Transporting Smoked/Canned Fish

August 1, 2013

Question: We have a vacation house on the North Coast where we spend a lot of time and enjoy smoking and/or canning our salmon. How can we legally transport this processed fish back to our home in the valley? (Jim S., Redding)
 
Answer: As long as you possess only the legal limit and the fish were taken legally, transporting these fish as smoked or canned is not a problem. Regardless of whether they are fresh, frozen, or otherwise preserved, no more than one daily bag limit may be possessed by any one person (CCR Title 14, Section 1.17).

I thought once the salmon was cooked and canned, it was considered food, and not fish. How are they suppose to figure out if you got an over limit on canned salmon? Perform DNA analysis on the content of each can to make sure they are not from more than 2 different fish? And what about canned salmon that were purchased or gifted?

Create a fancy canning label & upc code to make it look store bought?

True story, before 9-11, I was did a fishing trip to Sitka, Alaska. I met a local who gave some home canned salmon.  I put in my hand carry to fly home.  During the flight home, the whole plane started to smell really fishy.  The scent was really intense.   

When the plane landed in Seattle I noticed my hand carry bag was leaking.  The canned Salmon popped open during the flight was the cause to of the smell. 

The next step in Cal Wild enforcement, posting Wardens at the end of the Safeway checkout line to cite us for buying an overlimit of Salmon

The next step in Cal Wild enforcement, posting Wardens at the end of the Safeway checkout line to cite us for buying an overlimit of Salmon

Lol

Or they'll cite us for over limit if fish counting bait as part if our limit.

"I caught these from the Klamath river between Aug 15 and Dec 31, where you can possess 8 salmon..."

I do have a question if I gift a fish to the wife does she have to have a fishing license?

nope.

That's why some of these laws are just crazy written.  I know I have canned salmon from multiple fish and trips but still never took or processed more than my per day limit at one time. 

I always give smoked and canned salmon away and many folks don't have licenses and my whole family has fishing licenses and could hoard a lot of canned salmon. Enough to last from the end of one season to the start of the next.

Thats why fish and game along with law enforcement are trained about spirit of the law and letter of the law.  Even if technically able to cite/arrest based on the written law it would not make sense to prosecute a law abiding fisherman for a weak technicality.   If I were cited for a weak technicality I would make it so public and fight it until it was reversed or dropped.   

I am sure most wardens would rather catch poachers than to look in my canning section.