I agree. Any of us that have fished long enough have accidentally fouled hooked fish. OTOH I would hope we would have the conviction not to enter the fish as a record, but it would be tough. Over here in Ohio when the walleye run up the Maumee River from Lake Erice it's not hard to do it accidentally. Sadly I know of a guy that pulled one in and was in the process of removing the hook and got dinged for foul hooking. It's a kangaroo court over here and generates a lot of money. All the C.O,'s there drive spanking new SUV's. I wonder where that money comes from?
Just wondering what your opinions are on this scenario - You catch a bass on a large jerk bait with 3 trebles. Tail treble is in fishes mouth but the middle and head treble are across the gill plate. First hook you take out is the tail end hook that was in the mouth. Then second treble is the middle one. If you at that point only saw 1 hook being removed from the gill plate, would you call that a foul hooked fish?
I went back to my post and Bolded the important part of my question. That 1 of 3 hooks was IN the fishes mouth. Because you see, if you start taking the hooks out one at at time in the reverse order, would you still count that as foul hooked?
Think I would have fought that one, that's ridiculous to get a ticket while unhooking a fish. If it was unhooked and not released then that's a different story.
Its not worth getting your tackle and vehicle impounded and it's their word against yours.
i always wanted to stand out in the river there and caast and yank(like im snagging) with just a sinker. lol i have caught them watching me with binoculars before. thought they were hiding i guess. lol i sat down with my binocs and stared back at them till they went on their way. i know its their job but it still don't set well with me to be spied on! people that aren't breaking the law usually take offense to being accused ya know. as far as the foul hooked fish, id say its the Burdon of the states to prove wrong doing. if there was a hook in its mouth then there is a hole. its just a fish record for god sakes. there are plenty of record fish caught and released every year that go unreported.id have to see the video for myself. anyone have the link?
Have no idea of the veracity of this claim but has anyone noticed whenever someone catches a record fish or shoots a record buck some people have to make a controversy out of it? It's like they're jealous or something. "Oh that record fish could not have been caught around here," or "That buck had to be pen raised." I had it happen to me by an outdoor writer.