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A question about transporting game fish.


Old Ironmaker

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There is absolutely no problem with you giving fish to a friend or anyone else and they do not need a fishing licence. The same goes for game and is widely used by hunters who have participated in the OFAH food for the need y project.


That being said, there are a couple of points to remember.


a) Those fish still are part of your daily limit. In other words you cannot take your girlfriend out fishing with you even though she does not fish, but ‘give’ her a limit, so that you can catch a second limit on the same day. The actual wording is “catch and retain in one day or possess”. You could, however, catch a limit of walleyes today, take them home and give them to your mother-in-law (hey, this is hypothetical!) then go out the next day and catch a limit for yourself. Remember that fish in your freezer are part of your limit, so you cannot have six, ten, or twenty limits of walleye in your freezer at home, even though you only took them six per day.


Possession limits apply to the receiving individual as well.


Edited by Mister G
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Rick, you don't have a freezer, you just hang those thousands of fish outside in the -30 temps :) :)

Dogs Bill, we have dogs lol. You should see how fast theyll eat a deer carcass! Which we get one or two of every winter to feed them.

 

But yeah, shes cold!!!-41 the other day! Now its +4 and raining ???

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This makes me think about a chat I had years ago with some buds.

 

Say your a idiot and to keep multiple limits in your freezer. How would you ever even get caught???

 

Unless you got snagged out in the boat with 50 over your limit or something.

 

What are the odds, without a serious infraction, that a CO would actually perform a search of your house???

 

Only time ive ever heard of it being done was because of illegal guns or poaching moose or something "bigger" in terms of the infraction.

 

Not trying to give anyone ideas here but honestly...

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Thats right. Not too many people around here that fish regularly respect the possession limit.

They respect daily limits but usually have a few in the freezer for slow season.

You gotta be doing something really extreme to get a CO checking your house freezer.

 

Personally, I only keep a couple to eat right away..I don't like freezing fish.

If I can't eat them, I give them away

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Has that been confirmed by the MNR? I agree with getting rid of the Conservation License.

Sorry, can't agree because if she had a license our limit could be either 4, 6 or 8 walleyes depending on what licenses we both held......see your argument does hold water.......(pun intended)

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Thats right. Not too many people around here that fish regularly respect the possession limit.

They respect daily limits but usually have a few in the freezer for slow season.

You gotta be doing something really extreme to get a CO checking your house freezer.

 

Personally, I only keep a couple to eat right away..I don't like freezing fish.

If I can't eat them, I give them away

Me too. I got rabbit, partridge, deer and moose in the freezer.

 

I never eat frozen fish. Havent for along time

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Has that been confirmed by the MNR? I agree with getting rid of the Conservation License.

 

See post 4 in the thread above, the answer came from the ministry:

 

Question 164a:

Related to this, is the possession limit for the recipient the same as what the angler has? I.e., if the angler has a conservation licence, is the recipient of the fish bound by conservation limits?

Answer from the MNR

The possession limit for the recipient is that of a regular (non-conservation) licence.

If you want to check with them again, here is the link to contact them:

 

https://www.ontario.ca/feedback/contact-us?id=26930&nid=65620

Edited by G.mech
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If you can't have more then your possession limit stuffed away in your freezer, why would you think someone without a license could?

Because I gave them to him...half the fishermen don't know the rules. How can a guy that doesn't fish be expected to tell a neighbor...nope, can't take the fish, I already have a limit in the freezer...oh wait, what kind are they, i may not have a limit of them kind yet.

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At least you don't have to wait for him to eat them before you can go fishing again.

 

In the boat, CO asks why are you tossing them all back...oh, because I gave my neighbor a limit and he hasn't eaten them yet :tease: :tease:

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This is a tricky one but a great discussion. Tell me if I'm seeing this correctly...

 

Theoretically,

1) if fish given to a non-licence holder remain as "possession" to the licence holder, and,

2) if the same fish cannot be counted toward two separate possession limits,

3) there is an open agreement to where the fish came from.

