Those injuries must be completely healed over. Looking both ways and pulling out a pair of clippers is not going to generate a legal keeper.
I'm thinking that if somebody is doing it to allow them to pseudo-legally keep fish, that they're not stupid enough to do it on the spot.
More of a clip and release, each time increasing the odds that fish they catch (or more accurately, re-catch) on later trips will then look like a "keeper".
