After the arrest of Ben Milliken that many believe should have been no more than a ticket for no fishing license - How many of you will no longer be willing to donate a fish to the Sharelunker program? If what could be an honest mistake can result in criminal charges and a criminal record I bet many anglers in Texas are going to think twice about donating.

Buy and keep a license on your person. Challenge solved.

Well I seem to be stuck at 10.5 and doubt I will ever catch bigger but if I do I'll dump it right back where I caught it. It's a PR stunt anyway. Just stock Florida's

It could be many more things than that - such as a violation of a city ordinance on a city lake. You could go to a lake like Lake Gladewater and catch one and then find out you needed a yearly city pass to fish it and therefore it was an illegally caught fish. There are small lakes that have rules on them that many non locals do not know about.

I don't have enough information on the Milliken situation to form an opinion on what happened or what is going on with that situation to form an opinion yet. I'm gonna wait for more facts to come out. Far too much contradicting information is floating around on it to be able to really know what the truth is. I want to hear Milliken address it more in depth first and I want to hear more clear explanation of the charges from the state attorneys. Iam sure both thi gs will happen soon.

In regards to myself catching a SAL, if I I ever that lucky it will be a personal decision based on the moment and conditions such as as lake, health of fish etc. What happens in the Milliken deal probably would have little to no effect on my own decision.

The booking doesn’t change my preference to keep big bass catch locations off the internet.
….if at the most famous big bass lake in Texas…I would consider it as that lake’s surrounding businesses could probably benefit from recent big catch publicity without contributing to the negative effects of increased fishing pressure.

I’ll fillet one before donating after seeing this go down.

Well said

I won’t ever have the problem, so no need to worry about it.

It's a dangerous precedent to set if he's convicted. It would leave it open to prosecute anyone who fishes one of the big bass tournaments and accidentally brings in a slot fish or forgets to renew their license under the same statute.

Similar for me, if I'm in my Kayak or on a small lake and not sure I could get it in to survive properly then I would not hesitate to put it back, but i if I was in my Boat and close to some marina where they could hold it in a big tank then I might donate it.
Depends on the situation of when, or if, I ever catch a SAL.

Yup that's a spot on post.

never say never.

It’s the beginning to an end for monetizing bass fishing.

Same. I will obviously buy my license like I have always done, but I'm done supporting any TPWD program. They are clearly out of touch with hunters and fishermen in the State of Texas. This is just the latest in a massive list of stupid things TPWD is doing.

Unless there was something really bad going on, it seems like a publicity grab for TPWD. Kind of like the IRS would arrest a big celebrity every year to remind people they have the power....