snagged fish

Witnessed a person keeping a snagged fish today. What should a guy do? Keep quiet, or tell the clod it’s illegal. Or is it not a real problem. Seems the fish may be more vunerable at this time of year. Are these isolated or more common? Have only seen it a few times, so was just wondering what others thoughts are. John

for myself… I will mention that its illegal and that they should toss it back…. because the game warden is around…(heck, they dont know!)… usually they toss it back then.. and for sure they dont keep more… but if the guy is unfazable.. well.. thats what cell phones are for… and I have Warden Stones number programmed in…..

BUT… for the most part its NOT a common occurence.. it seems to happen when you get an energetic jigger… and the reason is NOT the snagging action… its that the bait moves a bit too unpredictably for the fish to follow… it tried to make a move to hit it.. missed and is now sitting over the top of it so on the next YANK…. *wham*… one snagged fish…..

its funny how if the fish are not biting it could be carpeted with them down there and you almost NEVER snag one by accident… so if the fish are being snagged it usually means they are perking up a bit and are responding to aggressive jigging (well.. funny but sometimes when they are negative it TAKES aggressive jigging to trigger them… Like James did on the 15th)… but usually seeing fish get snagged means they are starting to bite..

personally I recommend if you are snagging too many fish.. make your pause on the bottom a bit longer… even a couple of seconds and sometimes more…. gives them a chance to locate your bait and they will sock it then.. or wait for the next move……

Sounds right rivereyes. Slowwwwwww it downnnnnnn

This is one of those situations that nobody likes to be in. On the one hand, if it was snagged by accident and doesn’t look like it’ll make it, I would think it would be ethical to keep it. If the only way it can swim is to do the belly-up float, then it’s a waste to set it loose.

If I was on the jury, whether or not the fish could make it would decide my vote. The only parallel I can draw from my own experience is when the dog starts digging up hens after a good snow. The bird’s dead, hasn’t been shot, do you take it? Against my better judgement, I let them lay for fear of the warden.

From the 2002 MN regulations, pg. 28 “It is unlawful to intentionally take a fish by snagging.” I’ve often wondered about this question. What is meant by “intentionally”? Intentionally taking the fish, or intentionally snagging it in the first place. I usually use a very laid back jigging motion, just a slow lift and drop. But many times (especially with new super-lines) you’ll feel a small bump, set the hook, and find yourself with a fish attached where he shouldn’t be. Many times you’ll catch them under the jaw or the side of the face. In those instances you could justify it as a missed strike, but “close enough”. If a fish makes a quick dash at a jig and misses, and the angler is a little slow on reaction time, you might get a tail or a belly, was that “intentionally” snagging? Is that the same as a guy aggressively pumping two sonars from the end of his musky rods? What do WI regs say?

The others on this board may have different ideas on this subject, but I think when the dnr came up with this reg., one of the things they were thinking about WAS the guy with the sonars attatched to a musky rod, and pumping like a mad man. Another might have been spoonbill snaggers.

Just a thought.

I have to play the devils advocate.. Sonars, zips, cicada’s, are not snagging tools they are attracting baits..Yes I have them all and use them..Like Rivereyes said it’s a reaction from the fish..I don’t use a musky rod and my action depends on how the fish are reacting that day..I do foul hook one once in a while but most are stuck in the mouth..I foul hook more fish with my aggressive jigging of buck tails than I do with the blade baits…just how you fish them..I think it is more of a myth about blade baits being snagging tools..Hell I remember about six years ago In fisherman Magazine was saying Walleyes WOULD NOT hit a crank bait in Cold water because they became to lethargic…Ha LOL

I agree with ReefRunner, blade baits are not snag baits!!

I remember looking at pictures of gramps and his buds with a pile of fish they snagged out of the Croix back in the 40’s or 50’s. (Perfectly legal back then) They tied on weighted trebble hooks and threw them out and pulled ’em back. They caught northern, musky, sturgeon and paddle fish. (That was a days take in that picture) Anyway, that is the type of “Snagging” that was outlawed many years ago.

Incedental snagging is not a criminal offense. If you are out there with the Intent of snagging, that’s wrong. If you are working a blade bait and happen to snag a fish, let it go!

J.

Let’s put it this way. Blade baits are not designed to be snag baits, but they have a tendency to foul hook fish in the wrong hands.

