Legal to give fish away?

[Jared Harmon]

I assume your talking about striper fishing Peter. Here is what I learned the hard way. Your limit alone is 2 fish. If you put 2 fish in your cooler you are legally supposed to quit striper fishing. It is illegal to give an extra fish to someone else. You have your possession limit when you boat your second keeper. If you continue fishing or net another striper while you have your limit you go over your possession limit and can be ticketed. I have found the only way you can legally release fish is to per say put 1 n the cooler and release until you want to keep your second fish, then stop striper fishing. There is a huge grey area with each individual officer and if you find one in a bad mood he is going to right you for something regardless. As far as catching your daily limit and going to the dock and cleaning and coming back out...it is illegal as well. The first fish you net coming back out you go over your daily possession limit. Many many guys do it, I see it done everyday. I see lots of guides coming in with their limits as well which is also illegal on a paid trip. We aren't allowed to let customers keep 2 extra fish for our limit. We can catch the 2 fish ourselves and then bag and tag the fillets and give to customers. I will only release striper November thru April and then I will not because of the mortality rate on the fish. If I have 4 customers and we have 7 fish n the cooler I will pull all lines but 1 anymore, just not worth the chance of getting ticketed. Some won't, some will. Only way I have found to catch and release legally is to get one fish from our limit and let the customer tell me when he wants to quit and keep his last fish. Then by ky law we are to stop striper fishing. Sometimes if we limited very fast most guys think it's a drag race to see who's first to the dock but I have gotten to where I enjoy spending time with my customers. Some days we'll go bottom fish for cats. Pitch some jigs for smallies, or anything we can to spend some time on the water to keep people happy and coming back. Some people like to bang em out quick. Some absolutely hate to.go to the dock in 45 minutes after they've drove 4,5,6 or 7 hours down here and spent over a grand to come fish with us on the trip, gas, room and board, food etc. Sometimes they wanna spend time out there. But the facts I have stated are simply what I have learned myself directly from the law enforcement division. Like someone else stated it really does boil down to the individual officer that stops you and what kind of mood he's in at that time. Some of em are very easy going guys and some of em anytime they see a fisherman they're going to stop and ya and find something to right you a ticket for.

[GeoFisher]

I assume your talking about striper fishing Peter. Here is what I learned the hard way. Your limit alone is 2 fish. If you put 2 fish in your cooler you are legally supposed to quit striper fishing. It is illegal to give an extra fish to someone else. You have your possession limit when you boat your second keeper. If you continue fishing or net another striper while you have your limit you go over your possession limit and can be ticketed. I have found the only way you can legally release fish is to per say put 1 n the cooler and release until you want to keep your second fish, then stop striper fishing. There is a huge grey area with each individual officer and if you find one in a bad mood he is going to right you for something regardless. As far as catching your daily limit and going to the dock and cleaning and coming back out...it is illegal as well. The first fish you net coming back out you go over your daily possession limit. Many many guys do it, I see it done everyday. I see lots of guides coming in with their limits as well which is also illegal on a paid trip. We aren't allowed to let customers keep 2 extra fish for our limit. We can catch the 2 fish ourselves and then bag and tag the fillets and give to customers. I will only release striper November thru April and then I will not because of the mortality rate on the fish. If I have 4 customers and we have 7 fish n the cooler I will pull all lines but 1 anymore, just not worth the chance of getting ticketed. Some won't, some will. Only way I have found to catch and release legally is to get one fish from our limit and let the customer tell me when he wants to quit and keep his last fish. Then by ky law we are to stop striper fishing. Sometimes if we limited very fast most guys think it's a drag race to see who's first to the dock but I have gotten to where I enjoy spending time with my customers. Some days we'll go bottom fish for cats. Pitch some jigs for smallies, or anything we can to spend some time on the water to keep people happy and coming back. Some people like to bang em out quick. Some absolutely hate to.go to the dock in 45 minutes after they've drove 4,5,6 or 7 hours down here and spent over a grand to come fish with us on the trip, gas, room and board, food etc. Sometimes they wanna spend time out there. But the facts I have stated are simply what I have learned myself directly from the law enforcement division. Like someone else stated it really does boil down to the individual officer that stops you and what kind of mood he's in at that time. Some of em are very easy going guys and some of em anytime they see a fisherman they're going to stop and ya and find something to right you a ticket for.

I wonder if this is lake specific like lake cumberland, etc, etc.

