# releasing dead fish



## djkimmel (Aug 22, 2002)

Is it illegal in Michigan to release a dead gamefish, like a bass, back into a lake or river if you don't want it, even though it is keeper size?


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## ESOX (Nov 20, 2000)

I don't know about the legal aspects of it, but I think it is immoral and unsportsmanlike. If you killed it by accident, either eat it or give it to someone who will. Reminds me of the time after a weigh in of a mini weekday tourney at Harley one day. I was shore fishing and a guy asked me if I wanted one of his bass that didnt survive . I told him no, and he dropped it in the water along the shore where it promptly floated belly up.


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## boehr (Jan 31, 2000)

No, not illegal. If it is not legal size or species it is mandatory you release it dead or alive.


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## mich buckmaster (Nov 20, 2001)

ESOX, I agree 100%, because I know guys who do the same thing with deer. They cut out the backstraps and throw the rest of it away, or the guy who shoots a deer and celebrates in HOt weather, but ruining the deer to just throw it away. 

I get upset about it too, but I try and understand that at least the turtles, bugs, and other animals will live off that fresh fish. Then the nutrients will go back into the soil. 

I know it doesnt make it any better, but that is what I try and tell myself.


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## RIP (Jun 4, 2002)

I would think leaving a dead legal size game fish behind would be a violation of "wantin waist law" 

I suppose there is alot of room for interpretation there. 

You fill your stringer and then start trading out for bigger fish because the fishing is so good.

You never intended to keep it You couldn't revive it and it died. 

I don't know. the question intrigues me. It use to be common practice to leave speared carp and succkers where they lay or where ever you piled them for that matter.

Example: piles of dogfish outside a shanty. I don't know how acceptable that is anymore. 

Not the same as one dead bass though.


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## djkimmel (Aug 22, 2002)

Thanks boehr. That's what I thought.

As to the other issues of ethics, that's a whole nother debate that is already lively elsewhere again. I just wanted to get the legality cleared up so the debates can be about the right things.


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## boehr (Jan 31, 2000)

The ethics (there is no wantin waste law for fish, only waterfowl) of the situation do depend on the circumstances. I have seen both, from those who regard themselves as the tournament angler all the way down to the free fishing weekend angler. Those in bass or walleye contests that get their limit and catch a bigger one then throw the smaller one back; to the sucker spearers walking along a creek and just spearing fish to spear fish. Much different from a person that catches only one fish and tosses it back at the end of the day because he only caught the one or even empting the minnow bucket from the dead minnows when done fishing. You bring up a good example with the ice fishing.


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