yesterday i was fishing a barge on lake travis and some yahoo had put trotlines all over the place i mean like 20 of them im guessing kids did it but my question is i was there for at least 9 10 hours and no one ever came to the barge to check them well right before i left i noticed a largemouth about 7-8 lbs had picked up one of the throwlines and was laying on the surface of the water on his side dying so i revived him and let him go do you think i stepped out of my boundaries here or have any of you done the same thing before?

Any time you mess with someone elses stuff without permission is wrong. What you did is okay by me, but its still wrong. If not marked properly, you could have notified authorities.

well these trotlines were definitely not marked and the property owners assoc. has signs posted that they do not want people hanging lines off of the barge i would have never checked the trotlines except for the factt that this big fish was laying on the surface and i felt i needed to do something or he would have died for absoulutly nothing i know its not right to mess with other proples stuff. but i feel a little justified .......... just a little

No, I think you did the right thing. The wrong thing, to me, would have been to let the fish die because someone was to lazy or irresponsible to check their lines. They would have come back and threw the fish away because it was dead!

From an ethical standpoint, I have to agree with what you did and think that it is justified. UTbass is making an obvious (but good) point, and I do agree there too. I think that is understood by most who practice good ethics.

In my opinion, whoever put the lines out would have been not only been doing something unethical, but illegal. Obviously for putting them out in a restricted area and two, (if I remember correctly) there is something in the law relating to the illegality of leaving an edible fish to die without intending to eat them or use them for bait.

I always judge a scenario like this by figuring out if I'm going to be able to sleep at night and eventually being able to forget about it. If you can do both of those and are looking out for the interest of the fish and lakes, you did the right thing.

texanlegend:
KEEP IT UP.........GOOD SHOW!!!!!!!!
I do it every chance I get....plus a little more!!!

I know that they are legal but most of the people I know that set them out don't give a damn what they catch or try to find them when they disapier(jug lines)it's not right to fish that way.I wish texas would outlaw them.When I come across them and they look like the've not been checked for a while.I cut them and put them in my trash in the boat.

Deffinatly done the right thing texanlegend, law or no law, it's not worth loosing a nice 7 or 8 lb fish.

I think you were..

a) your not a game warden...you should have called one if you were that concerned

2) That dude may have wanted to keep it to eat

c) thats all I got to say!

If the barge is posted that there are to be no lines of this sort, I would have cut them all and hung them over the sign. You would have been perfectly within your legal rights since the lines were unlabled and apparently abandoned. As for releasing the fish, I would have done the exact same thing regardless of the legalities.

I think it would have been:
a) the game warden would have said "why are you wasting my time, all you had to do was turn it loose."
b)If the dude was that hungry he should have stayed with his lines.
c)Seen too many fish and alot of wildlife left to die a slow painful death from folks just like that who leave their lines out and never come back to check them.

Skyshark

a) > a)

2) > b)

c) > c)

Good job saving that bass, did you give mouth to mouth? It is illegal to keep a bass off that type of line. I would have done the same.

i have heard it was illegal to catch bass like that as well, i know if it were my lines i would be pissed that anybody would jack with em.....thats why i always look both ways before i cut up a line...lol. i do not agree with trott lines especially in overcrowded lakes. but thats just my opinion. to many people leaving lines in tell they rott away then your daughter jumps off the boat and winds up with a hook in her foot. in short i think you did the right thing, however if the were my lines i hope your vessel is seaworthy...lol

I would've taken the fish off the line, put it on my hook and acted like I was realing it in for 5 minutes, screaming and yelling, then when I noticed a bunch of people watching I would've lipped it and held it up like I had just won the Bass Masters!!!

Seriously, I probably would've done the same thing you did.

You asked the question as an ethics question, but everyone has a different set of ethics, hence all the different answers.

Just rest at ease with what you did...

Wade