Question about creel limits

[JSV]

This may be a stupid question but I will ask anyways!</p><p style="">If you are fishing alone with a child that is not required to have a fishing license, how many Crappie can you have in the livewell? 15 or 30</p><p style="">I think the answer is 30 and from the ones I have asked, they too think 30 is the correct answer but no one can tell me for certain.</p><p style="">Thanks in advance! </p>

 

[SpurHunter]

30.....as a child under 16 years of age is not required to have a license, but is legally allowed a full limit as well, so your good to go.

 

[EricM]

Careful!!! According to the 2008 Tennessee Fishing Guide, anyone under the age of 13 does not need a license. 13-15 require a junior hunt/fish/trap (pages 8 & 9).
Also, each legal angler is entitled to catch and keep one daily limit. It is my understanding that it is illegal and unethical to catch fish, give them to another, and then catch and keep more fish if the total you have personally caught and kept (including those given away) exceeds your personal limit. Just because there are several legal anglers fishing together does not mean that one person can catch and keep a limit for each of them. Will you be cited for it? Probably not, unless you were being watched, since proving who caught what is pretty much otherwise impossible at the ramp.
So the real answer is that each of you can catch and keep a limit of fish, even if the child is under 13 and unlicensed, because they are a legal angler.

 

[SpurHunter]

Thanks for the addition, I dont know why I wrote 16, I was looking at the reg book in front of me at the time, and I was reading 13 and wrote 16....

 Must be old age

 

[Guest]

Everybody that keeps fish does it. The wardens know it and technically they can write you up if the fish are not separated. I don't think it happens too much though unless the persons being checked have an attitude.

 

[flip1up]

SpurHunter - 5/23/2008 4:40 PM Thanks for the addition, I dont know why I wrote 16, I was looking at the reg book in front of me at the time, and I was reading 13 and wrote 16....

 Must be old age

</p>

Drinking too much again, Spur???

</p>

 

[flip1up]

JSV - 5/23/2008 11:26 AM

This may be a stupid question but I will ask anyways!</p>

If you are fishing alone with a child that is not required to have a fishing license, how many Crappie can you have in the livewell? 15 or 30</p>

I think the answer is 30 and from the ones I have asked, they too think 30 is the correct answer but no one can tell me for certain.</p>

Jason, if your fishing with your baby girl you can keep 30 Crappie. If you feel guilty cause she didnt help catch them, then only keep 22 1/2 fish. Surely you wouldnt feel an entire limit guilty.....

</p>

Thanks in advance! </p>

 

[JSV]

<p style="">Thanks for the replies. I was pretty certain that it would be 30 but I was looking at it from the point which ERICM suggested (ethics). The two I have been taking are both 5 years old. They have a good time catching fish and actually both of them have caught Crappie by themself however it has been more from accident and a Crappie swallowing the jig but never the less. What I typically do is cast the jig out and wait for the "tic" then set the hook and then hand the rod to one of them and let them fight the fish. I also sometimes cast it out in to the strike zone and have them slowly reel it in and watch their line and tell them when to set the hook. I know sometimes I am doing about 50% of the work but they do all the fish fighting and believe me we have lost some good slabs (and a 6+lb Smallie) during these fights but that is what it is all about. I think I will do as Flip suggested and keep only half of the limit they catch..........

</p>

 

[3391]

The limit is 15 per person - anything else is violating the fishing regulations. There in place to protect the resource for you the fisherman.... there should be no question on this one guys.

 

[Guest]

I thought the limit was 30 per person emoScratch

 

[Guest]

emoUpsmile

 

[gonefishin]

Creel limits are not about how many fish you catch, but how many you keep.  Creel limits are based per angler, if two 5 year olds and one 35 year old anglers are fishing, then each angler can keep the creel limit of the species being caught.  Doesn't matter who catches the fish, angler 1 or angler 2, they both get to keep the creel limit even if angler 1 only catches half the fish.  I'm not a lawyer or anything hehe, but i think that is the case.