The regs were drafted long before camera phones, and go pros. I would argue, that snapping a photo is very quick these days, versus the old days, when a fish was dragged home to snap a photo with a 35mm camera.bradford2 wrote:I wish they would change the wording in the regs then.
As far as the regs are concerned, there is no difference in taking a picture of an OOS fish then there is a 28" walleye from the miss, or a muskie with a conservation license. All must be released immediately.
The piece that Ed brought to light for me was once you have reached your limit of your targeted species, you are not able to fish that species anymore. I know I have been guilty, just for the sport of it. They were always released and I made an assumption, as long as I did not put them on my stringer, I was not breaking the law. Yet I do understand the reasoning of that reg. just the other night, while I was certainly not targeting them, I did catch 3-4 perch ( no biggie I know frankly they were a by catch in my mind) yet two of them swiped at my lure and got the hook in the head (eye area) one for sure was dead after removing the hook, and the other I can not say his health, yet he did swim off on his own. That could easily happen with any fish, targeted or not. So this regulation really does make sense.
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