I’ve seen guys that are very adept at fishing blade baits sit up by a dam and catch every fish in the mouth while the guys in the boat less than 10 yards away are bringing in fish ass first or sideways. I don’t care how good you are at fishing blade baits, you will unintentionally snag a fish from time to time. Do the right thing and throw foul hooked fish back.

I think blade baits get a bad rep because we’ve all seen guys rippin’ these baits as hard as they can and anything that gets a hook in it goes in the boat.

I sat at Lynxville last year and watched it first hand. Six guys that were done duck hunting for the day were tied up to the wall. 2 guys in one boat…..every fish in the mouth. 4 guys in the second boat bringing in fish and shoving them in a burlap bag……2 out of 15 fish were caught in the face, the rest were hooked in various locations. As I edged closer with my electric motor, one guy very stratigically took of his coat and draped it over the side of the boat to hide the registration #.

One of the jerks even said something when he saw the FTR logo on my boat about guys here talking about size and bag limits…..”When this is the best fishing that I’ve had in years.”

The regs are black and white…..all foul hooked fish must be returned.

You have to fish with your concience. You know whether a fish ‘hit’ your lure or not. Tell the snaggers that it’s against the law to keep foul hooked fish….while you’re jotting their reg # down.

Beav

I didn’t make my last post to look like all users of sonars and other blade baits and spoons were out there snagging fish. Heck, I even get mine out once in a while. But, like beav said, there are people in this world that care nothing about the rescource other than how they can limit out every time they are on the water, no matter what the method.

Whats the correct way to fish a blade bait, say a sonar, so that you don’t snag so many?

I dont know what the others will say… but Ive found that the shorter the upstroke and the slower the drop the fewer fish you snag….. as I mentioned earlier if you move it to fast and too far they “miss” it…. and are sitting there scratching their heads (figuratively of course!)… when your return stroke nails them from underneath… I would say the MOST important thing is the speed of the drop.. because they virtually always hit it on the drop… so if you plummet it to the bottom they have almost NO chance to “catch” it… they come scooting in but arrive too late and are sitting over the top of it when you “rip” it again…..

the real irony is, that if you slow the drop down most likely you will catch MORE fish then you will by snagging.. because for SURE you dont get everyone that “misses”

Well said EYES. I fish them like a plastic shad. Short upsweep with a slow drop. It also helps if you use a little softer rod…..or at least that’s the way it seems to me. They hit it on the drop just like a plastic shad.

Beav

Beav, I never intended to say sonars were made only for snagging. But they do work well for that if you want them to. A sonar is one of the first things my son grabs from the box when we’re out for ‘eyes and he doesn’t snag many fish. A quick lift and slow drop, not a 4’ sweep of the rod tip. I would like to read for myself where “the regs are black and white…..all foul hooked fish must be returned.” Is that the WI or IA regs? The only thing I find in the MN regs has to do with tributaries of Lake Superior. I’m not a snagger and I’m not trying to justify it, I’d just like to know what the rules really are.

I know that they work. I said that they WERE NOT designed to be snagging tools.

As far as the regs……WI regs….”It is illegal to keep foul hooked, snagged, or any fish hooked outside of the mouth.”

Check the WI regs, I’m quoting them verbatum.

Thanks Beav, that’s what I wanted to know.

When trolling cranks and a fish does not get hooked on the inside of the mouth, but instead on the outside of the mouth — is that considered foul hooking?

Dave Gulczinski

Warden Stone, where are you?

I’m sure this is a large ‘grey area’.

You know those fish that you hook under the chin? We’ve all had ’em. You swear you feel a ‘tap’, you set the hook and the fish is hooked under the jaw. Well, I saw a video from an underwater camera that showed a walleye hit a jig just as the jig touched bottom. It was like the fish was pinning the jig to the bottom, probably the same way that they capture prey. Where did the walleye hit the jig? Same place it would hit a minnow, right at the head. So, the walleye hit the jig head, putting the hook where?……..right under it’s bottom jaw, which is right where it was hooked when the guy taking the video reeled it in. Foul hooked fish?

I think some bass tourneys spell out in the rules that any fish hooked in front of the gill covers are legal, while others say that the hook must be in the inside of the mouth.

We’ve all caught walleyes on cranks that were hooked outside the mouth. Are they legal? Ask Warden Stone for clarification on this one.

Beav

I will email him.. I was already thinking about it anyway….. I think you can PM him under the handle “the warden”

I thought that was my wifes handle.