Having a Large mouth Bass as pet is illegal?

[localhost]

I was pretty surprised that it's illegal to catch a Bass and keep it as a pet.

 

I know many people would say why would you keep one as a pet anyways, by pet I wanted to put one in my pond  in the backyard not in a fish tank, If I wanted a Bass for my fish tank I'd just buy a peacock Bass.

 

Was interested in keeping Bass I catch and putting them in my pond saw many people were making YouTube videos of them catching Bass and putting them in fish tanks, their was a guy who had a few Bass he kept in a kiddie pool apparently his Bass died some how after Hurricane Irma. 

[NHBull]

In NH it is highly found upon to put fish caught in one body of water into another.  The State might consider stocking some species if conditions apply 

[Glaucus]

What about Bama Bass and his pet bass and bluegill???

[localhost]

Decided to give Fish and Wildlife a call since I'm in Florida, spoke to a guy who is part of the Fisheries, guy says it's not illegal to keep them as pets.

You're allowed to keep them with some exceptions, that you have a fishing licences and you take no more then 5 per person.

 

Other then that he says, yes, you can take them and keep them as a ''pet'' or have them to stock your own pond.

This was allowed in Florida.

   

[TnRiver46]

Check with your local wildlife authorities, it differs from state to state. Most States I would think as long as you had proper holding tanks you could keep a bass. You could classify it as a "bait tank" to get around the rule in Tennessee. They always have wildlife divided into classes and you are allowed to keep certain classes provide you have the proper cages, aquariums, etc

[J Francho]

It depends on your specific state's laws.  And within that, it can vary be county.  Often times, you can order a farm raised bass for aquaria, or apply for a special permit.  We did the latter when we collected pygmy sunfish in NJ Pine Barrens.

[Deleted account]

Most states have their laws and other regulations available online, and some even do a very good job of indexing them and making finding specific laws or subjects fairly straight forward. Keep in mind that there may be laws that apply to wild caught fish as well as farm raised fish, and invasive species. In some cases transporting live fish may be illegal, while keeping them may not be. In any case, that is where the correct answer will be found. 

[Smokinal]

This is something you definitely want to check with your own, local law enforcement on. Maine is very, very sensitive to this topic; to the extent of resulting in huge fines, jail time, even confiscating the truck you used to transport the fish. Which, by the way, transporting means to remove the fish from the body of water. Some weigh-ins have to be held with the boat in the water, fish in live well and recirculating pump on the whole time or above said fines may occur.

They're still bent out of shape about the whole white perch in Moosehead Lake thing....

 

https://www.nytimes.com/1987/06/07/us/act-of-vandalism-threatens-rare-brook-trout-in-maine-lake.html

 

 

 

 

[RPreeb]

14 hours ago, Smokinal said:

This is something you definitely want to check with your own, local law enforcement on. Maine is very, very sensitive to this topic; to the extent of resulting in huge fines, jail time, even confiscating the truck you used to transport the fish. Which, by the way, transporting means to remove the fish from the body of water. Some weigh-ins have to be held with the boat in the water, fish in live well and recirculating pump on the whole time or above said fines may occur.

They're still bent out of shape about the whole white perch in Moosehead Lake thing....

 

https://www.nytimes.com/1987/06/07/us/act-of-vandalism-threatens-rare-brook-trout-in-maine-lake.html

 

 

 

 

I have to ask... what was the final resolution in Moosehead Lake?  The article was from 1987, so there must be some later info on what damage ultimately resulted from the illegal stocking. 

 

Colorado wildlife management has had a long battle with trying to keep a pure strain of the endangered greenback cutthroat trout (the Colorado State Fish) from extinction.  The latest article I read says that there is only a 3.5 mile stretch of a creek SW of Colorado Springs which still supports a genetically pure population of them, only about 700 fish.  The native cutthroat can't compete successfully with the introduced sporting populations of brook and rainbow trout.  Another example of what can happen when a species is introduced without any proper research or planning.

[Bluebasser86]

I talked to a GW once that told me about a guy that got himself a hefty fine because he was keeping some smallmouth for aquarium pets. He had a half dozen 4-6 inch smallmouth he was saving in a minnow bucket, problem is it doesn't matter what your intentions are with the fish, it has to be legal sized to keep (5 fish over 18" on this particular lake). So he got citations for several undersized fish and being over his limit. 

[frosty]

2 hours ago, Bluebasser86 said:

I talked to a GW once that told me about a guy that got himself a hefty fine because he was keeping some smallmouth for aquarium pets. He had a half dozen 4-6 inch smallmouth he was saving in a minnow bucket, problem is it doesn't matter what your intentions are with the fish, it has to be legal sized to keep (5 fish over 18" on this particular lake). So he got citations for several undersized fish and being over his limit. 

Exactly what I was thinking. Anything under 14” for a largemouth in Indiana will earn you a prize from the DNR. 

On 4/16/2018 at 3:54 PM, Glaucus said:

What about Bama Bass and his pet bass and bluegill???

It would be illegal in Indiana because of size regulations. 

[CroakHunter]

1 hour ago, frosty said:

Exactly what I was thinking. Anything under 14” for a largemouth in Indiana will earn you a prize from the DNR. 

It would be illegal in Indiana because of size regulations. 

Unless you caught them out of private water. 

[TOXIC]

I had a friend in a past life that had an Earth Home and the entire back wall was an aquarium.  Probably 1,000 gallons.  He had it set up as a natural ecosystem with an overabundance of filtration (an entire room behind the wall and face of the tank) that kept the water crystal clear.  He had turtles, bass, catfish, bluegill and crappie as well as crayfish and other food fish for the population.  It was pretty neat to say the least.  The biggest problem with keeping bass and the like is the amount you have to feed them to keep them healthy.  Then you have to deal with introduced disease if you use shiners or minnows.  It is a pain.  Now for those that keep some of the Southern fish like Oscars and Peacocks.  Those are non native and actually Cichlids that were originally aquarium fish to begin with.  I had 6 tanks of Chichlids at one time and got into them as a hobby, biggest tank was 85 gallons and went down to 40 gallon tanks for quarintine and spawning tanks.  I had some real exotics shipped in from Africa.  I would never even consider doing a natural tank for gamefish.   

[frosty]

5 hours ago, CroakHunter said:

Unless you caught them out of private water. 

It’s still illegal to transport them I believe,  That’s the way it used to be written, you couldn’t posses any bass under 14”

[Deleted account]

9 hours ago, Bluebasser86 said:

I talked to a GW once that told me about a guy that got himself a hefty fine because he was keeping some smallmouth for aquarium pets. He had a half dozen 4-6 inch smallmouth he was saving in a minnow bucket, problem is it doesn't matter what your intentions are with the fish, it has to be legal sized to keep (5 fish over 18" on this particular lake). So he got citations for several undersized fish and being over his limit. 

As well he should have. I can hear it now, "Yes officer, it's ok, you see those 20 bass in my livewell that are 1-2" short are all going into my aquarium, that just happens to be shaped like a turkey frier, so it's ok, right?..."

[BASS302]

@localhost,

Your bass is not a pet.  You are a member of Bass Resource.  I think that qualifies your bass as an emotional support animal.