Being checked on the water

I was just wondering if anyone has ever been told this while being check by the water patrol.

I was on Cumberland Wednesday he checked ever thing that could be check even going through every fish we had in the cooler. And then he told us (3 people was in the boat) that we were suppose to have a cooler for each of us to keep our fish in so he would know how many each one of us has got. keep in mind we only had 25 in the cooler at that time. Then he gave an example why.. he said if we had 2 walleyes in the cooler how would he know who's fish it was. why would it matter who's fish they were. I have been fishing all my life and i have never heard something so stupid.


So today i call fish and wildlife department and was told that she had never heard of that before.
so we email them also. the email they sent back was that if 3 people was fishing in the same boat
that you could us the same cooler to put all the fish in as long as there was not over 90 fish and everyone had 30.

all i can figure is he was wanting to give me a ticket and could find any wrong or he doesnt know his job.
not to mention he zigzagged around 5 other boats just to get to us. not stopping at any of the other boats.

I've heard the same story before. The warden was getting at one man could be catching over the limit while the other man may not have been catching many. I honestly believe theyre knit picking and dont have a leg to stand on to write anyone up over it though.

yeah but that takes all the fun out of fishing......i've seen NON fishing -water disturbers- that do deserve a vrrrooommm ticket but, have been able to not get checked .....makes you say hummmm

aint crying but, I do think we should have a voice and not feel like your at there mercy when being checked ....whats the best way to get in touch with there supervisor to be make our time on the lake pleasurable for fellow fisher - can I get a hot tube ...lol lolo ha ha Rofl

That's the way it is here. Don't matter if it's crappie, ducks, whatever. SEPARATE AND IDENTIFIABLE or yore ...hindend... is gettin a ticket. I have "heard" that you could mark the fish in some manner, and put them all in the same cooler. That stands to reason that they would be identifiable, although I don't know if they would qualify as separate. It depends on who's checking I guess.

I don't think it's a "law" in KY, that you have to have your catch in seperate containers. I'd like to see the official ruling on that, if it exists.

Besides (and this goes for states that do have the "catch seperation" ruling) .... what's to keep angler #1 from placing some of his fish into angler #2's "cooler/livewell/stringer", or using angler #2's "marking device" :confused: I mean, come on ... if they're going to intentionally go over the limit, then hiding their "extra" fish in the creel of the other angler(s) is the easiest way to accomplish it. And NO, I'm not advocating that people do that, I'm just saying that's how it could be done ... and the Officer checking the creels would have had to SEE every fish caught, in order to KNOW how many fish any one angler had reeled in Doh (Innocent, until "proven" guilty)

If there were only 25 keeper fish in the livewell ... then it wouldn't matter WHO caught them, since you'd still be 5 under the creel for ONE angler. I could understand his (CO's) argument/reasoning, if there had been more than 30 fish involved .. but, since there's no rule on the books (that I'm aware of) concerning seperating FISH caught by more than one angler, even that would have been a mute point. IMHO

... cp :cool:

I fish four states and can not find a cooler reference/limit/fishermen in any. Did I miss something or is this officer using his position to intimidate fishermen? Let him rant and give you a ticket, don't feel that it will hold up in court. Just the inconvience, but he will have to attend court also.

It is called income generation, with all the states out of money, they are all doing all they can to generate money for the coffers. The State of Illinois is the worst for sure. With waterfowl, they do surely have to be in the identifible possession of the person who shot them.

With a possession of 30 and 25 in the bag he was blowing smoke at something, if you have 89 in the cooler, it might have been different.

Had 2 CO's in Florida show up, get in the boat with the wife and I, counted every fish out of the livewell, 37 toward a limit of 50 speck's and said all was good. I asked if it was ok to keep them together and he said yes, that was in FloridaHands Clapping

One of the only reasons that I could possibly come up with, as to why they would ask that the fish be separated, would be if someone on the boat did not have a valid fishing license.. For each fisherman to have their own cooler that they are the only ones to put fish into, I guess they think it could deter those that dont have a license from fishing and putting their fish into someone else's cooler to skirt the law.

Either that, or they just want the fish in a way that's easier to count... It would be a bit easier to count 30 crappie in each cooler, than 90 crappie in one large cooler.

Or maybe they're looking for greater accountability if there's a fish that's illegal to keep. If everyone has a separate cooler, and one has a crappie (or any other fish) that's illegal to keep, it gives the officer a very clear idea of who to fine. If an illegal fish is kept in a community cooler, it'd make it very easy for everyone to deny having caught and kept it.

For what its worth.
A couple years back we (wife & I) were stopped on Ky lake by the local CO. They checked lic, fire extinguisher, battery covers and all the usual stuff. He asked if he could check the live well. I said sure. He looked in and and said looks like a nice mess of fish,
how many you got? (We had 3 crappie and the rest were yellow bass). My answer was I think we have about 15 in there. One of them said; that's not the answer I need to hear. I then said well she's out fishing me. I put 6 in there and she caught the other 9. Good job he said. They sat and visited with us a few minutes, very polite and very nice. Then went about their way. Two days later then came up to us in the boat again, recognized us, said oh its you, we don't need to check you again. Chatted a few minutes and went on their way. :)

This brings back bad memories,in 1998 my wife and two friends were below Wolf Creek dam catching rainbow trout, it started to rain so our wives took there 2 stringers of 8 trout to the truck. My friend and I needed 2 trout each to have our 8, He caught 2 more and I caught 1 when 2 wardens walked up and told us we were over the limit. They went to our trucks and started counting, altogeather there were 31 trout on 4 stringers, one shy of the limit. They made us pay a fine because we put some trout on our wives stringers. I should have faught the ticket but it was 79$ and it wasn,t worth missing a days work,I still don,t like trout! Dave

on the cooler issue they are like that duck hunting too, want all ducks in seperate piles or stringers (if three people hunting they will give u a ticket if u have 18 ducks in a pile and not seperated out) I know from experience on that. Some wardens are super guys, do there job like it should be done. Most of them let it go to there head that they have a gun and ticket book with some authority