Hi, I haven't yet been fishing in Mo. Relocating close to lakes and am planning on getting back to it as I used to be an avid fisherman.
I was reading on here about two people in a boat had to keep their fish separate. This doesn't make sense; surely that is not correct. Most small boats under $20,000 have only one livewell. Who would make such a law? Only someone who thought we all could afford over $20,000 boats?
Say it isn't true and that I misread.
My wife & I would use the one livewell. Would we be illegal?
They can be in the same livewell they just need to be identifiable as the fish you caught. Just run a safety pin through the lips of your fish, or clip a fin, or something like that.
My boat is way under 20K but has two livewells. However it is easy to handle with one livewell in several ways. One person tosses them in a livewell, and one puts them on a chain stringer. Livewell divider if yours has that option. Picnic cooler with some ice and water in it, instant livewell (well actually a death well, but is a great choice in summer). You can put tags on one persons fish, use a fish basket etc. etc. The idea is to have the fish identifiable for each fisherman, not party fishing or putting them all in one big container. I fished for years with no live well at all, just fish basket or cooler, never any problem, actually liked the cooler option, fish were nice and cold, and already in a container, didn't have to dig them all out of the livewell when I got home and ready to clean them.
like ghost said, they can be in the same livewell...just be able to identify who caught what....you can have 5 different people throwing fish in the same cooler...just put an identifier on the fish each person caught...clipping fins works great..one person doesn't clip, one clips tail, one clips dorsal, one clips pectoral...etc. etc...once you start doing it..it really becomes second nature and doesn't take hardly any time at all. the reason for the rule is because "party" fishing is illegal in MO, this rule is so the agent who checks you doesn't have to guess who caught what when there are 42 crappie in the cooler. Its your responsibility to be able to show the agent
Safety pin sounds like an easy idea. The law sounds strange as I haven't run into it where I am from.
When we had one lw we kept scissors by the "guest" in the boat and it was his/her responsibility to clip the dorsal fin of the fish they added to the lw. We now have two lws and if we had three then that third person will have the job of fin snipper.
iv used 3 to 1 livewell 1 leaves all fins on 1 cut left fin 1 cut right fin
never had any trouble yet
I use a hole punch. Quick and easy.
:hesaid, we use a hole punch and have been checked several times. As long as they are marked it's legal.