Info about "Possession", "Daily Creel", and "Afield" limits.

[Randall53]

I was rambling around looking at size limits on various fish and found the following information at a TWRA question/answer list.
</p>

Possession limit, daily creel limit, and "afield" explained.

Even in a freezer at home or at a temporary residence*, one can never possess more than twice the daily creel.
Daily creel limits run from midnight to midnight.
</p>

One cannot have more than one daily creel limit while "afield".

Example: Say an individual is fishing Cherokee Lake for a week and is camping* along the bank. During that week, the angler could possess no more than four striped bass or hybrid striped bass or any combination of the two. It also means an individual could not possess more than 30 "stripes" (white bass) at any given time during the week.

Now, if one harvests a possession limit over a period of time and eats a few of these fish, they could then harvest more to replace them. One can never have in their possession - be it at home or anywhere else - more than twice the daily creel limit.

Remember that creel limit is written as "daily creel limit". One cannot catch a limit, process the fish or give them away to someone else, and go back and harvest more of the same species during a 24-hour period which runs from midnight to midnight.

Say an individual is fishing from 8:00 pm to 3:00 am - they may only have a daily creel limit in their possession while "afield". They could, however, stop fishing before midnight and drop their catch off at their campsite* or home and return after midnight and catch another limit. Overnight anglers who are not camping* are limited to one daily creel limit.

*Campsites or houseboats, etc. qualify as temporary residences as evidenced by sleeping bags, tents, cooking utensils, etc.
</p>

 

[Mr. S]

Interesting. Not something I need to be concerned with... I 0 a lot!


Butt... I keep on emoAngler

 

[rsimms]

Good information to know and to share. I will say, however, that in the "real world," possession limits are rarely enforced once game is home in your freezer.

I am not saying it can't be, nor encouraging you to keep over your possession limit of anything... however, it's going to take some extenuating circumstances and powerful "probable cause" evidence before wildlife officers will obtain a search warrant to go through your freezer to solely enforce a possession limit.

In real world cases, that normally only happens in extreme cases when officers have strong evidence or probable cause to believe that someone is poaching or illegal fishing to the extreme. For instance, that situation came into play in 2010 when a Soddy Daisy man was arrested for catching multiple limits of crappie in one day: http://www.chattanoogafishingforum.com/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=40661&start=1

However, if I legally catch/keep 15 crappie a day over four days, and end up with 60 crappie in my freezer, game wardens aren't going to come barging through my door to enforce the possession limit. Technically perhaps they could, if they had the evidence and a search warrant, but that's just not the way it works in the real world of wildlife law enforcement.

As for the camping scenario however, yea, that's for real.

When I go to South Dakota duck hunting, there are even strict requirements on how I clean and pack my birds. Even after dressing ducks, we are required to leave one wing attached to the bird, and if they are frozen, we can have no more than two birds per bag.

 

[Randall53]

Does anybody know the outcome of the Bartlett brothers case? What was the final punishment?