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Mountain Trout Single Hook Clarification

4K views 4 replies 4 participants last post by  Fishscalz 
#1 ·
Was up fishing this weekend and was having a lot of luck on streamers, particularly a "Barley Legal" pattern which is a fly that has two hooks tied inline connected with a short piece of mono to give the fly a pivot like a small trout, in some Wild Waters. My buddy and I then traveled to another area close by that were designated Delayed Harvest, which has a single hook lure regulation. I switched off the Barley legal to bugger and other streamers with much less action with less success.

From my reading and interpretation of this law, you are ok fishing tanden nymph or hopper dropper rigs since those are rigs and the individal lures have one hook. The interpretation became tricky with the "Barely Legal". I consider it one lure with two hooks, but it is essentially a short tandem rig. I avoided the possible fine and tried out some other recent ties.

Any experience with law or knowledge of a rangers interpretation would be appreciated.
 
#2 ·
https://www.ncwildlife.org/Portals/0/Regs/Documents/Mountain-Trout.pdf

See this line on page 23 Fourth paragraph on the left.
Note: its page 3 on top of computer screen but page 23 on actual page bottom right.

Wild Trout/Natural Bait WatersThese waters and their tributaries, except as noted, may be fishedwith artificial lures or natural bait, except live fish. Lures andnatural baits are restricted to one single hook. The minimumlength limit is seven inches, and the daily creel limit is four trout.These streams are marked with brown-and-gold signs.

You may not be in the mountains but this would be my interpretation of the meaning everyware.
 
#3 ·
Articulated flies have multiple hooks and are not legal for fishing on trout waters designated "delayed harvest" or "wild". They are legal for trout waters designated "hatchery supported" or for undesignated waters. Spin fisherman regularly clip two of the treble hooks off their spinners to allow use on those designated waters. You may be able to clip one of the hooks and be legal. I'm not sure if the front or rear hook would be better, and I'm not sure how it would effect the action.
 
#4 ·
Thanks for the input, I also misspoke earlier and had been mainly fishing a Hatchery Supported section when fish were caught on the articulated fly when looking back at the maps, although I probably used it in some Wild water while wading into a few tributaries. I was interpreting it as no treble hooks so I didn't really think about this at the time. I refresh my self with the regs before each trip and abide by the best of my abilities but can slip up as it seems I might have.

So does this mean a double nymph rig and or a hopper dropper combo would also be illegal in wild and DH waters under this interpretation? I have read a few articles stating they legal in all NC commission regulated waters including a NCsportsman article which I would assume to be reliable. They later recommend 16-18" of tippet between the flies but no legal length was mentioned, is there a minimum length between flies required?
 
#5 ·
As long as you are fishing Public Mountain Trout Waters in NC:


"Dropper flies may be used when fishing any Public Mountain Trout Waters."


There is no mention of minimum or maximum distance between flies.

I would guess if there a special designation for barbless hooks, that would apply as well, but I've only seen that for Striped Bass in special cases.
 
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