I know fish mortality with striper may lead to different rules, but I didn't ever think or READ that the rules meant, once you had your possession limit, you were done fishing for the day. I know if it is written that way, that certainly is not the spirit of the law.

I personally think that if I got a ticket that way, I'd fight it in court........unless the wording was very , very CLEAR as to what possession and limits were, and if there were specific and targeted rules for a particular lake.

Later,

Geo.

[nitro929]

[QUOTE=Jared Harmon;554789]I assume your talking about striper fishing Peter. Here is what I learned the hard way. Your limit alone is 2 fish. If you put 2 fish in your cooler you are legally supposed to quit striper fishing. It is illegal to give an extra fish to someone else. You have your possession limit when you boat your second keeper. If you continue fishing or net another striper while you have your limit you go over your possession limit and can be ticketed. I have found the only way you can legally release fish is to per say put 1 n the cooler and release until you want to keep your second fish, then stop striper fishing. There is a huge grey area with each individual officer and if you find one in a bad mood he is going to right you for something regardless. As far as catching your daily limit and going to the dock and cleaning and coming back out...it is illegal as well. The first fish you net coming back out you go over your daily possession limit. Many many guys do it, I see it done everyday. I see lots of guides coming in with their limits as well which is also illegal on a paid trip. We aren't allowed to let customers keep 2 extra fish for our limit. We can catch the 2 fish ourselves and then bag and tag the fillets and give to customers. I will only release striper November thru April and then I will not because of the mortality rate on the fish. If I have 4 customers and we have 7 fish n the cooler I will pull all lines but 1 anymore, just not worth the chance of getting ticketed. Some won't, some will. Only way I have found to catch and release legally is to get one fish from our limit and let the customer tell me when he wants to quit and keep his last fish. Then by ky law we are to stop striper fishing. Sometimes if we limited very fast most guys think it's a drag race to see who's first to the dock but I have gotten to where I enjoy spending time with my customers. Some days we'll go bottom fish for cats. Pitch some jigs for smallies, or anything we can to spend some time on the water to keep people happy and coming back. Some people like to bang em out quick. Some absolutely hate to.go to the dock in 45 minutes after they've drove 4,5,6 or 7 hours down here and spent over a grand to come fish with us on the trip, gas, room and board, food etc. Sometimes they wanna spend time out there. But the facts I have stated are simply what I have learned myself directly from the law enforcement division. Like someone else stated it really does boil down to the individual officer that stops you and what kind of mood he's in at that time. Some of em are very easy going guys and some of em anytime they see a fisherman they're going to stop and ya and find something to right you a ticket for.[/QUOTE

I like your way of thinking, if you pay for a 8 hour trip and only stay out for an hour doesn't go over well . Big thumbs up .

[Carter1]

Tim, this goes back to the point that we are allowed to cull. I would let the CO write me the citation if he thought he was right then the next business day I would be in KDFWR office with that citation and a complaint. He (CO) is wrong. If he had his way he could write citations at almost every tournament whether it be us weekend anglers or the pros. So I would definitely challenge it.

[Carter1]

I am sending an email to the Major at KDFWR for clarification on this topic. I will post when I get his reply.

[stripernut]

a very long time ago this came up with a group that had chartered multiple boats for a striper trip. 2 of the boats were really on 'em , on em to the point they limited out in 30 minutes. the customers on their boat while quite tickled they did so well were dissapointed they had driven all the way from detroit to fish for 30 minutes and spend the rest of the day in the cabins at j-town resort marina. the other boats in the group didnt limit out on the first day and the question was asked by a customer to the CO standing on the dock if it would be okay if when they caught their limit the second morning if they could drive to the other boat and split the fish up and continue to fish. the answer was a "absolutely not".
the next morning the CO was not only on the dock when the trip departed but he was very "visible" throughout the day (this particular CO is a helluva nice guy too ).
im kinda thinkin like CARTER on this one....no creel limit = no foul. if it is a species that has a state creel ehhhh ??????

[Duayne]

^^^ I'm voting this is the correct answer. It's one thing to catch and release. Placing a fish in a box or livewell is intent to keep. Handing a fish over to another boat, also, is intent to keep and the person that caught the fish is initially responsible for the fish's fate. Now, if you could release the fish and "guide" it over to the other boat? THAT'S a gray area.. LOL

[stripernut]

ok lets go one step further down the road of gray areas....
creel limits are set on a "per day basis" ....
if you start fishing at 7pm does your "creel limit" reset to zero at 1201am that same night?
year before last when the night bite for walleye was so good we just hated leaving when we caught our limit, which was usually pretty quick at that time. but we did leave, night after night. one evening when we were launching the local CO drove down to the ramp and chatted with us and i asked him the same question and he said it was the gray area from heck. he said he wouldnt have ay problem at all if we loaded the boat on the trailer , left and came back WITHOUT FISH after midnight .

im satisfied with his answer but curious as to what the black and white rule is, not the gray one.

