Originally Posted By: Scottpuck
Originally Posted By: mikey b
I spoke with a game warden a few weeks ago. There was no mentioning of the hook having to be in the fishes mouth. It turns out snagging or attempting to snag a fish is a gross misdameanor. That means they can hall your a$$ off to jail. It would be disappointing to see a warden incarcerate someone for keeping a fish hooked just outside of the mouth.


Actually, I might be wrong here but I think any fish and game infraction starts as a felony and you have to go to court to plea bargain it down from there.

At least that was how my deal went down in CA (I forgot to crimp my barb while fishing for shad). Seeing as though it was a felony, I'm pretty sure that is federal and not state???

It ended up costing me $135 bucks and was relabeled an infraction. But if I would have pushed this issue (i didn't - I was guilty), it would have been dropped to a misdameaner with possible 6 month jail time and $2,700 in fines.

... and no, i didn't get an attempt to explain anything. It was guilty or not guilty.


You are incorrect! In washington there are fish & wildlife laws that are infractions, misdemeanors, gross misdemeanors, and felonies. What the actual regulation is classified as is up to the state supreme court which also sets the fine for each regulation. An example of a infraction would be barbed hook, misdemeanor would be no license, gross misdemeanor would be snagging and felonies are mainly commercial regulations, however there are a few recreational hunting violations that are felonies, however they are usually second-time offenses.