What is with.....

set'em good · Post by **set'em good** » Mon Nov 10, 2008 4:14 pm

I am out on the water everyweekend, I am seeing more and more people catch there bass and put them directly into there livewell. There is no tournament at the time and they are NOT big fish. So why put them in the livewell drag them across the lake for the rest of the day and stressing them out even more than they already are.. I don't think this is a good way to treat or fisheries as they are depleting slowly anyways.

Keep a scale handy, weigh the dink and keep a tally of the weights.. I could see the first couple times making sure that your livewell is functioning correctly but other than that I don't see the need.

Does anyone have a reason why they do this?

Don't even get me started on catching bed fish and doing the same..

Set'Em Good

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Mon Nov 10, 2008 4:28 pm

What lake are you talking about and date? Note that you may be seeing club anglers fishing a tournament and not realize it.

set'em good · Post by **set'em good** » Mon Nov 10, 2008 4:34 pm

These are my local lakes Calero, Anderson and Coyote, I usually go on Fridays and every now and then on Saturdays. These lakes are small and would know if there was a tournement on them.

Ricky-S · Post by **Ricky-S** » Mon Nov 10, 2008 4:43 pm

Maybe they were going to keep them and eat them.

There are people that eat bass and it is legal to do so.

g-man · Post by **g-man** » Mon Nov 10, 2008 5:14 pm

Prolly gonna eat em!

Joe Bruce · Post by **Joe Bruce** » Mon Nov 10, 2008 5:18 pm

I do it because I like to... gives me a full practice, handling fish and all. sux to learn on gameday you have a livewell problem.

sorry but as long as its not breaking a tourney rule or the law its none of your buisness.

the motherlode has more fish right now than 10 years ago so its hardly depleting.

tunaman · Post by **tunaman** » Mon Nov 10, 2008 5:28 pm

Unless I'm mistaken, a tournament is the only time you're actually legally allowed to keep live bass in the livewells. I'm sure someone can cite the relevant section in the regulations, but I'll see if I can find it and post if no one beats me to it.

Roger

Chaozu · Post by **Chaozu** » Mon Nov 10, 2008 6:00 pm

Practice???????????? How hard is to put a fish in a hole????????

Hey Set'em, hit me up if you need a backseat! Those are the lakes I fish and I've NEVER fished them from a boat. The toon dont count.

Toadsternator · Post by **Toadsternator** » Mon Nov 10, 2008 6:04 pm

tunaman wrote:Unless I'm mistaken, a tournament is the only time you're actually legally allowed to keep live bass in the livewells. I'm sure someone can cite the relevant section in the regulations, but I'll see if I can find it and post if no one beats me to it.

Roger

If I remember correctly, you can keep live fish within your live well while fishing at any time, but it is illegal to leave that body of water and transport live fish overland, or to another body of water, unless regs. have changed since May.

tracker31 · Post by **tracker31** » Mon Nov 10, 2008 6:28 pm

my guess would be to either eat them (hopefully not haha) or get pictures of a limit...

tunaman · Post by **tunaman** » Mon Nov 10, 2008 7:49 pm

Toadsternator wrote:If I remember correctly, you can keep live fish within your live well while fishing at any time, but it is illegal to leave that body of water and transport live fish overland, or to another body of water, unless regs. have changed since May.

That may be true with black bass... can't seem to find the specific regulation I was looking for. I know you can't keep trout in the livewell for certain - not sure about other species?

Also, the culling rule is specific to tournaments... if you have limits of bass in the livewell you are not allowed to continue to fish if you are just 'fun fishing'.

Roger

sTony · Post by **sTony** » Tue Nov 11, 2008 5:02 am

There are some folks who put caught fish in the live well because they believe if they immediately release these fish it shuts down the bite in that area for a spell.

sTony

Bassin · Post by **Bassin** » Tue Nov 11, 2008 7:22 am

Now a days with the strong influence of Catch and release, I would say putting fish in the well through out the day has 90+% to do with PICTURES....Take a look at the picture section, and all the pics of guys holding up two or more fish at the same time, do you think those were caught at the same time? I don't see anything wrong with it as long as great care is given to those fish.....I have never seen anything saying there is a law against it....only if you transport them from that body of water.

Bill K · Post by **Bill K** » Tue Nov 11, 2008 7:44 am

If they are spots, then keep and eat a limit. Nothing wrong with putting bass in a livewell. Could be a turkey shoot tournament or such. Lot's of reasons for putting more than one bass in the livewell.
As long as it is within the law and the partys have a llegal reason to keep them, what's is the problem ? Bill K

Greg_Cornish · Post by **Greg_Cornish** » Tue Nov 11, 2008 8:10 am

sTony wrote:There are some folks who put caught fish in the live well because they believe if they immediately release these fish it shuts down the bite in that area for a spell.

sTony

I caught 41 in two hours one morning in a spot the size of a basketball court. If I believed that I would have needed a lot of livewells.

sTony · Post by **sTony** » Tue Nov 11, 2008 10:33 am

actually I think it was more for spotted bass. I was told they emit a hormone or something when they're caught that kind of wards off other spots. Could be BS but that's what an old timer told me once.

sTony

kopper_bass · Post by **kopper_bass** » Tue Nov 11, 2008 12:30 pm

sTony,
to avoid a hijack, i posted a new question on the board that pertains to schoolin bass.

Please let me know what you think of my theory!

Kopper_Bass

tunaman · Post by **tunaman** » Tue Nov 11, 2008 12:49 pm

Out of curiosity, and a driving need to know for certain, I posed the question to Mike Giusti, the DFG biologist for Diamond Valley (and an all-around great guy!), and here's his response:

1. You can have up to four bass in your livewell in a non-tournament situation. Once you put the 5th in your live well you must stop fishing for bass as you are in possession of your legal limit.

2. You can keep anything that is legal in your livewell except trout. The live trout issue is covered in the bait section of the regulations which I think is 4.0. You cannot take the live fish out of the river or lake in your boat as transportation of is illegal.

Roger