And i don't mean to rain on anyone's parade but I just confirmed with a higher up that it IS ILLEGAL to purposely target a species during a closed season. Take it for what it is and do what you want with it but don't go spreading false info because your experience as an angler makes you believe you are above the law. Attempting to take is what it reads. You are attempting to catch a closed species. You can not prove attempting to catch and release....it's too vague