What the New Circle Hook Rule SHOULD Say (this is a great idea)

[Mike15]

And lets not forget the fact that the only way a marlin has a chance of being gut hooked is if the bait is dropped back - after all that is the whole point of the new ruling is it not? With the line bann and hook size rule a fish can still be gut hooked no mater what the size of the line or hook.

[Captain Jay Kavanagh]

The real issue is Billfish conservation.

Recreational Billfish Mortality is very very small, statistically insignificant actually.

Tournament Billfish mortality, other than intentional kill. is even more insignifacant.

We could not even hook a billfish recreational fishing on the east coast of the us and it would not change what is really killing em.

NMFS should hear that too.

This rule is attempting to solve a percieved problem, not an actual one.

It is just a feel good rule, the IGFA and Billfish foundation came up with. That will have no significant effect on billfish mortality.

[capt. jakeg]

Captain Jay, you are right on that one. Anyone who has travelled outside the united states on a fishing trip has more than likely seen where the mortality comes from. It isn't circle hooking or j hooking recreational fishermen, granted every blue moon a fish gets killed by a rec. but not a whole lot, but most of the time- especially in tournaments you have the fish on the line for a total of 120 to 240 seconds. You hook the fish, slam it in reverse, and grab the leader. Tournaments arent about the fun of fighting the fish. Its about getting him on and off the line as fast as possible and repeating that process more than anyone else, and any of the guys that are good at it enough that they are catching numbers of fish in tourneys are more than likely hooking every single fish in the mouth, jhook or circle. Thats not causing enough mortality to make laws.... Its the pangas full of marlin and sails every single day down south. Its the circle netters that specifically target marlins when the tunas arent around. I might, maybe in my entire life, fishing every day of the summer, accidentally kill as many fish as one of the smaller venezuelan circle netters intentionally kill in one day. If its a big enough deal that we are spending millions of dollars getting senate to put circle hooks in tournaments into law, maybe we should be paying some of these 3rd world fishermen to keep their boats off the water, because for a couple million dollars, you can save the lives of a whole bunch of billfish- especially when they are pulling about $7Amercian a piece at the local markets.

[cape horn 24]

Just joined up. Interesting material

A little late.

Just found out about the circle hook rule change, I went to the IGFA site and didn't see the change in the rules, however: it does talk about the circle hook rule change in the IGFA Tournment section. Go to fishing, tournments, 07 rule changes, bottom of 2nd pg or top of 3rd.

My question is, does that rule apply only to "IGFA Tournments" only, not to tournments that use igfa rules as guidelines as most of them do?

BTW to Deep C your swordfishing lesson has a lot of info for novice swordfishing angler.

BA

[Deep C]

The circle hook rule pertains to all billfish tournaments. To add insult we still have to abide by those rules even out of country (Bahamas) if our boat's have HMS permits... Them (NMFS) being involved in any capacity is like EPA telling nascar to slow below seventy cause its enviromentally friendlier...