Can't Target Musky With Conservation License?

[bigugli]

All you can do is rely on the rules and exercise good sense and judgement. You have to realize that in a forum like this, no matter what you do, you will always run into some agrieved armchair fishing god who is not satisfied. We've had all sorts run through here from time to time.

[jackz905]

Hi Matthew,

In Ontario a fishing licence entitles a person to fish for any species that has an open season in the Zone (or lake) they are fishing in. The “catch and retain” limit applies to how many fish a person may keep in a day, or over a number of day,s from a Zone (or lake).

So, in the case of a person with a Conservation Fishing Licence he or she may fish for “musky” during the open season however because the “catch and retain” limit is zero the person must immediately release all musky they catch.

The requirement to release includes all fish regardless of the assessment of whether or not the fish will survive release. For this reason we strongly encourage anglers who will be practicing catch and release fishing to use barbless hooks and have all the necessary tools for release close at hand. It is also a good practise to avoid fishing for musky when water temperatures are warm and fish stress levels are heightened.

I hope this helps. Best of luck,

Mark Robbins

Mark Robbins

Provincial Enforcement Specialist

Enforcement Branch

Ministry of Natural Resources

300 Water Street

Peterborough, ON

K9J 8M5

[jordanl]

this topic kind of makes me want to try to fish this season entirely barb-less.. a lot of people say they don't lose fish so i don't really see a downside

[jordanl]

Unless its to hold bait on a hook, I'm always barbless. And if I lose the fish by shore, is self release. I don't keep anything anyway.

yeeah, i think il be trying it, and then il leave myself a few bait hooks with barbs, i think its a better option for me to just go barbless on my flies too, a few of rivers and streams up here in sault saint marie are barbless, so id rather do it to stay safe, plus i dont wanna hurt all the brookies and pinks il be catching this year;)

[blairwelsh]

http://icesjms.oxfordjournals.org/content/65/6/899.full

Effects of hook size and barbless hooks on

hooking injury, catch per unit effort, and fish size in a mixed-species recreational fishery

Few studies have examined the relationship between hook size and the probability of deep-hooking in recreational fisheries, but the results of those studies do suggest that the probability of deep-hooking is related to hook size. Many selectivity studies on longline fisheries report better catch rates for small hooks than for large hooks. Conversely, the effects of hook size on the size range of captured fish are unclear.

Size selectivity by larger hooks was clearly demonstrated for some fisheries, but in other cases, catch size distributions seemed to be nearly independent of hook size. The relationship between mouth size and body length is likely the most important factor affecting hook size selectivity .

With respect to hook type, barbless hooks represent a good way of reducing unhooking time, stress, and hooking injury in fresh-water fisheries described the same trends, but also demonstrated that barbless hooks reduce the catch efficiency for Oncorhynchus mykiss.

Other studies have not detected substantial differences in mortality and hooking injury between barbed and barbless hooks, but have detected a reduction in catch per unit effort. With respect to marine recreational fisheries, among Lutjanus carponotatus and Epinephelus quoyanus, and Pomatomus saltatrix, the unhooking time, a good predictor of mortality rate, is reduced when barbless hooks are used examined variations in unhooking time, hooking injury, and cpue produced by barbed and barbless hooks in different species in a nearshore marine sportfishery in the Gulf of Mexico near St Petersburg, FL (USA). Mean unhooking time was significantly shorter with barbless hooks, but the cpue differed between hook types, so the authors concluded that barbless hooks provided only a slight benefit at the expense of reduced capture rates.

[Ola]

barbless hooks is not just a noble statement but i have knocked the barbs off all my musky lures and flies and all my other flies too, for the very selfish reason that i have had a nasty salmon fly in my finger (the only barbed hook in the box that day) and it is not nice. and i am slowly filing down the barbs on my other lures as i use them too so the bass don't feel left out.

my theory is that it is not 'if' but 'when' i get the next hook stuck in my hand, i don't want it to have the barbs firmly attached into my skin and the other end attached to an angry musky. and i have never met a musky that isn't angry about having a hook stuck in it's face.