After I Have My Bag Limit, Can I Still Fish Catch-and-release?

April 22, 2010

Question: If I catch my limit of the fish I’m fishing for, can I continue fishing catch-and-release? If my buddy doesn’t have his limit, can I fish for him? If I don’t want to keep the fish, can I fish for other people? (Michael H.)

Answer: When fishing in freshwater, each person is allowed to take only one daily bag limit per day. Once you catch your daily limit for a species of fish, you are done fishing for that type of fish.

If you want to catch and release fish, you must do that before you take the last fish of the limit. If you want to give someone your fish, you may do so but those fish will still count toward your daily bag limit, and the person receiving the fish cannot have more than the legal limit in their possession either.

In addition, if you take an overlimit (for example, seven trout when the limit is five), and you give two to someone else, that person is now in possession of illegally taken fish and could be cited, too, even if they are not over their daily bag limit.

When fishing in the ocean, however, boat limits are allowed for anglers fishing from a boat. This means that all anglers can continue fishing until the total numbers of fish on the boat are equal to the total number of fish allowed for every angler, despite who actually caught each fish. Upon departing the boat, each passenger can only possess one daily bag limit.

Suppose 2 kayakers are fishing together, where each is on his own (solo) kayak. Then any gifted fish will count towards both bag limits. But, if these same 2 are instead fishing together on a tandem, then they can retain 2 bag limits, regardless of who catches the fish (since they are fishing from "a boat" instead of 2 boats).

What's the rationale (if any) behind this?

The rationale is that if everyone is together on 1 boat, they can't separate and go home when they catch their individual limits.  Two kayakers, in separate kayaks, can split up when done.  Not that they would, but they could.

There is zero chance that kayaks were even considered when this regulation was made.  I'd guess it was put there/carved out after lobbying by party boat operations.