You are fishing in a tournament when your partner hooks a large bass and starts reeling her in.

You reel in fast to clear the area and grab the net.

As the bass is next to the boat she comes unbuttoned from the bait.

You take the net and scoop her up and into the boat after she has thrown the bait.

Question: Is this legal?

You just netted an unhooked bass.

Would this be the same as trolling down a bank and scooping up the big ladies that are resting after their spawn?

Curious about your take on this situation.

Thanks in advance for your input.

To me it is legal as long as the fish was originally hooked thru legal fishing methods.

I'm pretty sure it would be legal and my reasoning is at an FLW event (can't remember which one) that exact thing happened. An angler had a fish and as the co-angler dropped the net in the water the fish come unbuttoned and fell into the net. Also at one of the elite events (even though they don't use nets) David walker had a fish on and as he went to land it it came unhooked and he struggled to get it before it swam away although he was unsuccessful.

I know of someone who did this in the flw table rock tournament. If your good enough and quick enough with the net go for it. Kinda like Ike a few years back jumping out of the boat but keeping one arm on deck to grab his broken line that was still floating on the surface with a fish on the other end. Get it in the boat.