Gives new meaning to the term "4 x 4"
We’ve touched on the subject of fishery regulations before, and the argument that has been made that many of those regs are antiquated, and have either been arbitrarily set, or are more in place to create equality of harvest among anglers, kind of a social/ethics type thing.
For example, back in 1974, the average daily creel limit for bass was about 9 fish per person, but by the year 2000, that average had dropped to 6 fish. Now days, most major tournies run on an even smaller 5 fish limit.
The argument is for altering or protecting fish populations by limiting angler harvest, but it has been found that the majority of anglers never even catch their limit. More likely, it is speculated that anglers use creel limits as a gauge of fishing success, a perception issue more than a biological one. In order to have a meaningful reduction in current total harvest that actually affects fish at the population level, you would have to tighten existing creel limits even more, to the point where the majority of sport anglers most likely wouldn’t support such a drastic regulation.
Anyway, every once in a while you come across a picture that grabs your attention, to the point that you just laugh the minute you see it before it even gets a chance to register. I found two such pictures this past week I wanted to share, both related to the whole regulation bit, even if taken a bit to the extreme.
The first above: in the case of those states that don’t regulate the number of hooks per single line. This is how you assemble a series of A-Rigs, such that you can legally fish with 17 lures in a single cast. Might really come in handy on those blueback lakes where you have just an hour or so to catch the agressive shallow bass before they scatter and the bite turns to crap.
The next, from a Florida FWC article, taking spider rigging to the max when there are no limits to the number of poles you are legally allowed to fish with at a given time, especially considering there is only one guy in the boat trying to utilize the 22 or so cane poles I counted.
Hope you get a laugh out of these, too.
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BryanT
January 30, 2012 at 8:29 am
Try living in WI where regulations are very much put in place due to perception or social beliefs.
In the last targeted bass management plan 1/3 of the report is on the feelings people have towards tournament anglers.
WI is a bit of a screwed up state when it comes to fisheries management, but I will say I prefer fishing up here over Texas any day (except for Falcon and Amistad).