So you caught and retained 6 trout? Whether you lose them or not they count for your daily bag limit. This is against the law.

They were live. By that logic you have to stop fishing C and R. My stringer is in the water off of my kayak and I was not using bait. The fish swam off of the stringer, they did not "get lost". So people who C and R 25 plus trout are breaking the law?

Btw, it would not be surprising if something like this were true, I am just one of those weird people who believes logic should trump dictate. I would understand if I was catching small fish and keeping them in the hopes of getting something bigges, two of the trout that got out were nicer larger fish than what was retained.

As long as they were alive and released your fine. You can catch and release all you want as long as two things are done. 1 no bait is used and 2 the fish are not harmed. Being on the stronger is extremely harmful to fish. I'm not totally sure how they would rule that so your walking a fine line for sure. If using bait ie worms, powerbait, scented plastics once a fish is caught regardless of how it is released it is part of your daily limit. Sounds like you weren't using any of this so your fine but you may look into the stringer part. Like I say it is walking a very fine line on that. Thanks for the report. Tight lines!

OK Yak, that's it. The internet F&G has caught you!
Put your hands behind your head and walk backwards, slowly to your local F&G office and turn yourself in. :)
I love the way everyone is ready to pounce on a guy with their interpretation of the law, after reading a post.

CnR all you want when fishing without bait. Second report this morning where someone "assumes" something illegal occurred. Report data didn't list bait and nothing stated in Yak's report to indicate otherwise, so why some people "assume" bait was involved is beyond me and last time I read the regs, there wasn't anything in them about putting them on a stringer.

Great report Yak and I like the shot with half a brown in the mouth of the other. Oh no, does that count as one or two? :-D

I think if you talk to a game warden and asked if putting fish on the stringer,...( is that a kept fish?).....you would get your answer....legally you might have kept too many fish but I'm not here to judge....I've screwed up a time or two

I am still recent to here and the enormity of regulation regarding fishing still astounds me. Florida it was slot limits and a couple out of bounds breeding grounds or species, but all waters were year round. Here the same river has different regs from a power line to a bridge and such. It seems all species are a protected type species in practice if not in name. Just confuses the heck out of me. I pack it in and pack it out, paddle for my fish, don't mess up the areas, and fish under what I interpreted the rules to be. Seems to me you need a law degree to figure this stuff out.

Wasn't trying to sound like a douche guys. Sorry it came across that way. I called the fish and game because I was curious about the stringer issue. Once on the stringer the fish are part of your limit for the day. We all have made mistakes. I'm not judging just educating. We all have trouble with the regs at times. Sorry I came across as a dick. Truly didn't mean it that way. Good luck fishing everyone.

You know, I am glad this question about whether fish on the stringer count towards your daily bag limit came up. I have asked myself the same thing when I have some little ones on a stringer and then find a pod of bigger fish and begin to catch them. I always wondered if it were legal to "trade up" if the fish I release off the stringer are in seemingly good health. This answers the question of whether fish on the stringer is probably critically injured and should count towards the daily limit...they do indeed count towards the limit.
Thanks for the good question and the research on the answer.

For the sake of discussion and I'm not saying this is what happened, just what the discussion is about. C&R means catch and release. Placing a fish on a stringer is an act of retention, you can't retain a fish and claim you have released it. Think of it this way. Lets say you catch a native steelhead and keeping it in the water place it on a stringer. A warden takes your photo (none of this would really ever happen) then after the trip he confronts you. If you claim you never removed it from the water and released it later that day, then he shows you the photo who would be right?

Catch and Release, not Catch, Retain for a while and Release. By this theory it would be ok to slide a Native Steelhead on the stringer before releasing it which would clearly not fly. I am not saying of course anyone would do that, or that rainbow trout are as endangered as steelhead, just that the same verbs are being used with each in the same context which would mean arguing different positions would be hard to support.

You can catch and release anything you want alive no matter how you catch them.

One more thing,if you use a live well, the stringer isn't even in play.