Legal to give fish away?

[Jared Harmon]

Thanks Jared. Too bad the regulations can't be written better. It is very hard to write regs though and because of that it is very hard to interpret what the reg says.

For example in the species chart list below the listings there are notations on what the ** mean.

*** means species possession limit is twice daily creel limit. However brown trout is the only one I see with three ***

Down the page it says all species possession limit is twice daily creel for all species with a daily creel limit.

If you look at that species chart closely walleye and sauger could count against your smallmouth and largemouth limit. I know that is not the intent but it could be interpreted that way. The black bass heading is difficult at best to see what it refers to. Is a coosa bass a black bass.

I guess one could spend a many hours looking at all the krs fishing laws and determining how the fishing regs relate to them. How the regs can't differ from krs if specifically mentioned in krs.
On and on. Only the judge can decide and only the lawyer can argue.

Fish and wildlife rules and regs aren't very specified about a lot of things to do with fishing and hunting, hence the "grey area". There are things we could all talk about for years. When the big "under cover" investigation was done on Cumberland guides (that I'm sure many don't even know about) I personally sat down with the commissioner, county attorneys, head of law enforcement division, individual c.o.'s and many more togethor, individually and so on many times asking some of the same questions that have been asked in this thread. Most could not clearly answer even half of my questions fully. Each would tell you something, some would tell you the exact opposite of what their direct boss said, some would plainly state the "grey area" speech, some would tell me they honestly didn't know and couldn't answer my question. I asked the same 5 or 6 questions to 7 or 8 and really never got the same answer. The one thing that really shocked me was in was told blatantly from a very high ranking f & w official that "guides" have a whole different set of rules and regs than the weekend fisherman yet the kdfwr could not and has not ever supplied or made a separate reg book for commercial guides. Well how do we know what our "different" rules are if we don't have them on paper? How can this c.o. ticket me for this of its not a regulation in the book? Believe me, some will argue this, some won't understand but I spent time with many of these direct issues in a lawyers office and meetings with fish and wildlife over a period of about a year. If they wanna write you a ticket, they're going to write you a ticket, period. I try hard to obide by all rules and regs and general common sense applications of our fish and wildlife provide. The best thing I have found to do is, if you are in question...don't do it. If you think it could be wrong...don't do it. 9 times outta 10, you'll be fine.

[stripernut1]

Haha...jared nailed it! If it smells "fishy" to you....imagine what its going to smell like to the game warden!!

[fishindude]

Jared, I agree. If it seems questionable at all, don't do it. I had a warden tell a friend of mine that your limit is per "calendar" day. Which he interpreted as the calendar day changes at midnight. The warden said if he took pictures of his stripers and had two before midnight and two after, he would be okay. I wouldn't touch that with a 10 foot pole! That sounds fishy to me!! By the way, another warden told him it was 24 hour period from when you begin fishing. 2 different interpretations of the regulation.

[stripernut1]

That is a very GRAY area for sure. I was told (face to face standing on the dock cleaning fish) "if you go out the evening of eg. April 28th and catch a limit of stripers between 5-6 pm , you are perfectly legal to go back out the morning of April 29th and resume fishing with a creel count reset to zero.

However, if you go out tonight at 11pm and I check you at 1am ( after the calendar date has changed at midnight) and you have 6 stripers in the boat for 2 people you would have exceeded the daily creel limit and be in violation. He explained his understanding is there must be a break in that trip at the change of calendar day to reset your creel count, therefore that is how he would govern and enforce that creel law.
and guess what, he and the other game wardens on lake cumberland are who I will be interacting with....so if they say thats the way it is????? .....then by golly thats the way it is

[Duayne]

With regard to continuing to fish for stripers after a limit is reaches, and the culling rules, I think there is a major distinction here between how the fish are kept in the boat. Certainly, most stripers go into a cooler. I remember the guys that "tried" to keep the stripers alive in the tuna tubes. I'd say that is the only way you are going to legally be allowed to cull stripers. If the fish are on ice, it's a done deal. And from what I remember, those tubes failed miserably so please don't go out and buy or make a tube just so you can cull stripers.. LOL

[nitro929]

I stop fishing for stripers when I get my limit and will continue to fish for walleye. But I guess since it is dark the stripers can't tell it's a walleye bait.