# free willie flathead



## riverKing

so i found a 15-20lb flathead full of eggs, tied up in a little creek out in the boonies this morning, and i always get po'd when people keep those things so i drove it back to the river. did i do the right thing though?


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## KATKING

Theres no reason a fish of any size should be tied in a creek. I would of done that same thing. Good Job!


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## catfish1998

Good job.That was the right thing to do.


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## Steelwolve

By tied up do you mean on a rope/stringer, or stuck in the shallows?


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## M.Magis

It wasn't your fish to make that decision.


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## catfisher81

if no one was around to claim it then i say good job and right thing. could not think of any reason why someone would leave a flattie tied up in a creek though.


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## johnboy111711

was there any big catfish tournaments coming up?


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## athensfishin'

M.Magis said:


> It wasn't your fish to make that decision.


Well the better question is was it a public land or private, was it your land or someone you know in which case you can be perfectly justified in doing so. and with public land just as much, as nobody "owns" a fish let alone tied and unattended. "Moral of the story if you are not by it, possession transfers to the one who is" my dad taught me that long ago when I would tie up my stringer too close to him. On a side note depending on where you found it I would have left a note and left a bluegill or something as trade


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## tcba1987

johnboy111711 said:


> was there any big catfish tournaments coming up?


My thoughts exactly and ...................YES there is several this weekend !!!


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## Guest

Assuming that you wasnt tresspassing you done the right thing man. To keep a big flattie like that is just stupid and it must have been a very uneducated person to have stringed it and left it in the first place. Good job on saving a trophy fish!


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## misfit

no,you did not do the right thing.


> and i always get po'd when people keep those things


it is not your place or mine to take it upon ourselves to play "save the fish" just because we don't like people keeping them.or for any other reason,unless you have reason to believe a law was broken.in which case,the right approach would be to contact law enforcement.unless you left something out,you have no clue as to why the fish was there,or who caught it,etc.


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## bigcats28

im on both sides of this...i really dont like when people keep flatties that...One, its nothin to brag about so why get it mounted? and two, its pretty much too big to eat. I wouldve done the same thing, but only if i knew it was on public land and someone just left it there...but if it was on private, thats kind of a different story, but good job. = )


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## peple of the perch

I think it was a job well done. A fish that last 2 meals, or a fish that will produce a new generation. so the guy comes back and gets PO'ed next day hes fine. the fish isnt comming back the next day.


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## catfish_hunter

hrmmm....Funny story especially with at least 3 or 4 catfish tourney comeing up this weekend!!! I dont think it was your place to release the fish but, I dont see any reason to keep a 20lb flathead either...


PS...Any info on the location that you found this Flathead?


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## bkr43050

I am with Misfit on this one. It was not your decision to make on the fate of the fish. You don't know what the purpose was of stringing the fish. If it was to eat then whoever strung it is totally in the right legally to do so. Many will say that you should not harvest large flatties and that is fine but the fact is there is no law against it. If the guy had cheating on the mind then releasing it simply gave him the easy way out. If you would have contacted authorities perhaps they would have found a way to monitor whether the fish was used in a tourney and thus could have nailed the guy.


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## rustyhook36

Some Old Timers Say That If You Catch A Cat Out Of The River You Should Tie It In Some Fresh Water Hole To "clean Out" For A Few Days Before You Eat It. You May Have Stole Some Poor Mans Dinner.


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## spiff

Laws weren't made to allow you to substitute them for your own personal repsonsibility. Anyone who believes that either lives inside or has no experience with actually living. They were also made for people, not disembodied stringers. Point in fact, it is illegal to tranport fish between bodies of water in Ohio...(uh oh!). I'm SURE that flathead came from the creek where you were....maybe. You just do what your conscience tells you to do and see how it works out. Believe what you want, welcome to America, but don't expect "laws" to get you off the hook for doing the right thing. If somebody staked it out there and wasn't around to claim it, there's no guarantee that you wouldn't find it 2 weeks from now as **** bait on the bank. I have seen enough breaking of the "laws" where wildlife is concerned to know that ODNR is understaffed and in some cases not motivated to uphold "the law". I wouldn't hold my breath for them to track 1 flathead staked in a creek by who knows. If the guy who did it wanted it, he should have been there to raise the point. If he was going to eat it and doesn't have a refrigerator, he's got other issues. If you were on his land, you should have known better....IMHO.


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## neocats1

Good points on both sides of this issue. Many possibilties surround why the fish might have been left tied up. Under the circumstances, I think I would have done the same thing. I can only come up with two reasons that I think the fish might have been left. 1) the person actually forgot and left it there or 2) the person was keeping it for tournament use. Either way you did the right thing.


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## misfit

i understand that lots of catfishermen(and others)are strictly ooposed to anyone keeping big flatheads(or any flatheads at all),and even understand some of the reasoning for thinking he was in the right.i personally don't keep any flatheads i catch(which is very very few lately,LOL)and definitely don't like cheating in tournies.but that still doesn't make it right to take it upon one's self to prejudge and take things into your own hands to.
my biggest problem here is the real(and only) reason that was given.that in itself makes it absolutely wrong.


