Thats kind of like..."well I smoked marijuana, but I didnt inhale" -Pres. Clinton....

Once you put the fish in a cooler, basket, livewell, or on a stringer you are KEEPING the fish, regardless if you give it away or not, and it goes against your daily bag limit.

This is a great thread. I'm surprised that this is misunderstood. Always been clear to me that if you keep a fish, its part of your limit regardless of what you do with it after you keep it. I think this kind of discussion is good.

Devil's advocate here for a second. Say I have my 25 limit and continue fishing. Instead of landing the fish myself and then giving them away, I instead hand my pole to some person after the fish has been hooked and let them land and handle the fish and keep it. Would I be in violation?

Don't know how this would/could be interpreted.

Just make sure you pass your fishing pole to someone with a valid fishing license, or it might be confiscated. Now that would really suck!

I confess, during the sandie run 2 years ago, i helped my friend getting his limit. i was a total noob back then.. i also wanted to share some wisdoms that i have learned from the good people here while assisting him to get his limit.

According to the law, it sounds like i have broken the law. And i would have no issue if i get a ticket and wouldn't complain about it because that's what the law is, which i didn't know about back then. Now that i know the law, do i feel bad about it? No, Do i feel mortally wrong? No. Will i do it again, most likely. The law is law, however, my action wasn't meant to take advantage of it. At the end, he has his limit, i have my limit and it was rare opportunity for us. we all happy. i don't castnet, i don't fish without license, i don't keep undersized fish. I don't trash the place. And most of the time, i get skunked. You can criticise me if you must, but you better swear to the lord you have never done that in your life. I have absolutely no problem a person helping his son/daugher/friend/etc to reach their limit as long as it's within the limit.

In my opinion, there's no one to blame for him getting the ticket. However, if i was the warden and the fisherman didn't know well about the law, i'll simply give him a warning and give the benefit of doubt. That's just me, the way i would have handled it.

I know each of you, when you go to work you do your job to the best of your ability. That is what these Wardens are doing, try to look at it in that light. I am not getting on a soap box just trying to show a different angle to look at it from. Also, these tickets that he writes generates funds for stocking/improvements to the lakes we all fish. We all need to do our share to keep teaching others about the right & wrongs of fishing.

if you catch and keep 25 fish you cannot go give those away and catch and keep 25 more. if you gave your daily limit to a little old lady and go back, each fish you keep is putting you over your daily limit. that is the point of this entire thread.

I think I finally got the posession and bag limit thing.....

Daily bag is 25. If I go to fork for 4 days I can still only have 50 in my cooler on my way home....

Am I correct??

Guess there will be a fish fry a couple of nights!!

guys, let's see the stringer of a limit first... then worry about the law...

i don't know about you guys. i don't think i am gonna have an opportunity to break the law anyway .. I've never caught any limit for crappie... most i have caught was about 15 or 16.. that was two years ago.. i wish i have the problem we are discussing here...

You are correct, 50 in possession.

Funny how sometimes the bag limit seems confusing to some for fish, but nobody seems to have a problem understanding you can't kill 15 doves, give those away and go back and kill 15 more, and give those away and go back and kill 15 more the same day. Same for ducks, quail, ect. Also, applies to fish.

I think Huckleberry nailed it. Try and catch what you can eat, throw the rest back if you're that fortunate (or good :-)

Rules are rules.

If 25 is not enough, go to Texoma. Bag limit is 37 a day BUT still 50 in possession.

I guess by the letter of the law, I have broken it several times, in a tournament, while trying to cull a bass, I have put the 6th bass in the other livewell while I am weighing 2 smaller bass to find which was the smallest. Then, when I determined the smallest, I tossed it overboard. Oops.
Now I just need to be able to catch a limit of slabs.

Never met one who wouldn't take the time to answer anything you asked. It didn't matter if we were on the water, at the ramp, or in Whataburger either.

i got a ticket for giving away a crappie that was LEGAL SIZE!! and the person had 4 crappie a hair under 10in also 10 slabs . GW came and ask me were my bucket and told him i was out to fish for fun and ask me where my fish and i told him i gave it to the old man next to me. he wrote me up a ticket and the other man a ticket. i ask the GW how did u know if i gave him a keeper or not? he told me he seen how big it was (60yards away). i measured the fish and it was 11inches. GW say he had me on video giving the fish away and it was short i ask to see the video he say no. smh... ticket was $265 the fish was only $60 and rest was in fee

That sounds about right!!!

Was kinda wondering about that myself. I know the elites on tv catch a limit and then proceed to cull, but never heard of them getting a ticket for it. Maybe the GW's just cut some slack there if it's clear that you intend to release a fish.

Nobody knows all the laws out there. I got a ticket in the mail for making a right turn at a red light. Camera "caught" me. I looked up the video and saw that I came to a complete stop, looked around, then made a safe right turn. I called some company in Ohio that keeps up with traffic citations (that's right your fines pay for outsourcing) and, after they reviewed the tape, they said I broke the law b/c you have to be stopped for a minimum of 5 seconds before making a right turn.

Can anybody tell me they you already knew you have to stop for 5 seconds before making a right turn? I looked it up online and found something about it, but it didn't even look like an official law (although my check book felt it was official).

I think there is a letter of the law, and there is a spirit of the law. In my case with the right turn, the spirit of the law is to stop and look so that you'll be safe. The "letter" of the law is wait five seconds so that the powers that be can fine you for more than a hundred bucks when you really didn't do anything wrong.

That's why I said the game warden should have given him a warning. He was obviously at least TRYING to follow the law, so explain it to him and give him a free pass. No need to cuss at me over my opinion. It's easy to accuse someone of "bitching" when you're sittin' there at your computer. Grow up or get out, sheesh.

i know the GW got there job todo but what if they harass you? i fish 7 days a week i always have my fishing license on me. he not racist but he do pick on us hand full of fisherman that fish every time he see us. most of the time he would check me and my car out for fish some time im not fishing at all. then leaves and wont check no one else that make me mad because why only check me while theres other people fishing with no license,snagging and keeping under size fish couple feet down from me. i know i cant tell him how to do his job but man ticks me off when hes just check me and not others.

Where the heck are you guys catching all these fish?! The only fish ever in my possession are the minnows I buy from the bait shop.

I agree with snagalager, throw them back and let someone else have the pleasure making the catch. After all that is one of the reasons we go experience the water.

Aint no fish in Cresson!!!!!