FW&JR, I would've let it go whether it swam away or not. I wouldn't risk getting caught mainly for the reasons C-ratt stated. Shrinkage
That was always an issue in the BASS tourny's I used to fish. Those fish could shrink up as much as half an inch and that was a 12" fish. I would imagine a 28" fish could shrink even more. And like I said, I had to work the tail, etc. to get 28". And like you said, I doubt the law would care about my sob story about the poor fish... bet they've heard that before, true or not.
However, the whole time I was trying to revive the fish, I was debating it. They are pretty hardy fish though. I've had a couple bad bleeders that I thought were done, but they kicked out just fine. They may or may not make it. They are a heck of alot tougher than freshwater cousins...
Guess the marine environ is just a little bit tougher.
Threaded Mode