I release 95% of the fish I catch keepers included but I do like a few meals of fresh bass. I don't use circle hooks but catch very few deep enough to hurt them.

If I catch a 24 inch short so deep that the blood is pouring out of his gills and you just know he is a dead fish walking (or swimming ) You drop him back in and he does a fine back stroke but nothing else.

It is illegal to keep him but is it unethical to let him go. In all honesty the only bass I ate last year was two dead shorts and I do know its wrong but I just hate dumping them back in..

Should I turn in my sportsman card??

Ethical? I won't sit in moral judgment of anyone in a sitution like this, but legally, as you said...

Look at it this way--it's ethical to recycle something you can't use into the food chain--crabs have to make a living, too. No fish you throw back ever goes to waste, one way or another.

Caught a large bluefish last year that had an entire torn and healed gill arch protruding from under its gill cover. Obviously it had been hooked in the gill previously, had one end of the gill ripped out by the roots, and survived with no obvious ill effect. Fought very well, too. Let 'em go, some will make it, some won't. Keeping injured shorts is a slippery slope.

Keeping injured shorts is a slippery slope.
You took the words right out of my mouth.

-spence

It IS so much more than a slippery slope........

It is ILLEGAL, planter!

In FL, if you keep a snook against any and all of the FM guidelines, then DEM is empowered by a zero tolerance policy that gives them the authority to take everything attached to the fish. i.e. your rod&reel, boat, boat trailer, vehicle, and throw YOU in jail should you resist or if the violations are egregious enuff to warrant your arrest!

i am unfamiliar with the tolerance positions of NE DEM with regard to undersized Stripers, but as MikeP said ~~crabs, togs, and eeeeeels gotsta eat too. your victim will not be wasted, should you return it to its briny depths. why risk a fine.................or, worse??

No fish you throw back ever goes to waste, one way or another.

:claps:

not to mention the penalties if caught....i forget the exact penalties, but i know if your caught with shorts on a boat by the environmental police you get a hefty fine and they have the right to confiscate your fishing equipment until the fine is paid

Planter, in which state did you catch this 24" short?
My brain is running on fumes right now, but in ME, this would be considered a "slot fish"...correct?

On Morality vs Law...this is goes alway back to Socrates and the infamous hemlock cocktail. Law aims to keep civil order. Ethics aims towards that which is good. Therefore, law and ethics are most often at odds because their aims are different. Sorry...I just had a flash back to an ethics class I took many moons ago.

Dead schoolie in the ocean = fish food.
Dead schoolie in your bucket = legal fine or arrest (even if you are morally correct)

My $0.02

while we're on the subject does anyone know the exact penalties if caught with a short i know theyre strict, but arrest?

This topic has been discussed before.Never a good thing to say in a public fishing forum that you'd keep an illegal size fish that has been brought back from the edge of extinction.If it makes you feel better I've been harassed by a plover before and threw rocks at it.If I had a BB gun on me it would have been livelined and I would have had an omelette for breakfast.

This is one of those "great taste, less filling" debates. After accidentally tearing some gills from a schoolie, I let it go. Somehow the current kept it near the rock, and after about a minute of floating I gaffed it. Illegal - yes. Immoral - not im my opinion. Yes, something would have eaten it, but I put my needs above those of crabs and bacteria. There's plenty of other dead stuff in the ocean for the scavengers to eat.

Anyway, everything is illegal. Use your best judgement.

I'd throw it back, my luck.....and murphy's law say I will get caught. Remember, I'm a guy that got a $125 fine for fishing without a license because I took 1 cast with a friggin snoopy rod.

The Dad Fisherman,

"Remember, I'm a guy that got a $125 fine for fishing without a license because I took 1 cast with a friggin snoopy rod.", what state? MA, ME?

I know ME is very tough.

Nope , can't cross the line even for what looks like a justified exception. If its short , it goes back . live dead or unknown , put them back if they are short.

I'd throw it back, my luck.....and murphy's law say I will get caught. Remember, I'm a guy that got a $125 fine for fishing without a license because I took 1 cast with a friggin snoopy rod.

did the snoopy rod get confiscated? :rotflmao:

sorry. im sure its funnier now then when it happened.


throw it back! the penalties waaaay outweigh the rewards on this one. plus like said above, (i think i asked this very question when i joined s-b) it won't go to waste.

though your intentions might be noble. think about what it looks like to the guy a little ways down seeing you put a short in your bag.:splat:

If you allow people to keep injured/surely to die fish , then suddenly every fish will get injured some how so people can keep them.

If you allow people to keep injured/surely to die fish , then suddenly every fish will get injured some how so people can keep them.

thats a good point too.!

if you get caught with an under-sized fish in RI, all you have to do is pretend you don't speak English and you'll have nothing to worry about. :rollem:

Planter:

Excellent scenario and it happens to me all the time.

1. Illegal to keep, yes.

2. Unethical to release, yes, maybe.

sometimes we need to keep ethics in perspective and do what we feel is the "right thing to do".

The Dad Fisherman,

"Remember, I'm a guy that got a $125 fine for fishing without a license because I took 1 cast with a friggin snoopy rod.", what state? MA, ME?

I know ME is very tough.

That would be the place.

I was at a friends house and the kids were fishing on the dock. I walked down to see how they were doing and asked one of the kids if I could take a cast with his rod. he said sure. I cast it out and reel it back in......and around the corner comes the rangers....right up to the dock and ticket me for it.

I stood there in total disbelief. I couldn't even mail in the fine....I had to take a day off from work and drive up there to pay it in court. :wall:


So, Yeah, I would throw it back.....I KNOW I would get nailed.

wow and i thought i had chit luck.