It’s not anything that I want to do but I have a curiosity question about saltwater trotlines, bush hooks, and pole lines. In the S.C. Hunting and Fishing Regulations Guide it describes all of the preceding as legal activities in saltwater. In the past I’ve fished trotlines in fresh water where the catch was almost exclusively catfish with a few turtles and an occasional unregulated trash fish. Have any readers fished these devices in saltwater where the catch and keep regulations are tightly enforced? For example, what would keep an individual from ending up with dead undersized and over the limit trout or dead over the limit and non-slot reds? Any insight?
The by-catch is calculated into our limits. So you put back the dead over/under fish as possession is illegal.
It’s similar to gut hooking an over/under fish and sending it back knowing it will die.
Is it right? No, kinda sad to waste the resources.
Will you be shunned for doing it/posting about it?
I’ll try!