Using Live wells
Posted: Wed Aug 04, 2010 5:27 pm
This subject was touched a little on another post about torpedoing fish back. There is one problem with the use of Live wells in that its not legal to put undersized fish in a live well. I believe it is ethical to use a live well to revive an undersized fish that might otherwise die but the risk of being ticketed is always out there. Its simply not legal to revive or detain an undersized fish in a Live well. It is for this reason that I stopped netting smaller fish during trolling sessions on St. Clair choosing to just turn the hook around and let them go. This practice however put a 6 /0 hook in my wrist that could have killed me had it torn into arteries and main blood vessels. I was lucky and have returned to using the net and slowing my boat to a crawl. Common sense tells us all that a still boat is the best type of situation there is. Follow the video and they go back quickly and safely but bigger boats, waves, winds, planer boards etc all lead to finding ways to get them back as safe as we can. I am for a law change that would allow the use of Live wells as a tool for release of sub legal fish. For now anyone practicing this is taking the chance of being ticketed. Ive seen it all this year. Captains swimming with fish, hooks in my arm, good releases and bad ones. Bad weather plays a big part in whether or not one is able to perform all of the steps properly. W e must all just do the best we can and remember even on our best days some of them will not make it. They fight so hard to get away only to die a few days later but the good news is across the board, the big picture is that great strides have been made in release tools and tactics. The percentage of fish being killed is way down from even 10 years ago. I would like to see a change in the law that would allow limited use of live wells for the revival of undersized fish. Mike