I would think a day constitutes your time spent at one location. For example, if you catch your limit at NB Pier, I guess you can go somewhere else provided you dont have that limit in your cooler when you get there.
Im just guessing though.


MC


"Remember,The further you cast the longer it takes to bring the big ones in."

 

Just got off the phone with Maryland DNR and got, legally, a pretty half-assed answer.

A "day" is clearcut-- 12:01AM to midnight. If you start fishing at 11pm, ctach your creel limit at 11:59, you take your hook out of the water for two minutes and start all over again at 12:01am.

Here's the trick-- the possession limit may be more important than the creel limit. Take rockfish, for example-- you can only have one IN POSSESSION right now, although you can catch one per day. So, start fishing at 11pm, get one, stop fishing to 12:01, get another one, you're still busted.

Now we'll get more complicated, say with Croaker. You start at 7pm, get 25 by 11.30, take a half hour break and start again at 12.01. You catch 5 more and the inspector shows up at 3am. IT IS UP TO HIM< SUPPOSEDLY, TO DECIDE IF HE BELIEVES YOU OR NOT. Now personally I'd love to see that kind of ticket wind up in court, but he's basically going to write it.

Pretty %^$*%^-up system.

 

iy's best to always check the regulations. look for if it says10/day per person, it usually means in possession. the wording is usually specific, but people tend to put their interpretation in there and that doesn't count. we had a fellow here in de.[ blue fish-10/day]' he got caught with 42. his reasoning, the limit only applied to tourists. his fine was pretty hefty.

 

When in doubt - take your catch and cooler and put it in the car. This will show the DNR that you mean business and do not want to have more than your legal limit in your possession while fishing.

 

Man... I wish I had this problem... catching too much fish and trying to figure out what to do with it...

 

hey sandcrab, this is obviously a "tricky" subject and left to interpretation. i've done what you have suggested in the past...put them in another cooler and place in the car...but is that still considered possession...those in your car and those that are in the cooler on the pier. i'd like to thank everyone for their input.

 

Greetings All!

Couldn't pass up the chance to muddy the waters even more than what they are!

Here in PA (where we have nothing but freshwater) there is a definite difference between the creel limit and the posession limit. You can not have more than the creel limit while actively fishing. So with a five trout creel limit, you can't have any more than five trout. However, you are allowed to have double the creel limit in posession while overnight camping or traveling from a fishing spot to home. So the largest number of trout you can have anytime (outside of your home) is ten. Even if you're coming home from a week in the mountains, you can't have more than ten trout. Period. Freshwater fishing has been regulated for decades, so the laws are clear.

Regulation is still in its infancy in saltwater, so many rules are vague, and fishermen tend to interpret them to their advantage. Sometimes the violations end up in court, and a ruling comes down. On the NJ board I mentioned a case a few years back where fishermen were nightfishing for weakfish. They would catch their fourteen fish "daily" limit, wait until midnight, and catch fourteen more fish. The NJ DEP got wind of the practice, and set up surveilance. When a boat came back to the dock at 2:00 AM with 168 fish (6 fishermen x 28 fish), they were written up. The fishermen took the case before the magistrate, who ruled that they had fished only one 24 hour period, and found them guilty. The same ruling has been applied to fishermen making morning and evening trips on the same calendar day.

Finally, a situation that I've found myself in, and hope not to be the test case, is the MD regulation about no rock in posession between midnight and 5:00 AM. When I liveline the Choptank pier/bridge in the Fall, I walk my keepers to the car about 11:30 PM, and continue to fish for trout and blues until 2:00 AM or so. At the end of the night, all fish are placed together in a single cooler while I'm at the parking lot. If the DNR guys check my cooler at that point, am I in violation? Am I in violation just by having a rock in the cooler in my locked car after midnight while I'm still actively fishing? In spite of my effort to walk the fish off the pier/bridge before midnight, my instincts tell me I'd be written up....

 

Jake...If they check your cooler at 2:00AM and find more than 1 striper you will be written up. That second striper was either caught before midnight in which case you're in violation or it was caught after midnight and you're still in violation. The only time the DNR refers to "Possession" is for stripers between midnight and 5:00AM. All other times/dates and all other fish are only refered to as "Creel Limit".

There was a guy at the Tank last year that hooked a striper before 5:00AM (somewhere around 4:30AM) and managed to keep it on his line in the water until 5:00AM. Someone posted about this last year.

As far as differentiating between 25 croakers before midnight and 25 after midnight that's just pure greed and the dude should be written up. Catch your 25 and go home.

Catman.