Keeping short fish, temporarily

[RUGER]

Ok so I was talking to a friend, whose son is a TWRA officer.
I was talking about watching the "Old Fisherman" on youtube and he doesn't throw fish back while he is fishing a particular spot.
He fishes in South Carolina.
He feels that once you throw a couple back it shuts the bite down.

I commented that it is probably different there but I would hate to have a livewell full of short crappie, or bass for that matter, and a game warden roll up on you in TN.
He said he talked to his son and he said, "Until you leave the water they can't ticket you for short fish."
So I could have 50 short crappie in my livewell and he ain't gonna give me a ticket?
Nope. Not till you pull the boat out of the water.

I call BS on that one.
Wonder who is right?

@scn what say ye?

 

[Spurhunter]

I think the law says release immediately

 

[TNGunsmoke]

I'd say once it's in your live well, the intent to keep is there, and you'll get the ticket.

 

[TNReb]

I don't know about South Carolina, but I just asked a buddy who is a game warden in TN and he said "great way to get a ticket".

 

[Pilchard]

It was common for me to fill my livewell with short or out-of-season fish in FL. Never got a ticket and was often thanked by the wildlife officers for doing so but it was because we were fishing around dolphins. They would eat the fish as soon as they were released. So we would keep them in the well and then run over to an area without flipper and let them all go.

It probably helped that I was friends with all of the local officers as I was certainly breaking the law. But I wasn't about to feed 50 gamefish to a dolphin.

I suppose I could have fished somewhere else if the officers weren't comfortable with what I was doing....

 

[Tn Joe]

Better hope one doesn't die while in your livewell.

 

[bowhunterfanatic]

I've had officers ask to measure sauger in my livewell while I was still on the water, FWIW.

 

[TRHC]

If that's the case, seems like a creel limit wouldn't apply "until you left the water" too. Hmmmmmmm.

 

[UCStandSitter]

Never heard that thought process. The way I heard it that's called a fistful of paper

 

[WTM]

lol ask the ahole i turned in a couple of years ago on birdsong. fyi there is excellent cell service south of jville.

 

[scn]

In TN it has to be immediately released. If you are checked with an undersized fish, you are in line for a citation.

 

[RUGER]

In TN it has to be immediately released. If you are checked with an undersized fish, you are in line for a citation.

That's what I was thinking. LOL

 

[WTM]

i dont even keep borderline fish. if i have to pinch the tail fins it goes back. my luck it would shrink a half inch when it goes on ice.

 

[RUGER]

i dont even keep borderline fish. if i have to pinch the tail fins it goes back. my luck it would shrink a half inch when it goes on ice.

Same here !!
No fish is worth a ticket, there is too many more out there.

 

[WTM]

Same here !!
No fish is worth a ticket, there is too many more out there.

yeah 120 miles of water worth. i dont have that problem too often. i try to leave the smaller fish for @bluball .

 

[bluball]

yeah 120 miles of water worth. i dont have that problem too often. i try to leave the smaller fish for @bluball .

Hey i like small fillets,they make good wholefrysill stay out of birdsong so you wont turn me in to the popo

 

[Buzzard Breath]

Ask PinchPoint

https://www.tndeer.com/threads/gotta-love-fishing-the-river.283206/#post-3696247

 

[Dbllunger]

. my luck it would shrink a half inch when it goes on ice.

It's ok buddy. mine does the same.

 

[woodsman04]

I'm like that too. A crappie has to beat my ruler by about 1/8". What if my ruler is wrong!!

I don't like them borderline fish.

 

[7mm08]

Don't y'all know fish talk to one another? Hey Bob watch out for that chartreuse spinner bait!

That old timer must have dementia.

I don't keep anything even remotely short or long ( slot) . No fish is worth it.

 

[Headhunter]

I am a firm believer that if you are on a school of bass and "catching" them, they will quit hitting quicker when you release them as you catch them.

As far as searching livewells, game wardens have told me that for the time being, they have to have a search warrant to legally check your livewell unless you give them permission. Said it is the same for a 5 gallon bucket or a cooler.

 

[WTM]

fish, especially bass, can smell better than a bloodhound. they can even pick out individual fish in a school by the way they smell. when you hook one, they release pheromones, kind of like injured baitfish would. their buddies in the school can pick up on it and shut down or even scatter.

id say in a couple of more years of fish getting pinged to death with high gain livescope and we will be having to cast to them 80 feet instead of 25-30 feet like we do now. in some high pressured lakes i can even see larger lmb and smb being almost impossible to catch, seeing as how they have a 6 month memory window.

 

[Pilchard]

fish, especially bass, can smell better than a bloodhound. they can even pick out individual fish in a school by the way they smell. when you hook one, they release pheromones, kind of like injured baitfish would. their buddies in the school can pick up on it and shut down or even scatter.

id say in a couple of more years of fish getting pinged to death with high gain livescope and we will be having to cast to them 80 feet instead of 25-30 feet like we do now. in some high pressured lakes i can even see larger lmb and smb being almost impossible to catch, seeing as how they have a 6 month memory window.

I've watched tuna react negatively when the gain was turned up on my sonar.

 

[WTM]

I've watched tuna react negatively when the gain was turned up on my sonar.

yeah black crappie are particularly spooky.

i dont know how spooky rainbow trout are but some of these fish are getting spooked at 40-60 feet. a trout or salmon can feel up to 1000khz which is the frequency range of that ps30 and lvs32.

 

[BuckWild]

i dont even keep borderline fish. if i have to pinch the tail fins it goes back. my luck it would shrink a half inch when it goes on ice.

My friend was fishing at Sardis Lake with me one time and he was checked on the water and had 4 short fish. He measured every one of them and they were all legal. To quote the game warden: "It doesn't matter how long the fish is when YOU measure, it only matters when I measure it." LoL We made our on fish checkers out of aluminum flat stock and the line on them was 10.25 inches not 10 inches.

 

[RUGER]

yeah black crappie are particularly spooky.

i dont know how spooky rainbow trout are but some of these fish are getting spooked at 40-60 feet. a trout or salmon can feel up to 1000khz which is the frequency range of that ps30 and lvs32.

Makes me wonder if it is the trolling motor or the livescope that are spooking them @woodyard

 

[woodyard]

Makes me wonder if it is the trolling motor or the livescope that are spooking them @woodyard

I am not seeing them bailout at 15 ft when I have been drifting with the wind. Running livescope the whole time. They don't show much reaction till the tm is at about 12-15 ft from them, I believe the schools of bluegill might be more spookier than the crappie. Livescope might affect them. The crappie seem to dive for the bottom and hold there, the bluegill scatter like a flushed covey of quail.