I have two weeks off and I am planning on spending it on the water fishing ;) I will be pulling lures or chunk dunking in Maine, New Hampshire, and Mass, all from my boat. My boat is registered in Maine, and kept in a slip at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard (which is considered Maine). What is the legal read when crossing state lines with a fish? If I caught a keeper in Mass, and got stopped in one of the other states, would that fly? Probably not, and the same thing if I catch a striper in New Hampshire for the dinner table, but get stopped in one of the other two states. :confused: Not looking for a fine:smash: I know the easy answer, catch a keeper over 40 inches and I have no worries at all:D Anyone know that hard answer? Thanks in advance.

Hey Ron - this gets debated a lot down here where the waters of RI/CT/NY intersect. In a nutshell, you need to abide by both posession AND landings in the sense that you are legal possessing fish that are legal in the state your boat is in and THEN once you get back to shore, you need to be legal there too.

Okay, ME is 20-26 or over 40... :)
NH has a min of 32 :(
MA I believe is at least 28 :mad:

Got it... :D guess if I keep any, it has to be over 40. And I will not keep any that big... So, wait until I get back into home waters before looking for anything for the table.

Ron,

Good News is NH is 28" min 2 fish Max

But only 1 can be over 40"

That just means you have to catch it and eat it before you cross state lines. :D

http://www.wildlife.state.nh.us/

Don't want you to take my word for it, you can get NH rules at the fish and game site

Thanks for the link and the info... but not much of a sushi fan ;) , they will be thrown back. I think the best thing to do is just recycle what I catch out of state and hopefully pick up one when back in Maine coastal waters. I usually only keep a fish if it looks like it is not going to survive. However, since they are so tasty, one does find the BBQ every now and then no matter what condition it was in. I just hate having to throw back a fish that I know has about as much chance of surviving as my Phila Eagles have of winning an NFC title game :af: . But, when given the choice of throwing the fish back or paying a hefty fine... even flying rats (aka seagulls) have to eat, too.

I wonder about that when I catch keepers in the CT, then I'd have to travel through RI and land in MA. Then I think about where I'm catching in CT and the thought of eating them suddenly vanishes:).

:) Since you will be boating also in Mass. you should be careful about being out side the 3 mile limit when heading back to Maine with striped bass in your posession, then it becomes a federal offence!!! ;) :cool:

For the love of God... all I want to do is catch some fish, maybe keep one... Fed's hanging off the coast waiting for me, State guys waiting at every boarder... :wall: Hell with it:af:

I will run 14 miles off shore and declare myself to be my own country...:rocketem: