Legal to give fish away?

[SLP]

The fact that someone gives away a fish seems irrelevant. In order to give something away don't you first have to posses it? I can't see how anyone could argue they're not breaking the law if the kept a fish over the legal limit even if they then chose to give it away or not.

[Tyme2fish]

The fact that someone gives away a fish seems irrelevant. In order to give something away don't you first have to posses it? I can't see how anyone could argue they're not breaking the law if the kept a fish over the legal limit even if they then chose to give it away or not.

Exactly what I was thinking.

For me, this is a moot point as I NEVER catch a limit. Just ask onemorecast56!!!!

[onemorecast56]

your lucky if you catch 1 tyme...lol only way you could limit out is if you count the bait

[Carter1]

Okay, I was spot on concerning giving fish away. If the fish is one that has a creel limit attached to that species, you have a limit and catch more which you give away then you are poaching. It is illegal to do this. But if you catch a rough fish species or any fish not covered by a creel limit then you may give fish to anyone you wish.

On the Cedar Creek question he said there is an implied no cull there. I personally don't care for it being implied so I asked if there is any signage which states that. It is not specified in the Fishing Guide. So, if you catch a largemouth there and decide to keep it then you may not keep another one nor may you keep a second one to let you partner claim if you are fishing with someone else. You are, however allowed to keep fishing but must immediately release all bas once unhooked.

[bassmaster]

Well. That's two different tales on the Cedar Creek bass. This guy who runs the tourneys said that the local game warden confronted him with this when he was putting tourney flyers on vehicles in the parking lot. I talked to one of the guys who fish the tourneys and he verified this(I don't fish his tourneys). I'm not sure but sounds like who you talk to and on what day you talk to them Really makes no sense that it is an implied cull. No one knows when they are fishing if they will actually cull (But when you catch the 7th fish or in the case of Cedar the second fish you are technically in possession of one fish over your limit for the time that it takes you to cull (Really crazy)). I'll pass this along to the tourney director because at the time he contacted fish and wildlife as to how to handle this and they told him that the game warden would have the final say as to whether a violation occured and warrants a ticket. For this reason and for what the warden implied, he changed his limit to one fish. Like I've said, I think most tourneys have a 5 fish rule in place so that one fisherman can catch and cull without any "gray" area.
Thanks for the info!

[R19]

It has been a few years but I did ask a game warden to explain to me how possession limit,daily limit and culling works. If you are fishing for bass with a 6 fish daily limit you must stop fishing when you have possession of 6 fish. You can cull but that only applies when you have 5 in the livewell then you catch number 6,stop fishing and cull back to 5. That is the only legal way you can cull and then continue to fish. A person is breaking the law if they catch 6 fish and continue to fish.

Therefore when fishing Cedar Creek it would technically be against the law to cull. They have a 1 bass over 20" limit. When you catch the 1 you must stop fishing. If you want to continue fishing you must throw back your one fish...so I suppose you could cull back to 0.

On the possession deal if 2 people are in a boat bass fishing an individual is allowed 6 bass and a total of 12 between the 2 people. If you catch 8 and your partner catches 4 the person with 8 fish is breaking the law even though they are allowed 12 combined. The warden I spoke with actually wrote a ticket for this scenario just a few days before I asked about it. He pulled up to check a boat and they openly told him they had 7 keepers. He checked their license and livewell and all fish were over 12". Everything was going good until one guy spoke up and said my partner is wearing my butt out I have not caught a fish all morning. The person who caught the fish owned up to it and that slip of the tounge cost his buddy a ticket.

[roadrunner]

your lucky if you catch 1 tyme...lol only way you could limit out is if you count the bait

I thought we made Tyme's limit one--- last year????

[Paddywacker]

There is both a daily limit and possession limit. The possession limit is double the daily limit on most all species listed with the exception of striped bass that is 5 daily and 5 possession. Does the possession limit mean literally what it says, that, say, I catch a limit of 30 crappie today, go home clean and freeze, then tomorrow catch another limit of 30 clean and freeze, now I have 60 in my "possession" , so can I not keep any more crappie until I remove some of what I have in my possession?

[Olgrey]

This is a good thread with good questions. I used to be a state government worker and had to help enforce the laws of the commonwealth. It was not fish and game laws, but something that was in an area that was probably even harder for the average person to understand the law and more grey than fish and game laws. In my opinion, the best idea is not to push too hard in what might be a grey area. A lot of the time an individual was given the benefit of the doubt if something ocurred once, but not if it could be determined that they routinely broke state statutes. You are much better off to try to obey the rules, be polite if not friendly when checked, and do not be verbally abusive. The officer might be giving you a break without telling you about it, but if you give him grief the break will fly away. JMO

[killroy1221]

If you give a fish away, you have caught and kept your limit. You can't kill deer and give them away over your limit and it is the same with other game species.

