Theoretical question on slot limit fish. You’re trolling and one that’s 1” under the slot hammers your plug. You get him to the boat and measure him, when doing so you realize he’s bleeding like a stick pig and you ripped two of his gills when you set the hook after he inhaled the bait. He ain’t going to make it, not a chance. Is the right thing to do to toss him overboard to become a floater or count him toward your limit and discreetly filet him back home and enjoy eating him?
I know what the right thing to do is to my mind and I’m a big proponent of C&R.
It pains me but I throw back all undersize floaters. Fish cops around here would write you up for sure. Who needs that hassle? Not worth it to me.
Just another instance of what's legal isn't necessarily what's moral. I hated to unhook Canary's off the coast just to watch them turn into Seagull food, but who needed the grief from the possum sheriffs. At least now you can keep 'em. Mostly...
You guys know that’s a very common excuse when somebody wants to keep an undersized fish or ten.
Oh, I agree, everyone else shouldnt keep one for that very reason, but it's just somehow different when I gill hook one, because i know i did it by accident.
