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Govt has to tell you what hook to use

5K views 32 replies 17 participants last post by  Drum Solo 
#1 ·
#11 ·
That seems worse to me. The article says that you have to use a hook larger than 2/0 if you are using "natural bait". That reads to me like if I'm fishing for spot with bits of shrimp, I'd have to use a 3/0 hook, which is crazy. Especially since that would allow me to use a j-hook or a smaller circle hook if I used Fishbites. I reckon that's got to be wrong, but I'm not sure what other inference to take.
 
#9 ·
If you want to use circle hooks use circle hooks. J hooks have their place with certain species. Offshore, rigging ballyhoo with j hooks is much more effective than using circle hooks. It is ridiculous for the mfc to put a blanket rule in place for hooks.

If a fisherman notices he is constantly gut hooking fish, he will most likely change his hook selection anyway.

Why is the MFC discussing hook types when bottom trawling is still allowed? Red herring.
 
#15 ·
My concern is "give them an inch and they will take a mile".

I fly fish and have been smashing my barbs down for 30 years so this will not affect me.

Next they will say you must use 50lb test line so you can land them quicker and not stress the fish. One could say that is ridiculous. Before long you have fishing regs thick as a phone book and you have to stay up all night figuring out what is legal or hire a lawyer. Never doubt governments ability to do stupid crap. Heck, I remember in the 80s when the Pentagon was paying 250 for toilet seats and 50 for an ordinary screw driver (might have been a hammer, long time ago).

To the guys who disagree, I respect your opinion. No heat from me. You do make a good point. I just don't trust them.
 
#21 ·
^^^^^THIS........ give them an inch and they will take a mile. For example. the Roanoke river rule which goes out June 30th(thank goodness cause then I can float it for bass and not have to ruin my lures) says single barbless hooks from a certain date to June 30th. this rules out a double shad rig. Yes you can catch them on 1but a double rig is more effective. they never even considered that.

and yes one day the regs will be as thick as a phone book and so confusing some won't bother to fish then it will come out that barbless circle hooks injure fish and cause pain to them and fishing will be be a thing of the past. Don't laugh, it is gonna happen one day if we keep letting them do this.

and if recreational fishing is declining or flat and stocks are dwindling then the rec fisherman are not the main problem but we get the rules placed upon us.
 
#16 ·
This is a non-issue. It's not government over reach. It's best management practices. Our population is growing and things like this just make sense. Circle hooks catch more fish imo anyway. I use them on every bottom rig no matter what the target species.

Also one less excuse for the comms to pin excess fish mortality on recs as some big cause of fishing decline.
 
#17 ·
This is a non-issue. It's not government over reach. It's best management practices. Our population is growing and things like this just make sense. Circle hooks catch more fish imo anyway. I use them on every bottom rig no matter what the target species.
I always use circle hooks too, at least for beach fishing. There is a big difference, though, between "sharks only" and what was originally described in the article linked by the original poster.

Other than that, "our population is growing" really isn't accurate. It's hard to get decent data, but from what I've seen, recreational fishing participation been flat or in decline for a number of years. This only goes back a few years, but the link below is to an NC DMF report showing year-over-year decreases in the absolute number of coastal fishing licenses sold every year from 2015-2018, despite the fact that the general population is increasing. Check the tables on the last few pages.

http://portal.ncdenr.org/c/document...169848&folderId=33372974&name=DLFE-141803.pdf

Federal data shows basically the same thing. Go to this link and run 1981-2016 for NC. The trend is basically flat/decreasing. Again, this is in absolute terms. All of which is to say that if recreational fishing pressure is decreasing, and fish stocks are still struggling, commercial fishing activity is almost certainly the culprit.

https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/recr...reational-fishing-data-and-statistics-queries

Edit: the NOAA site didn't like my first link, which was more direct. Click on the above link and then click on "open our query tool".
 
#19 ·
I’m OK w this also. With Hunting/Fishing licensing on the decline, I’m OK w doing little things like this (also Steel shot for waterfowl) to get ahead of the issue/debate. We should be able to take the high ground on our conservation efforts so there will be opportunities for our children.
 
#28 ·
Me and my dad were out fishing yesterday and we got talking about the terrible inshore fisheries management in NC. We realized that if you took speckled trout away there literally wouldn't be a viable inshore salt water fishery.

* Croaker are mostly gone
* Spot are mostly gone
* Grey trout are mostly gone and a 1 pet day limit
* Flounder are currently not allowed and studies show have been in decline
* Drum are doing better but only 1 allowed per day
* Striper are mostly gone and you can't keep them
* Bluefish stocks are having issues and now only 3 per day

Lucky for us speckled trout spawn like jack rabbits and can overcome some poor management.

I have fished the Pungo river for over 20 years now and know many others who have lots of experience on it. Trout are doing good. Flounder have declined over the years. This is the first year in almost half a decade or more that puppy drum have been around, others I talked too including guides say the same. Striper have declined except when they stocked them and then it was just a bunch of 8-12 inch fish.

Are fisheries are a disaster. That is not an exaggeration. If you take time to think about it you realize our fishing is a shell of what it could and should be.
 
#29 ·
Let's see, either they're trying to exert control over the population by regulating hooks or their trying to protect the resource. Which option do you think is more likely?
 
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