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you have to throw it back, just last weekend i caught a bass that was bleeding very badly, It was 1/16 of an inch to shy to keep. i had to throw it back. i feel terrible but its not worth the fine
are you kidding 1/16th, doubt if you would even get questioned, being honest is a good thing, good for you.. what would you do with a bass anyway, yikes!
I'm sure the DEC executives do realize ALL of the unintended implications, such as this case, of the regs. they impose. They know this will happen to a number of fish, but the regs. do more good than harm with respect to keeping the fish population healthy. I am glad there is a 23" min. on lakers at LG, those shorts are easy to catch and the fishery would decline rapidly if the reg. was not the way it is.As long as you take as much care as possible to avoid injuring a small fish, I see no harm by you keeping that fish from a moral perspective. this should highlight the importance of being really careful with the short fish. Cutting the line at the mouth is way better than trying to remove a buried hook. I did cut the line. The hook got right into the gills of the fish, I pulled the fish in pretty much just hooked in the gills.This fish was bled out by the time I cut the line.
I understand what you guys are saying about if I put it back down the hole it wont go to waste, but if I didnt hook the fish and kill it it would still be swiming around. Well I looked at the fish dead in the holeand said I killed it, I will deal with it. I laid it on the ice in plain sight with all my stuff and fished the rest of the day. If D.E.C would have came out I would have to deal with that. I took the fish home and ate it, in my eyes I did what I thought was right.
If you believe you did the right thing than that's what matters. It sounds to me you would have rather paid a fine than to have just killed that fish. GREAT SPORTSMANSHIP. Laws always have limitations. The problem for law enforcement is trying to figure out who is truly disregarding the law and those like you who seem to be in the middle of a dilemma. It's not always that easy. Hey thanks bladebait I figured I owed it to the fish. I just cant see wasting something. If the fish died naturally than nature would have taken care of it. But it was because of me it died so I felt I must take care of the situation. If I would have gotten a fine so be it. IT was my responsibility.
Follow the "law of the land" that you're in... Simple as that. It's not like you needed it to survive. I have to do this a lot when fishing. Put it back, even if I know it's not gonna make me feel "good" about it. If the "law of the land" says, "release it, if it's not legal", then release it.Remember folks, there are those who visit this place & are not necessarily "of age" & see what you say when you type it here.It's not like hunting, where there is no "catch & release". My $.50,..... inflation & the economy made $.02 obsolete. [ & possibly me, If I don't adapt.....] If you are deer hunting and you shoot at a buck and you are sure that is the only deer around and it goes right down, and then you get over to it and it is a doe and you have no tag. what do you do then, leave it for nature to take care of. NO that animal died because of you, get it back to your house and take care of it. If you get caught you get caught but that is the chance you have to take. You did not want to kill the doe but you did,now its time to be responsible. If you kill it take care of it accident or not.
I would have kept it. I will save you a long rant but as a hunter and fisherman I feel responsible to what I kill. I would hope the very nice DEC officer would understand.
We learned the answer to this question the hard way. Couple years ago we caught a 23" pike and it was bleeding from the kills. We tried to revive it with no luck so decided to keep it, rather than waste it. As luck would have it, the CO paid us a visit on the lake that day. He asked how big the pike was and we were honest with him and explained why we kept it. He very nicely wrote us a ticket and made us put the fish back down the hole. $85 lesson learned...
How big do pike need to be in MI?