the limit as if you had of taken them all home. IMO

[bassturd]

It is illegal to keep a game fish that has been foul hooked. Least thats what the regs say.

[bayoulee]

In Missouri, any game fish given away will count as your daily limit, as well as the possession limit of the other party, and has to be on seperate stringer with name and address. Same thing in NE when we go pheasant hunting and bring them back.
As far as culling, you turn the fish loose-it goes back into the water. If my limit of ducks is 3, and I kill 12, but give away 9, that doesn't make it ethical, just because my buddy's cant hit anything that day. Kind of like some of these guys buying all their kids "Youth Deer Tags" and you got 4 year olds killing B&C bucks.
I know you probably dont do it that often, but if every one fishing that hole did it, the hole would soon be empty.

[jhef]

hey crappieseeker it is illegal to snag any fish on the tennessee river here in alabama, i think i know were you are talking about is it swan creek behind saginaw. its terrible cause wheeler cant get a break from all the big tournys to the chemical plants and now all the snaggers... as far as the rest of you jumping on seekers case cause he caught over limit, get off his ***. he hasnt kept over his limit, i can catch all the fish i want as long as I dont keep over the limit...next time you see this call gamewarden, also take pics cause the decatur daily here loves stuff like this especially when the game wardens arent checking for liscence etc...