[30-06-hunter]

Once you fillet and freeze or eat your 3 kokes or 8 lakers you can go back out for more, correct?

 

[OCF]

Technically I think it is only 3 and 8 fish per day regardless if you eat/freeze them the same day. However, I think you can go out the next day and get another limit which is better than what it was in the past.

 

[Critter]

No, a days limit is a days limit.

Also at the Gorge you can only have one limit in your possession.

So if you catch a limit today and eat half of them and then go fishing tomorrow you can only catch enough fish to fill the single day limit.

Check out the guide book page 18

 

[willfish4food]

No, a days limit is a days limit.

Also at the Gorge you can only have one limit in your possession.

So if you catch a limit today and eat half of them and then go fishing tomorrow you can only catch enough fish to fill the single day limit.

Check out the guide book page 18

^^^This.^^^

I made the daily bag limit/Possession limit mistake a few years back on Fish Lake. Got called out on this forum and have since been much more careful about knowing the regs.

Also keep in mind that on multi-day trips where you fish multiple bodies of water, you have to meet the regs for the water you're currently fishing regardless of what water you fished previous. Meaning if you have fish in your possession at FG in excess of one possession limit you are in violation. EX. you fish two days on the Green River and keep a limit of trout each day - okay because you can have 2 possession limits on multi-day trips on that water. But, if you go to FG to fish, even if you don't keep anything, you are in violation because you have two trout in excess of one FG possession limit. This can also get you on size restricted waters; like going to DC and catching trout over 15 inches and then going and fishing the Provo while still in possession of the larger fish.

The chances of you getting nailed on these strange technicalities is very low. Especially if you have the fish in a cooler at camp and not near your boat. But, all regs are hard to enforce for the COs. It's up to us to self police.

 

[30-06-hunter]

Just wanted to clarify because I have heard it both ways, better to know beforehand.

 

[nocturnalenemy]

^^^This.^^^

I made the daily bag limit/Possession limit mistake a few years back on Fish Lake. Got called out on this forum and have since been much more careful about knowing the regs.

Also keep in mind that on multi-day trips where you fish multiple bodies of water, you have to meet the regs for the water you're currently fishing regardless of what water you fished previous. Meaning if you have fish in your possession at FG in excess of one possession limit you are in violation. EX. you fish two days on the Green River and keep a limit of trout each day - okay because you can have 2 possession limits on multi-day trips on that water. But, if you go to FG to fish, even if you don't keep anything, you are in violation because you have two trout in excess of one FG possession limit. This can also get you on size restricted waters; like going to DC and catching trout over 15 inches and then going and fishing the Provo while still in possession of the larger fish.

The chances of you getting nailed on these strange technicalities is very low. Especially if you have the fish in a cooler at camp and not near your boat. But, all regs are hard to enforce for the COs. It's up to us to self police.

Enlighten me. I thought you could continue fishing (C&R), even while possessing a full limit, as long as you didn't add any more to your possession. I know we're going down the extreme technicality road, but I'd still be interested in knowing the law.

 

[Critter]

You can catch are release all day long even with a limit, it doesn't stop you from fishing. But you better hope that one of the fish that you catch doesn't inhale the lure or fly and just by chance passes away and have a fish cop watching or checking you.

I know that it is slim chance but if your luck is like mine just stop putting them on the stringer 1 fish before the limit and then if something happens you are still legal.

 

[willfish4food]

Enlighten me. I thought you could continue fishing (C&R), even while possessing a full limit, as long as you didn't add any more to your possession. I know we're going down the extreme technicality road, but I'd still be interested in knowing the law.

You can fish C&R as long as you do not have fish in violation of the regs on the water you want to fish. From page 42 of the guidebook:

For example, if you have been fishing at
Currant Creek Reservoir (which has a general
4 trout limit), you may not stop at Strawberry
Reservoir (which has a more restrictive regulation)
if you have fish from Currant Creek that
violate the rules at Strawberry.

Again, I'm not sure how a CO would ever know you have fish in violation if they're not on you (ie in the cooler back at camp). But if you want to keep the technical letter of the law, that's how it's written.

 

[Fishrmn]

Enlighten me. I thought you could continue fishing (C&R), even while possessing a full limit, as long as you didn't add any more to your possession. I know we're going down the extreme technicality road, but I'd still be interested in knowing the law.

True. But that's not what the original poster was asking about.
Page 19 of the guidebook says:

You may continue to fish while in possession of a full daily limit, but you must immediately release any additional fish you catch.

And:

Possession of filleted fish
While you are in the act of fishing, it is unlawful to possess filleted fish from the current day's catch or fish that have had their heads or tails removed. This does not apply to fish processed for immediate consumption or from a previous day's catch.
At most waters, you may fillet harvested game fish, or remove their heads or tails, after you have:
• Completed the act of fishing
• Arrived at camp
• Reached a fish-cleaning station
• Arrived at a principle means of land
transportation

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[willfish4food]

It gets really weird. Some examples:

While fishing DC you catch and keep one 16" trout. You can no longer fish the Provo until that fish is at your residence.