 

So Angler A catches his limit and Angler B catches his limit. No issues. Then they both give their fish to Norman No Licence. At what point do two limits of legally caught fish become illegal? Can Norman keep these fish as long as Angler A and B acknowledge the fishes origin if required, AND, neither Angler A or B have enough fish in their personal possession that would put them over their limit INCLUDING Norman's fish??

 

Well, this would be hard to nail down but that's not the discussion. And since it would be very difficult for law enforcement to enforce, they generally make it easy on themselves and simply state, nobody can have more than a possession limit. And to me, this makes sense. Being a non licence holder is not really an excuse for not knowing the law. We don't forgive poachers with no licence, newly landed immigrants, people from Ottawa, lol kidding.

 

Maybe I'm seeing this wrong but at the end of the day, the MNR would not like having an escape clause that can put a pile of fish in one place on a technicality. :dunno:

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Re: "1) if fish given to a non-licence holder remain as "possession" to the licence holder, and,"

- That statement is incorrect. The fish would count towards the possession limit of the person to whom the fish was given.

 


Re: "So Angler A catches his limit and Angler B catches his limit. No issues. Then they both give their fish to Norman No Licence. At what point do two limits of legally caught fish become illegal?"

- It would be illegal for Norman to accept limits from two different anglers. As soon as he does so, the two limits would become illegal. He would need to finish eating angler A's limit before he could accept a limit from anger B.

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Re: "1) if fish given to a non-licence holder remain as "possession" to the licence holder, and,"

- That statement is incorrect. The fish would count towards the possession limit of the person to whom the fish was given.

 

 

I think it may be correct...

 

Answer from the MNR:

There is absolutely no problem with you giving fish to a friend or anyone else and they do not need a fishing licence. The same goes for game and is widely used by hunters who have participated in the OFAH food for the need y project.

That being said, there are a couple of points to remember.

a) Those fish still are part of your daily limit. In other words you cannot take your girlfriend out fishing with you even though she does not fish, but ‘give’ her a limit

Edited by grimsbylander
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Re: "So Angler A catches his limit and Angler B catches his limit. No issues. Then they both give their fish to Norman No Licence. At what point do two limits of legally caught fish become illegal?"

- It would be illegal for Norman to accept limits from two different anglers. As soon as he does so, the two limits would become illegal. He would need to finish eating angler A's limit before he could accept a limit from anger B.

 

Then we agree... I wrote "... nobody can have more than a possession limit. And to me, this makes sense."

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Is it legal for someone that does not have a fishing licence to transport gamefish in Ontario? I can give anyone without a fishing license gamefish can they take them home with them? I say yes, it's only logical, but the word logical usually doesn't apply in Ontario.

 

These were the original 2 questions, not how many Billy Bob can have in his freezer if he's separated but not divorced or anything else.

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I think it may be correct...

 

Answer from the MNR:

There is absolutely no problem with you giving fish to a friend or anyone else and they do not need a fishing licence. The same goes for game and is widely used by hunters who have participated in the OFAH food for the need y project.

That being said, there are a couple of points to remember.

a) Those fish still are part of your daily limit. In other words you cannot take your girlfriend out fishing with you even though she does not fish, but ‘give’ her a limit

 

Daily limit, and possession limit are two different concepts. Even if the figure is the same for both, the concepts are still different.

 

If you give a fish away, it will still count towards your daily limit for that day. However once the fish has been give to someone else, it counts towards their possession limit.

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Daily limit, and possession limit are two different concepts. Even if the figure is the same for both, the concepts are still different.

 

If you give a fish away, it will still count towards your daily limit for that day. However once the fish has been give to someone else, it counts towards their possession limit.

 

Got it! I think we still agree, I just wasn't digging down deep enough between the daily and possession limit concepts. Thanks!

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The original question was can the non licensed person given the fish be able to "transport the fish" from point A to point B and the answer is yes. If the fish are clearly id'd. The crazy thing I have learned is that a non licensed person can possess more fish than I can with my conservation licence. So my non licensed, non fisherman room mate/wife/son/daughter/renter/mother in law/ stranger on the couch can possess a full sportsman limit on their side of the fridge and I can only possess for my conservation limit on my side of the fridge. The same goes for anyone else that lives there. They can have more fish possession than I can and I'm the one paying for an Outdoors card and license. C'mon Man!

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