Here's my complaint(s) about this reg. It's not going to stop snagging or flossing. Simple. The fish that are dragged in backwards, sideways, etc. are obviously snagged and it hasn't been legal to keep such fish that I know of in quite a number of years. So the guys that keep those fish may catch fewer, but that's it. Those same always kept obviously illegally hooked fish, so nothing's going to change there. And since a flossed fish looks like a legally hooked fish, unless closely inspected, my guess is most of those will be kept if otherwise legal. So what does it accomplish? It does keep legitimately hooked fish, i.e., fish that strike, from being legally kept if the hook doesn't penetrate the mouth from the inside out.

Here's another thought concerning bank fishermen. Since you can only drag a fish out on the bank if you are going to keep it, that means that you must inspect not only whether or not the fish is clipped, but also whether or not the hook entered the fish's mouth in the proper direction.....all on a single, barbless hook. Do you think the fish might just flop loose while all this "inspecting" is done? You might get around some of the problem by packing in a net. Handy.

All in all, I give this reg the one-finger salute.

Of course all of this is a non-issue if you turn all of your fish loose, which is probably the most reasonable solution.