LEGALLY?

+1.
Its that simple, they are either "in" your possession or they are "not" in your possession.

Legally? Yes you can legally weigh in multiple hours.

I'm no Game Warden but I did stay at Holiday Inn express last night.

It would be a nightmare for the TD to do a 5 then 5 more later, you would have to weigh each individual fish for everyone in the tourny. Then have to go back and pick your 5 best for the day.
Our club is having a tourney in a week and a half and what we do is...
weigh your fish @ Noon and that could be from 1-5 then go back out and catch the remainder (up to the 5th fish) if you have any open spots. If you weigh in 5 in the first weigh in, you can go home.

IMO a weigh in should be considered your final destination. If you weigh 5 that should be the same as keeping 5 wether you throw them back or not.


So on Fork during a big bass tourny I could weigh in an over every hour of the contest as long as I never have more than one in my possession at a time??

MY QUESTION TO TPWD;
Could you explain to me the laws of possession/bag limits and
culling as they pertain to bass tournaments?

TPWD ANSWER;
If you catch a limit in the morning, and the weigh-in takes place at the
shoreline (i.e., the fish are not taken away from the water) it would be
legal to release the fish and catch more later in the day. (Assuming the
fish are released alive.)

If you load them into a vehicle and take them up-shore to a stage or
picnic area or something like that? Well, then you've taken them out of
the lake and the game warden would say you had "harvested" your daily
limit.

Dyanne Fry Cortez
Inland Fisheries Division
Texas Parks and Wildlife Department

MY NEXT QUESTION;Is culling on the water legal? Say I have put 5 legal fish in my livewell, am I done or can I continue upgrading my "bag limit" with the 5 largest fish of the day?

TPWD ANSWER;
Yes, that's legal (assuming there is not a special "no culling"
regulation on that lake.) And, the aforementioned tournament weigh-in at the shoreline would be considered sort of a special case of legal culling.

We don't actually have any no-culling exceptions for black bass, but we do have some for striped bass and crappie on certain water bodies.

Dyanne Fry Cortez
Inland Fisheries Division
Texas Parks and Wildlife Department

Great job, gotta!

The laws were written before the tournys started. All laws are written to have discretion in mind. That is why we have the court system, certain circumstances may or may not be taken into consideration.

That must be ducks I am thinking about...LOL Thanks

What about delayed mortality?

so don't trailer your boat before you go to the weighin

I wish I had been at that meeting!

My last question to TPWD
The reason this is being asked is from the wording in the handbook on
p.29.

"Possession of Fish taken from Public Water
* Any fish caught must be taken by legal means and methods. Fish caught
and immediately
released are not considered to be in your possession. Any fish not
immediately released that
are retained by using any type of holding device such as stringer,
cooler, livewell, or bucket are
considered in your possession and must adhere to established protected
length and bag limits.
While fishing, it is illegal to be in possession of more fish than the
daily bag limit or fish that are
within a protected length limit."

This states that if a fish is retained in your livewell and not released immediately, it is part of your bag limit. A Game Warden told us this weekend that culling wasn't legal, but also wasn't enforced. Can this be worded differently in the upcoming handbooks?


TPWD answer
There is nothing in the regulations that prohibits culling (except those
site-specific exceptions that I mentioned in the previous message).

I see how the wording in the handbook could be interpreted in different
ways. However, we have had internal discussions in connection with
tournaments, and received the following guidance from the Colonel Game
Warden on September 27, 2006:

"While on the water, a person can continue to fish after he has caught a
daily bag limit for that species, but cannot exceed the daily bag limit
in his possession. Fish released while on the water will not be
considered part of the daily bag limit if released in a live condition.
Fish removed from the lake, river or stream is considered part of the
daily bag limit and possession limit."

And this on April 19, 1993:
"... when fishermen are actually fishing, they cannot possess more than
the daily bag limit for that particular species. If the fisherman is a
participant in a tournament where the fish are kept in live condition,
they have been weighed in and released, those fish are no longer part of
the fisherman's daily bag limit. That fisherman can then legally return
to the lake and catch another fish."

The sticky point, in a tournament situation, is where the weigh-in takes
place. If it isn't right at the water, the fish have been "removed" from
the lake or river, in which case they do get counted toward the daily
bag limit.

This IS splitting hairs to some extent. We know that bass caught in
tournaments and held for weigh-in suffer stress, and some will not
ultimately survive the ordeal. But fishing tournaments also benefit the
sport in many ways. We don't make exceptions to the law for tournaments,
but we can help clear up the details.

TPWD biologists have also been working with tournament organizers to
recommend best practices for keeping fish alive and healthy. In fact, we
had a news release about it this week:
www.tpwd.state.tx.us/newsmedia/releases/?req=20110615b



Dyanne Fry Cortez
Inland Fisheries Division
Texas Parks and Wildlife Department