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Is it legal.....

eelpout#1
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eelpout#1 Collaborator

eelpout#1

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Just wondering if it is legal to purposely fish for a species for which there is no open season here, catch the fish and then take pictures of it out of the water for 15 minutes before returning it to the water

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hockeybc69 Veteran

hockeybc69

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Simple answer. No.

And why would you keep a fish you intend to release out of water for 15 minutes even if it was a legal targeted fish?

Can you accidently catch a fish thats out of season and take some pics of it and release it immediately after? Sure.

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skee0025 Proficient

skee0025

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You can target a species for which there is no season and fish for it. You cannot however keep it out of water. All fish that are not intended to be kept must be immediately returned to the water.

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LightningBG Mentor

LightningBG

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What species do you have in mind?

15 minutes.... way too long, unless you are trying to kill them.

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leech~~ Grand Master

leech~~

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How slow is the shutter on your camera any ways? confused

full-27051-34084-imagescat85ahc.jpg

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TruthWalleyes Grand Master

TruthWalleyes

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Supposedly you are not supposed to target these out of season fish. IMO, you cannot be convicted of targeting an out of season species unless you openly admit that is what you are doing. I have no problem with people fishing and targeting species out of season as long as they make for a quick release. Have a camera ready. Don't be afraid to return the fish to the water before you get a quality picture if you want the fish to live. By no means should a picture take 15 minutes. I'd call you in to the DNR if i watched you target an out of season species and spend 15 minutes killing the fish, and then dump it back into the lake. What's the fun in that anyway.

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ottertailguy Collaborator

ottertailguy

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My guess is the fish you are talking about are Sturgeons. WE saw 4 of them caught last week in 2 days all in the same spot. Two of them were 44 inches and the others were a lot smaller. They were pretty amazing looking but it took almost as long to put them back as it took to reel them in. At the time I was thinking it was weird after they caught them they looked to long as the sturgeons just laid on the floor of their boats. Then a few pictures before they put them back in. The thing was they swam away without a problem. They also were caught in shallow water unlike some people who catch walleyes in deep water and then try to release them.

I do agree it's wrong but natural when people catch a species they have never seen and is bigger than any fish they've reeled in before. Maybe everyone just needs to be educated/reminded to return the fish quickly back into the water.

If you aren't taking about sturgeons then it will be a topic in the future I bet. Also why bring this up without saying what kind of fish they are?

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leech~~ Grand Master

leech~~

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Or Paddle fish? wink

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eelpout#1 Collaborator

eelpout#1

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Sorry, yes the fish in question are sturgeon and while it's nice to have your picture taken with them, do you need to pass the fish around, everyone holding the 45-50 inch fish by the gills vertically so that they can have their picture taken with the fish. All this after the fish bounced around on the floor of the boat for five minutes before the picture taking fiasco. I have no idea how old a 45 inch sturgeon is, but would guess 25 - 30 years old. I'd like to think that you should have more respect for a fish that's been around for that amount of time. And yes I talked to the local CO and they said it would be taken care of. Enough said.

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hockeybc69 Veteran

hockeybc69

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Lake sturgeon are slow-growing and late-maturing, and they only spawn intermittently. Females spawn once every 4-6 years and typically reach sexual maturity at 24-26 years old, when they are about 140 cm (55 in.) long (Becker 1983). Males spawn every 2 to 3 years and typically reach sexual maturity at 8-17 years, when they are around 114 cm (44 in.) long.

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bigbucks Grand Master

bigbucks

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I would guess that as prehistoric as sturgeon seem they are probably tough enough to handle that, but obviously there's no reasonable reason for it to take even half that long to put it back.

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hockeybc69 Veteran

hockeybc69

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It can be interesting watching people handle fish.... In canada last year I watched a guy and gal get an ok muskie.... there is no way that thing swam off loving life after what they did to that thing.... took them forever to get it unwrapped out of the net, dropping it, ripping the gills off of it trying to handle it, etc etc... it was pathetic.

But it happens unfortuneately.

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