Today I attempted to walk into the office of BC Conservation in Kamloops, and quickly realized you can’t just walk in without an appointment. At the doorway though, they had a list of names and numbers. So I called Andrew Klassen, Senior Fish Biologist and left a message. He called me back in 20 minutes and we had a great conversation for 15 minutes or so. Here is the synopsis about the synopsis..
Me: I’m calling today to get clarification on something in the fishing regs that seems to be widely debated and unclear. My question is regarding the “single barbless hook” regulation on some lakes, and the definition and meaning of that restriction.
AK: The interpretation that “we’ve all agreed upon for the province” for this specific issue is that, you can have as many single barbless hooks as you want on the lure, as long as it is designed to only catch one fish at a time. And so if it’s a Bucktail with hooks that are reasonably close together, it’s designed to catch one fish, It’s not like it’s a dropper rig where you have a baited hook then another one at 10’, that is different. So you can have multiple hooks, but they all have to be single barbless.
“So the Conservation Officers and the Biologists across the Province, have come to this conclusion that on single barbless hook lakes, like Shuswap, Kamloops lake and so on, you can have multiple hooks but they all have to be single barbless and all on one lure. If it’s designed to catch one fish, that’s legal.”
I should say, he did mention and acknowledge why the rule seems like it’s grey, but the impetus behind the rule is to ensure people aren’t catching multiple fish at once.
I also asked if he minds if I quote him on this and he said that was fine. It was at this point that he acknowledged the discussion, and answer that Jeff Burrows had already given (in that link in this thread above) that he was aware had already circulated.
So, after seeing the Jeff Burrows email and having this conversation, (of which we talked about much more), I am 100% confident in my understanding of the interpretation of the law by Conservation.
No more chopping up my Bucktails.
Rob