Legal to give fish away?

[artcarney_agr]

As I understand it, in KY you can have as many Crappie as your freezer can hold (provided you caught them legally and no more than a "creel limit" per day fished). Possession limit is defined as fish in possession "while afield, after 2 or more days of fishing".

Correct. Processed fish at your primary residence are no longer included in your possession limit.

If you are camping, and have processed your fish, they are still included in your possession limit until you get them home. Same goes for any temporary residence like a fishing lodge or resort, or like a cabin at Moors. Those guys that go on a week's vacation at Ky Lake and take home more than two limits of crappie are in violation........if they were to get pulled over on the way home, it would be quite expensive!

[SLP]

Interesting because it is no uncommon to hear people talking about the large amounts of fish they brought home from a fishing trip.

[Les Young]

Whenever fishing for something that has a creel limit it doesn't matter if you give fish away or not it is still your fish. You caught it & you gave it away so your the one that's going to pay the fine. I've saw people that have caught their limit of Crappie & call their wife to come & get them so they could keep fishing. That is highly illegal & if caught they should pay the fine. Sometimes they don't like it when I tell them that, but oh well. lol Some fisherman simply don't understand what a daily limit is especially when it comes to Crappie. No I'm not a Crappie fisherman so I'm not b*tching about it from that point of view, but a limit is still a limit & if you break it intentially you should be caught & fined dearly in my opinion. That's why limits are established to protect from over harvest.

[RoadToad]

Correct. Processed fish at your primary residence are no longer included in your possession limit.

If you are camping, and have processed your fish, they are still included in your possession limit until you get them home. Same goes for any temporary residence like a fishing lodge or resort, or like a cabin at Moors. Those guys that go on a week's vacation at Ky Lake and take home more than two limits of crappie are in violation........if they were to get pulled over on the way home, it would be quite expensive!

I have always believed that to be true, but the Fishing Guide makes no distinction on where you are, it simply says that processed fish are not included in the possession limit, period. "A possession limit is two times the daily creel limit for all fish species with a daily creel limit and excludes processed fish."

http://fw.ky.gov/pdf/2012fishguideregs.pdf Page 2

If one of those fisherman were ever cited, I would hope he would show up in court with a copy of that guide in hand.

[stripernut]

have to agree with road toad on that one....it doesnt say anything about posession limit being confined to your home adress.

think about it this way....when i clean stripers at the fish cleaning station at jtown i never leave the fillets in their "whole" state. i always trim the red meat, cut the fillets into steaks or fish stick size pieces. by the time i get to the top of the stairs there is really no way to tell how many fish are actually in the bag (and no there are NEVER more than the legal limit) . im sure the same could be argued with other fish in some circumstances.

carter solved the giving fish away to other people question with definitive proof from the kdfwr major.

but there is some iterpretation room on this posession limit thing....like somebody else said just dont keep over your daily creel or posession limit and you will be fine, and hes correct , BUT i am not driving to KY/BARKLEY to fish for a week and throw back everything i catch after the first 2 days....aint happenin. ummmm....if i ever catch a limit that is

[Duayne]

I'm pretty sure that the possession limit is only in affect while in the field (ie: camping). And I'm also pretty sure you are not suppose to process more than you eat in the field until you are preparing to leave the field. I fully agree that the field is also a very gray area. I have a place on Cumberland. I own it, it's mine. Could it still be considered a camp site? I can see the argument there.. I doubt very seriously that the CO possesion unit squad will plan a night raid and bust on my place to check my possession limit. Ha!

[stripernut]

I'm pretty sure that the possession limit is only in affect while in the field (ie: camping). And I'm also pretty sure you are not suppose to process more than you eat in the field until you are preparing to leave the field. I fully agree that the field is also a very gray area. I have a place on Cumberland. I own it, it's mine. Could it still be considered a camp site? I can see the argument there.. I doubt very seriously that the CO possesion unit squad will plan a night raid and bust on my place to check my possession limit. Ha!

my point exactly duayne. i have friends that LIVE...not stay , but LIVE on their houseboats....they are in the field so to speak. of course the difference being they dont need to freeze/ store fish.....the fish store is right off the back of the boat lol and once again the local CO has enough common sense to realize this is a special circumstance.

[artcarney_agr]

my point exactly duayne. i have friends that LIVE...not stay , but LIVE on their houseboats....they are in the field so to speak. of course the difference being they dont need to freeze/ store fish.....the fish store is right off the back of the boat lol and once again the local CO has enough common sense to realize this is a special circumstance.

That brings up another issue - you can't LIVE on a houseboat on a Corps. of Engineers Lake. I assume they are on a TVA lake?

[stripernut]

That brings up another issue - you can't LIVE on a houseboat on a Corps. of Engineers Lake. I assume they are on a TVA lake?

it doesnt bring up any issue at al all.............where they live is none of my concern and i mind my own business

[bassmaster]

it doesnt bring up any issue at al all.............where they live is none of my concern and i mind my own business

Some people don't though but I agree Stripernut....wow.

[Dave Stewart]

X2 on what ESOX2009 said.....
i'm imagining that the "clarification" would all but "clarify", more likely it would include laguage like;

an angler is considered to be in posession of a fish when he reaches the point of intent to keep, notwithstanding the intent to revive or retrieve the lure or hook

and most of us would say "HUH" ?!

lawmakers must get paid by the word....

im going to suppose the final say will continue to be left up to the CO handling the situation.....thank goodness we have some pretty reasonable COs around cumberland who seem to have a pretty strong background in the outdoors and alot of common sense.

Then again...the word possession could be clarified to say that a fish is in possession if not released immediately after it has been caught and removed from the hook. There would be no question then and no one would be at the mercy of someone's opinion. I certainly agree most CO's use common sense....they are also subject to being wrong just like any other human being....and so are judges, especially when the law is not clear. Like I said before, obviously the reason no one has answered my email is that no one knows for sure because the law is not clarified.

[Paddywacker]

Here's some more food for thought: You catch a fish, possessing him, then release the fish, then, by chance , catch the same fish again, would the fish be considered "repossessed"?! HA!