[peter]

My guess the regulation says "per day" not per 24 hours. The day starts after midnight.

[MagikSmallie]

ok lets go one step further down the road of gray areas....
creel limits are set on a "per day basis" ....
if you start fishing at 7pm does your "creel limit" reset to zero at 1201am that same night?
year before last when the night bite for walleye was so good we just hated leaving when we caught our limit, which was usually pretty quick at that time. but we did leave, night after night. one evening when we were launching the local CO drove down to the ramp and chatted with us and i asked him the same question and he said it was the gray area from heck. he said he wouldnt have ay problem at all if we loaded the boat on the trailer , left and came back WITHOUT FISH after midnight .

im satisfied with his answer but curious as to what the black and white rule is, not the gray one.

I know in Alaska they have special guided trips for Halibut that start at night so you can get a limit for one day, the trip lasts until the morning and once it hits midnight its a new day and you can keep another limit.

[peter]

If you have a limit of fish, lets say bass, in your boat and a CO pulls up just as you catch another one that is not a problem. You are allowed to cull in this state. So, you compare the fish you just caught to the smallest one in your livewell and then release the smallest one. We do it all the time in tournaments. (Well, I always hope I can ) Anyway, you would not get a citation for that. When it comes to giving fish away that is different. Lets look at catfish for a moment. If you look under statewide regulations in the Fishing Guide you will see catfish is not listed. So, if you catch a catfish and see a family nearby trying to catch anything that will bite and want to give it to them I don't see a problem with that. The exception is on bodies of water where they have a creel limit for catfish like at the Game Farm Lakes. On the otherhand, if you catch a bass and already have a limit but give that bass to someone else I believe that is considered poaching. If you catch a limit of any species listed that has a daily limit and you keep them that day you cannot go out and catch another limit to "keep" the same day. You may however go out and keep fishing for them as long as you release them. Most of this is my take on the regs as I read them. If you want a more definite answer on any of it post your question in a new thread so I can make a list of the questions to get the facts for you.

The question of culling came up at dinner tonight. I remembered there was a detailed thread on this and other related items. The question of culling seems to be answered plainly in the first paragraph of the current fishing regs. Also "daily" is defined. Also fishing after limit is reached is addressed.


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STATEWIDE REGULATIONS
Some waterbodies have different size and creel limits, please refer to the “Special Fishing Regulations” section for more details. Fish not included in this list are considered rough fish. There are no size or creel limits for rough fish, unless special regulations apply. For daily creel and fishing license purposes, one fishing day equals one calendar day. Except for trout, anglers may cull fish of a particular species until reaching the daily creel limit. Any additional fish caught in excess of the daily creel limit must be released immediately.

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So if you want to cull you must have one less fish in the boat than the daily creel limit when you bring the next fish in the boat.

Any body read that differently?

[R19]

Except for trout, anglers may cull fish of a particular species until reaching the daily creel limit. Any additional fish caught in excess of the daily creel limit must be released immediately.

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So if you want to cull you must have one less fish in the boat than the daily creel limit when you bring the next fish in the boat.

Any body read that differently?

Yes I do read it differently and it does no go along with how it was explained to me by a game warden.

I interpret that as you can continue to fish with 6 bass in your daily creel limit. If you catch another bass it must be released immediately. If you have 7 (which I thought was illegal) you must cull back to the limit. This is not how I thought the law worked.

Go back to post 24 and read about the question I ask a game warden one day while getting a random check. I ask him to explain daily limit, possession limit and how culling works. This was several years ago but I was told you must stop when you reached your daily limit of 6 bass but it was legal to cull back to 5 and continue fishing...read post 24

Culling until you reach the daily limit would mean you are over the daily limit and are culling back to the limit. I know you quoted this from the KDFW site because I looked at it myself. It just does not sound correct. If I were going to continue to fish after I had my daily limit and cull back to my daily limit once I caught another fish then I would want to have in possession the writing that explains this is legal. I would not want to take the chance but that's just me.