Hey all!
Was just wondering (too lazy to wade through the regs right now) if the single, barbless hook reg is still in place for the entire puget sound as it was last year?
I can see it for certain types of fishing, but jigging for bottom fish is a different story IMHO..... Thanks!

MC

i never understood why handlines would be illegal, not that i've ever been interested in using one.

Thanks EasyLimits....... Now...
Why did the single, barbless hook in all Puget Sound rule only last a year?
Not usual for the WDFW to change a rule, let alone so quickly.
Was there a big outcry by the masses?

Thanks!

MC

I don't recall there ever being a "single" hook rule in Puget Sound. What year was that?

Area's 5-13 still require the use of barbless hooks for ALL species.

Barbless, but not single. Last year was same. We were checked by gamies with plugs and trebles with pinched barbs- no problem. We were told by the tackle shops it was single barbless, but I could not find the single part in the regs.

Chum Man- I bet you'll be interested in handlines when you go down to some places in california and watch old "poor" people or just young families fishing from a pier. There are people who can tell you of tales regarding big striped bass caught off a very high concrete pier on handline. No joke, and it's usually the old men who get 'em. It's not too uncommon to see people using handlines for perch or flounder. In fact, whenever I go crabbing off a dock, I just bring a reel with line and bait some hooks, drop it down and see what bites. I've had real fun catching small perch that hit the bait as it falls through the water column.

I was actually told last year by a WDFW guy checking me at Mukilteo that I had to have barbless for all fish (on my Ling Jig it had a hard barb). He then looked at my jig (also for Ling) that had a treble on it and said "you are taking that treble off arent you", to which I said I thought the single thing was only for salmon. He then told me that in area 8.1 and 8.2 (where I mostly fish), that it did not matter what you were fishing for, it was single/barbless only fishing...... Coming up for Humpies and Bottom fish in August, that is why I was asking...... Maybe I'll have my lawyer look over the regs just in case....

MC