I have never heard of someone getting a ticket for fishing after a limit had been caught. I usually leave one out just in case I catch that monster, but there have been quite a few times when people I know have caught a limit of two different species using the same tactics. I do not believe a game warden can write a ticket for releasing fish that go over the limit. It is quite possible to catch a limit of white bass and then start catching crappie. You can also catch a limit of five hybrid over fifteen inches but not have the limit of fifteen total. So, technically, you can have a limit of a fish without having a limit of a fish.

Now, that being said, I was recently reading a muskie forum topic about size limit changes on fish up north. the limit was changed to something like 54 inches. The argument was whether or not taking the time to take a picture of a 50 inch fish was considered holding that fish in your posession. Some, who had consulted wardens, said the wardens responded by saying that they would write a ticket to anyone who took pictures of the fish out of the water and their definition of releasing the fish was a water release. A water release can be required for some fish like sturgeon but this was not specified for muskie. Because it is not specified for one species and specified for another, is it implied? Would this hold up if taken to court? probably not. Others responded by saying the wardens they had consulted did not care as long as the fish was released in a timely manner. So, if fishing after a limit is a concern, use a water release. You never have the fish in your possesion.

On the other hand. Taking a short bass out of the water to take the hook out would then be counted as having the fish in your possession and therefore illegal (if fishing over a limit were illegal) and no fish that is not eyeballed correctly is illegal.

I almost had this problem today (I couldn't quite catch that fifth hybrid) and asked the experienced angler next to me if fishing after a limit was illegal and his response was "h*** no." I'll leave it at that.

[crappiepappy]

Does the possession limit mean literally what it says, that, say, I catch a limit of 30 crappie today, go home clean and freeze, then tomorrow catch another limit of 30 clean and freeze, now I have 60 in my "possession" , so can I not keep any more crappie until I remove some of what I have in my possession?

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".

Even the Ky Fishing & Boating Guide states : "A possession limit is two times the daily creel limit for all fish species with a daily creel limit and excludes processed fish". Which, to me, says that once the fish are processed (ie "cleaned"), they no longer count against your Possession Limit. I'm sure this was written to refer to those fish that are caught & taken to your primary residence (home). But, I'm wondering if it would also include those fish that are caught & cleaned while you are camped/lodged away from your primary residence (home) ?? It would seem so, since there's no explicit reference to "where" these fish are kept ... just that a "processed" fish does not count against your possession limit.

I think KDFWR should expand their explanation of the possession limit definition, so as to remove any grey area concerning that definition, and remove any doubts about what is legal and what is not. The little Q&A box on pg 5 of the Ky Fishing & Boating Guide, while it does help define the difference between a daily limit & a possession limit, still leaves the "where" question up to the laymans interpretation. Defining where the possession limit is limited to, or if it is limited to any particular place or scenario, would put all the CO's and the angling public on the same page. If it's worded so as to not leave any doubts about where a possession limit rule refers to, then a violator of that rule would not have a case against any misunderstanding/misrepresentation of that rule. And the rest of us law abiding anglers would have no reason to doubt our interpretation of the rule, seeing as how it would be explained, totally, in black & white terms.

... pappy

[Dave Stewart]

Bottom line here is what defines "possession". This is not defined in the Kentucky Fishing Regs and certainly it needs to be. Right now it comes down to which ever enforcement officer is making the decision....this is what is leading to all the confusion. All it would take to clear this up is a statement in the fishing regulations. I have emailed KDFWR before with this same question and have not gotten any response....that only tells me that no one there really knows so easier to not answer the question than to answer it. The reason I emailed them was that I have been getting a lot of people emailing me wanting to know that if they are fishing with an Alabama rig and have 5 bass in the box and they catch a double are they breaking the law? I would like to have the answer in writing and not on the phone...I said, she said does not stand up in court...but an answer in writing does... Again, does possession mean when you put a fish in the boat or does it mean when you put it in the livewell or cooler??? If any of you are going to the home town meetings this year....ask the question there....maybe if enough people ask the question there and ask that this be defined in the published regs next season it will finally happen...until then, it is just a matter of opinion and the only opinion that counts is the officer that is checking you.