You're fishing DC and keep 3 fish. You cannot fish the Provo until the next day regardless of if you take the fish home or not because your daily bag is in excess of what's allowed on the Provo.

You're fishing DC and keep two trout under 15". You can fish the Provo C&R all you want. But like Critter said, if you hook a gill or something happens to mortally wound that fish, if you want to stay within the law you have to throw it in the water and waste it.

 

[Fishrmn]

You can catch are release all day long even with a limit, it doesn't stop you from fishing. But you better hope that one of the fish that you catch doesn't inhale the lure or fly and just by chance passes away and have a fish cop watching or checking you.

I know that it is slim chance but if your luck is like mine just stop putting them on the stringer 1 fish before the limit and then if something happens you are still legal.

This has been bashed around for longer than I can remember. But since you brought it up, what happens when your first fish of the day is in the slot limit and it inhales the lure, fly, or bait? You have to let it go, whether it is hooked too deeply or not. Sorry to say it, but the same concept applies when you've got your limit on a stringer. When you catch a fish that you can't legally keep you have to let it go. Even if it's not going to survive. Period.

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[30-06-hunter]

It's pretty common knowledge that you can c&r if you have your limit or not, but when you get your limit and have been on the water since 6 am or so you kind of want to take a break and go back to camp until the burbot come out.

 

[Critter]

This has been bashed around for longer than I can remember. But since you brought it up, what happens when your first fish of the day is in the slot limit and it inhales the lure, fly, or bait? You have to let it go, whether it is hooked too deeply or not. Sorry to say it, but the same concept applies when you've got your limit on a stringer. When you catch a fish that you can't legally keep you have to let it go. Even if it's not going to survive. Period.

⫸<{{{{{⦇°>

That's the catch 22 in the regs and who is to say that the other 30 fish that you catch in a day don't go belly up 10 minutes after you cut your line to let them go.

You just never know, but you better know the regs before you hit the water with that fly, lure, worm, or power bait. But for the number of times that I have been checked while fishing in Utah over the last 60 years you could keep 20 limits with no problems.

 

[Fishrmn]

I get checked about once a year. I'm sure there are other times when I've been watched through a spotting scope or binoculars. At one water, I was very well known to the local C.O. I overheard him saying to another C.O. on their way to another assignment; "Aren't you going to check that guy?" To which, he answered; "No need to. He has a lifetime license and doesn't break the law. He's also likely to turn in anybody that does."

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[dubob]

The guidebook deals mostly with where you happen to be fishing on any given day; it doesn't matter where you are camped. If you are on a multi-day fishing trip, your in field possession limit is based each day on where you are fishing on that day. The general possession limit in the field is equal to twice the daily limit for the water you are fishing that day. The exceptions are Strawberry and Flaming Gorge. For each of those, the possession limit is equal to the daily limit.

If you fish multiple waters in one day, you cannot have any fish in your possession that violate the rules of the water body where you're fishing. For example, if you have been fishing at Currant Creek Reservoir (which has a general 4 trout limit), you may not stop at Strawberry Reservoir (which has a more restrictive regula­tion) if you have fish from Currant Creek that violate the rules at Strawberry. If you fish at a different water body on the second day of your trip, you may not have any fish in your possession-from either day-that violate the rules of the water body where you're currently fishing. This means you must always comply with the size and species regulations for the water body where you're fishing and not have more than two daily limits in your possession.

Here's another example. If you go to a community fishery and catch your limit in the morning, you cannot take those fish home to your freezer and visit another pond in the afternoon to harvest additional fish. In short, you may catch and keep a maxi­mum of one limit of fish per day, regardless of what happens to the fish. Once you reach a daily limit on any body of water, you can not keep any more fish on that day. It doesn't matter if you eat them or donate them or clean them and freeze them; you still can not go back out that day and catch and keep more fish.

Once you catch a limit for the water you are fishing, you can legally continue to fish as long as you immediately release any fish you catch. The guidebook says nothing about the condition of the caught fish when you release it other than it must immediately be released. There is no guideline that says the fish must survive the catch and release; it just says it must immediately be released. Your own personal ethics might play a part in your decision to continue fishing after you have caught your daily limit knowing that a certain percentage of all C&R fish will die. But as long as you immediately release the fish, you are within the limits of the law to continue fishing.

Starting January 1, 2015, any fish species at your permanent residence will not count as part of your possession limit. Please keep in mind that this does NOT allow you to take home multiple daily limits of fish in one day. You may take home only one daily limit per day.

If you are camping, staying in a motel, or staying at a friend's house overnight and fishing any body of water, a CO is legally entitled to check your campsite, motel, or friend's house for possession limits. It doesn't happen very often, but they are within their legal rights to do so. It is more likely to happen at the Gorge or Strawberry because of the small limits on kokanee and restrictions on trout. I've heard of a couple of cases where this happened at the Gorge and they were caught with more than a limit of kokanee in possession at their campsite.

All of this information is in the Guidebook. But you have to put it all together from bits and pieces scattered throughout the book. The pieces interact and unless you can connect all the dots, you may get confused. No wonder these questions keep coming up on this and other websites year after year after year. Some of it would even give a first year law student a headache trying to make sense of it all.