> i always get po'd when people keep those things so i drove it back to the river


that's the most asinine reason of all.


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## BuckeyeFishinNut

I think ya did the right thing personally. I don't like when people keep flatheads but you are allowed to legally. The underlying question is, why was it in the creek and how long had it been there? I have heard about letting a fish stay in fresh water out of the river to help decontaminate it but you could of did that in a barrel much easier. I would venture to say it was someone trying to cheat a tourney. If there was no identification on the rope I would look at it as an abandoned fish and release it. I would do the same thing if I saw a trot line with a catfish on it and it didn't have the proper identification. A 20lb flathead isnt that big anyways so if he was trying to cheat he picked a poor fish to do it with.

Jake


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## huntinanfishin

alot of good points by all however there are several unanswered questions. Was the fish actually tied up or was it stuck in a hole that it couldn't get out of (for whatever reason)
How big was this creek, couldn't you just free it in the same creek. 
Really depends on alot of things that we don't have the answers to. Purely based on what was told, i would agree to free the fish but i can see the other side as well.


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## H2O Mellon

What I want to know is where did the guy catch it at? I've not heard of many flatheads being caught (in non Ohio River waters) here in Ohio!


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## riverKing

alot of people with opinions
the creek is pretty much a trickle except for the one hole that is waist deep where this fish was tied up to a tree, right next to the road, im sure it came from the hocking river. i found it first thing in the morning during class(netting minnows for icthiology), and it had been there atleast overnight, i then came back that evening to see if it was still there and i figured if the person was "cleaning it out" they would have put it somwhere private, or atleast a little farther from the road. i have seen people so this to just show a fish off to thier buddies, only to have the fish die. we had even tied the fish to a different part of the tree and it hadnt moved from where we had tied it, the person wasnt checking up on it, so i took it back
theres your details


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## catfish_hunter

in that case I would say you more than likely did the right thing....Even though it wasnt YOUR right to do it...


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## Fish-N-Fool

I would release that fish every time and not think twice about it. It doesn't matter to me what species the fish is. Personally, I don't care what the "law" says about this situation either. No fish should be tied and left unattended on a public waterway - IMO. If you want to keep the fish then keep it - don't tie it up and leave it. 

Without looking at the regs, I find it hard to believe it is "legal" to tie up fish and leave them unattended in public water with no identifying information on the line.


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## c100max

I think you guys that are mad about him releasing the fish were the ones tied it up to win a tournament... If the fish was tied up, no one around, I would have released the fish so it wouldn;t have died. It is not right for the fish to be hog tied for no reason to be left for dead!! Great Job man!


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## Guest

> I think you guys that are mad about him releasing the fish were the ones tied it up to win a tournament...


word..........


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## Flathead King 06

Im kinda on both sides of this thread... 1st) you have this, obviously pregnant female flathead who could help populate a river, tied to a tree in plain view of the public....this seems a little fishy if ya know what i mean...probably as already stated, someone caught it and was "keeping" it to show off instead of using it for a tourney and in this case, even though it wasnt your respnsibility you did the right thing i agree with your decision because it would have probably ended up being left for the hot sun and flies...IMO if i were going to use it in a tourney I would have had it in a huge tub or tote with a steading supply of oxygen to keep it lively (doesnt look to good on you if you turn in a half dead fish for scoring)... 2nd) If the person had it tied up for the use of food, then I believe it would have been hidden or just plain out of view from the public...my grandfather in his day dug a small holding pond behind his house that had a little trickling stream running into it that he would dump fish in after a days fishing when he was too tired to skin them...so in this case i believe you were wrong in what you did because like a few have said its not up to you to release someones "dinner" but in the circumstances you described you acted accordingly to the situation and i agree...

i dont want to step on anyones toes with my reply so if i did let me know


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## mrfishohio

Interesting thread........
Since you monitored it and no one came back it ruins one theory I was going to throw out. Maybe they went to get a camera, or waited to daylight to take the pictures. I know sometimes fish get tied up for that reason, but the anglers remain close by.


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## Brad617

You did the right thing. I to would have released it. Great Job,


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## Fishaholic69

I would of released it also and if someone wanted to object then they'd have to go through me. I hate people that harm animals. leaving a fish tied up doesn't sound right to me. plus a pregnant female can make more flatheads. why leave it there to just die. I have heard of people having a pet fish but u put fish in an aquarium. not put a fish on a leash. who cares what people think. you did the right thing. if the person wanted the fish they should of took it right away. i say finders keepers and you found it so what you do with it is up to you.. so good job maybe one of us will catch that fish and it will be the world record flathead. never kno? lol!!! you did the right thing


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## liquidsoap

I think you did the right thing.
It was on a rope with no one is sight, its there fault if they were going to keep it to abandon it.
On a side note, I agree.
I bet some scum tied it up in a remote area for an upcoming tournament.


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