Culling fish

[Salty Gator]

Another thread got me thinking about this. Lets say you go fishing and decide to keep fish this particular day. So you fish and catch 2 trout that go in the livewell. If you don't catch anymore fish, and don't want to clean only 2 fish, is it illegal to release them? I understand you are not replacing them with bigger fish, but I think the " letter" of he law comes from releasing a fish that was previously in possession. What do y'all think? This probably doesn't come up often, just curious.

[DEMON]

I think it's OK and legal. IMO the culling law is to keep you from swapping out a smaller fish for a larger fish and possibly returning a fish that might die. I've done it a couple of times (retruned a fish, not culled) when I only ended up with 1 keeper and the fish was in good shape and was able to swim off.

[SS-342]

What do y"all think?

I think the fish has 100% better chance of living released than being processed.

I've never had that problem. ALL MY FISH HAVE A 100% CHANCE OF BEING EATEN, backbone and ribs!

[leonreno]

I don't think that would be illegal, especially if you are done for the day. Now, swapping fish for new fish would be. I believe you have legally possessed those fish, and would count against your limit if you decided to fish after releasing them.

[red_yakker]

Something tells me that even if it were technically illegal, that charge would never stick in most coastal counties of the Big Bend, even if an officer was narrow minded enough to write you a citation for it.

[charlie tuna]

There is a reason for this law, any fish has a whole lot better chance at servival, if released directly after being caught. Just because a fish swims away after being held in a live well, doesn't mean it will servive. Any fish i decide to keep, goes directly into my cooler, and any fish i keep, i eat!

[Jumptrout51]

First, I would ignore Charlie Tuna's comment.
He seems to be missing the details of your question.
Secondly, I see no problem with releasing these fish as described by you.
I base this assessment on professional and semi-professional tournament fishing.
Red and trout tournaments deduct weight for dead fish.
They also release live fish after being weighed.
The only stipulation is livewell tank size,which in most cases is 40 gallons.
Third,FWC officers routinely release illegal fish from livewells.

[reelbad]

I say, If you like your fish, you can keep your fish, If you like the lure you caught your fish on. you can keep your lure you caught your fish on. That is unless the Gov't says different, which there is a good possibility that they will change the rules in the middle of the rules they already have in place. Good luck trying to figure this out.

[cotton]

I'm not a fan of laws, as they often lack common sense. Instead, I always try to do what I believe is most ethical. Usually this far exceeds what's legal. During summer time, trout placed into a live well have a much smaller chance of survival than winter time. With that in mind, judge for yourself their chance of survival. I personally don't believe what you have described would be culling and could care less. I'd release them if I wanted to.

I like to eat fish every week and take great pride in selecting just the fish I plan to take home for the week. I fish out of a kayak, so my fish go on ice. I often wait till the last hour or two to start keeping fish. This adds a little pressure and I sometimes don't reach my target number before reaching the landing. On those occasions, I seek out a family bank fishing. I've never had a problem giving them away. All the families I've given fish to were very appreciative.

[Slippy Drippy]

Considering the fact that my replacement pumps for my "new to me" boat's bait and live well just came in, our recent culling has only consisted of throwing back >15" trout prior to putting them on ice. These were all returnable fish with plenty of life to boot. If it weren't, we would just keep it. Less it were <15".....Then we would just float it out to see and tell ourselves that it really wouldn't have been that good fried or baked whole...

[Salty Gator]

Considering the fact that my replacement pumps for my "new to me" boat's bait and live well just came in, our recent culling has only consisted of throwing back >15" trout prior to putting them on ice. These were all returnable fish with plenty of life to boot. If it weren't, we would just keep it. Less it were <15".....Then we would just float it out to see and tell ourselves that it really wouldn't have been that good fried or baked whole...

That's not culling, that is catch and release.