Culling Fish From Livewell

[Northlander]

Northlander,

Re read the post the question is not if it is ethical is it legal, everyone has their opinion on the ethics of the subject, I just am wondering if it is legal.

Sorry. I thought your question had been answered or they pointed you to the regs wich you can also find online.

I gave you my opinion and you can take it for what its worth. However if you are of my opinion you never have to worry about the culling laws do you?

[Skeeter2000T]

I just am wondering o how tourneys can do it because tournament rules cant supercede state rules.

[rugbymn]

Once you take a fish into your possession, you established intent to possess if not immediately released....no matter if it is in the livewell, stinger, pail, cooler, back pocket...ect, it is yours...no upgrading/culling.

Here's a ripple:

Say you're out and catch 2 nice crappies to start the day and throw them in the live well. Then the bite dies off. Two hours later, you're packing up ready to head home because you have to change the tires on your wife's lawnmower or something and both fish are alive and well in the livewell, so you decide to release them instead of clean them.

They were reduced to possession, but you were no where near your limit. Illegal? Unethical? Delayed catch and release? Lazy?

[LightningBG]

IMO - it would be fine to let them go. If they are in good condition, I feel its ethical. BUT, they should still be counted in your daily limit.

[RiverFish]

This is taken from a previous thread(March 2009), it is a response from a DNR officer. Thanks dtro for finding this information.

"Well then, let's muddy this up some more

Just emailed to me:

Hello,

Let me use walleye as the example.

The limit is 6 fish. If you only have 4 in a live well you could

cull.

But if you have 5 already and catch the 6 fish. you could not cull

because you have your limit.

James Abernathy

DNR Information Consultant

500 Lafayette Rd Box 40

St Paul Mn 55155

651-296-6157

1-888-646-6367"

[Skeeter2000T]

That makes sense

[Shack]

I just am wondering o how tourneys can do it because tournament rules cant supercede state rules.

Actual culling during the tournament I would assume would come down to approval from the MN DNR & the tournament board/organizers. Technically the act of putting a fish in the livewell and letting it go, like in a live weigh-in, release type tournament is subject to below:

Via the permit the tournament board/staff applied for and was approved with through the MN DNR. I would assume culling would be legal in a tournaments as long as it states it in the permit. The organizers of the tournament will add in special requirements (I am not sure if the DNR requires these) like chemicals added in the live well water & other stuff like size of live well.

Here is some info from the DNR website:

Quote:

The DNR may include the following restrictions as part of a fishing contest permit:

* Restrictions on live-release or off-site weigh-ins, or denial of live-release or off-site weigh-ins to prevent undue loss of fish;

* Restrictions on hours that a fishing contest is conducted including specified start and stop times;

* Limits on pre-fishing and proof that such limits were communicated to contest participants and enforced; and

* Limits on the use of parking spaces at state-owned public water access sites and proof that such limits were communicated to the participants and enforced.

This is from the application for the tournament permit:

Quote:

Will this tournament include live release provisions (circle) ? For which species? Yes No

[rmb]

imho, tournaments are one thing but for the average joe, why would you cull. i think that no matter how good your livewell setup is, the longer a fish is in there the more likely it will die later on if released. so man up make a decision when you boat it (or pull it through the ice) and if it's a keeper at that time then it's a keeper later on. it's not like that extra 2 inches of fish you gain by culling is the difference between eating well and starving. obviously in a tourney where total size is the name of the game then by all means, in my opinion for the general rec fisherman that is out to have a good day and maybe end up with a nice meal take it or leave it immediately and don't think twice about it later. just my two cents. good fishing everybody :-)

[matthothand]

Ed carlson you are incorrect. As stated above courtesy of a Mr. Abernathy representing the MNDNR this is a simple issue. Whether a person is fishing competitively or not holds no relevance. If a tournament is small enough no permit is necessary. You're essentially just a bunch of people fishing with no special rules. Hopefully everyone understands this rule now. It just bugs me when people incorrectly quote or interpret the regulations. If you aren't sure what you're talking about there's no shame in just saying it up front.

[united jigsticker]

Good advice guys.

There's a lot of what if's.

Ethics are personal opinion.

Don't push them on someone else as fact or make them feel inferior because they don't have th same beliefs as you.

The laws were set based on reasonable ethics averaged from extremes from both sides of the fence.

If my ethics say you shouldn't ever keep fish, is there any way I could persuade you to agree with me?

[BrdHunter01]

Here's a ripple:

Say you're out and catch 2 nice crappies to start the day and throw them in the live well. Then the bite dies off. Two hours later, you're packing up ready to head home because you have to change the tires on your wife's lawnmower or something and both fish are alive and well in the livewell, so you decide to release them instead of clean them.

They were reduced to possession, but you were no where near your limit. Illegal? Unethical? Delayed catch and release? Lazy?

Last winter I was getting ready to leave, Only had 1 nice crappie I caught right away. I was by myself and as I was packing up the DNR pulls up. The fish I had caught about 30 mins earler was struggling in the hole as I was packing up. The CO asked me if that was all I caught. I said, yep caught him about a half hour ago and never got anything big enough to keep after that so I am letting him go if he makes it. The CO never said anything about it being illegal. Needless to say the fish didn't make it down the hole so he came home w me and I cleaned 1 fish...