What's in your freezer?

**JABIII** · 04-27-2017, 12:45 PM

How many limits of fish does South Carolina law provide for in your home? Once you have a possession limit cleaned, bagged, and frozen are you done?

By Todd Masson, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune

on April 25, 2017 at 5:21 AM, updated April 25, 2017 at 11:06 AM

You know those speckled trout fillets you've been storing in your freezer? You'd better start eating them if you want to keep fishing and remain legal.

Two separate busts of four fishermen on the south shore of Lake Pontchartrain last week got a bunch of area anglers questioning what they really know about the state's daily take and possession limits. NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune has been bombarded with questions from readers about what is legal and what isn't, particularly when it comes to possession limits.

For most waters, Louisiana law allows for each angler to keep 25 speckled trout per day, but the regulation states that anglers may be in possession of twice that -- 50 speckled trout -- once on land, provided the angler did not catch more than 25 fish in any single day.

So, does that possession limit extend to speckled trout that are filleted, bagged and put away in a freezer?

"Technically, yes," said Adam Einck, media relations officer for the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries. "Each person is only allowed a two-day possession limit."

The regulations get tricky when fishing camps come into play. Many anglers fish Friday, Saturday and Sunday at camps scattered all along the Louisiana coast. When the fishing is hot, it's not unusual for anglers to limit out all three days and clean those fish or transfer them whole back home.

That's illegal, according to Einck, because those anglers exceed the two-day possession limit. If they get caught by agents, they're subject to being ticketed.

Anglers who have camps accessible only by water are even more restricted. Since the fish would have to be transported by boat to the angler's truck, he or she may possess no more than 25 speckled trout per person, even if the trip lasted multiple days, Einck said.

Also, since speckled trout are subject to size restrictions, transporting fillets by boat is against the law. Anglers are perfectly within their legal rights, however, to fillet the fish at the dock of a marina or road-accessible camp and then transfer the fillets by vehicle -- assuming, of course, they are under their two-day possession limit.

One thing that's never legal, however, is trip fishing -- catching a limit in the morning, dropping them off at a camp or truck and going back in the afternoon to catch another limit.