Thread: Possession limits?

I was referring to the fish that may be in someone's freezer from a season's worth of fishing. A daily limit seems pretty cut and dried. Possession seems to have different definitions everywhere you look. Personal posession- whole fish on your person or in your cooler at the time
Possession at your home,
Possession frozen but cleaned in a cooler and on your way back to whatever state you reside in... The list goes on...

I hope 'the man' never stops by my house and looks in the freezer ;-) lol

To make my original post a little more simple , can I catch 15 Spanish in one day, clean them and freeze them for the trip home and then catch more the second day and do the same and maybe end up with a cooler full for the trip to Indiana??

Originally Posted by johnbenetti

To make my original post a little more simple , can I catch 15 Spanish in one day, clean them and freeze them for the trip home and then catch more the second day and do the same and maybe end up with a cooler full for the trip to Indiana??

Apparently that would make you an outlaw.
Along with the rest of us with more than one day's limit in the freezer.
So join the crowd, you'll be in good company.

Originally Posted by johnbenetti

To make my original post a little more simple , can I catch 15 Spanish in one day, clean them and freeze them for the trip home and then catch more the second day and do the same and maybe end up with a cooler full for the trip to Indiana??

I would think you were legal at that point, but I don't even play a lawyer on TV.

Originally Posted by Pier#r

I hope 'the man' never stops by my house and looks in the freezer ;-) lol

I hope "the man" looks in my freezer but doesn't take the beer sitting along the side of it.

what if you have 1 cooler between 2 people.can you have 2 limits

Originally Posted by kyle111

what if you have 1 cooler between 2 people.can you have 2 limits

That part I'm sure is OK as we have been checked coming in with 4 limits of snapper for four people in one cooler.

What gets sticky is if the people leave in two cars and the cooler goes with one person, but I think they would let you prove that others had helped catch, IF they even tried to make the case.

This topic has been hashed out on the Forum numerous times.

Daily limit is just that: the number of fish(es) of certain species you can catch in one calendar day. As others noted, if you catch your 15 Spanish macs, you are done. You cannot catch and retain anymore. Even if you give them away you cannot catch and retain (and that includes giving them away) more than the daily limit in one calendar day. I see this happen or read about it on this forum numerous times, its a common "mistake" especially when the spanish are thick or the once a summer blistering king mac chew down happens. Dont do it and especially dont tell the world by posting it here!

Possession limit for Alabama is basically a "field possession" issue. Once taken to a "residence" and processed, fish and game no longer count towards possession:

220-2-.18 Possession Limit
It shall be unlawful to take or attempt to take or have in possession more than the daily bag limit of any game bird, game or furbearing animals except as listed in numbers (1) and (2) of this rule.
(1) Possession limit does not apply on deer and/or turkey provided not more than the daily bag limit on deer and/or one (1) turkey is taken on any one day.
(2) Possession limit of one day bag does not apply on legally taken game birds or game animals after they have been processed and stored in a cooler or or freezer at one's residence or at a commercial processing plant.

This is much different from some other states where even processed fish and game in your residence counts towards possession. There was a widely circulated story from out west where a guy got caught doing something stupid (poaching deer or something) which gave the wardens cause to search his home. He had like 20 daily limits of trout in the freezer. In that state, they have a possession limit of 2 days limit, which for trout includes those processed and stored at your residence. He was fined for exceeding the possession limit even though they had no way to show he ever exceeded the daily limit on trout. This would never happen in AL since once your process the fish, they are reduced from possession.

Back to AL:
"Residence" is the only vague term for tourists. Talking to the CEO in the office next to me, the condo or hotel your are renting is a "residence" for possession purposes. If you take the fish there, process them and place them in the fridge, they have been reduced from possession.

Now the question comes up as what about when you pack up and leave to go back to points north. CEO says that fish that have been processed at your rental and then packed up to take home do not somehow magically become placed back in to possession just because you put them back in the car to go home. They were already reduced from possession when you cleaned them and placed them in the fridge.

Bottom line is this:
Don't exceed the daily limit.
Don't keep fish (uncleaned or not) in exxcess of the daily limit before in the cooler in your boat or vehicle while in the field. For our purposes, "in the field" includes the pier parking lot.
If you stop to fish on your way out of town, the previous days fish in your cooler in the vehicle need to be clearly cleaned and wrapped. Better yet, in a separate cooler from your fresh unprocessed catch.
Unless you get caught doing something egregious, no CEO is ever going to come to your condo or home and rummage through your fridge.
If you get pulled over on the way back north for speeding, the Trooper is not going to say "let me check your cooler for your possession limit of king mackerel". Troopers have much more serious issues to worry about.