Well, I just got back from South Dakota at about 2:00 a.m. this morning (first flight was cancelled and so was the second ). I'd been there since last Wednesday. Anyway, I picked up one of their fishing regulation books and looked through it. One rule in particular caught my eye. It stated if any fish is snagged unintentionally a person can keep it-but intentional snagging was still illegal. I don't think that's the way our rules are set out here in Washington? If any fish is snagged here we are supposed to release it, right? Now I would think if the South Dakota Department of Fish and Wildlife wanted to keep intentional snagging out of their state they would not allow the keeping of "accidentally snagged" fish. What do all of you think? This also leads to another question I have. Is there any state in the U.S. that totally allows intentional snagging?

BTW, for what it's worth, the state also allows the snagging of paddlefish, a real ugly-looking fish. Also, from what I read it sounded like advertent snagging in the mouth was also legal for any fish.

[ 07-24-2001: Message edited by: Krome Brite ]

Before I die, I will land a paddlefish. They get pretty big, and yes, they are uglier than a sturgeon. Try landing a double digit "plug" since the paddle would put up a ton of resistence.

Snagging for some species in some states is legal. I think you can snag for gar back in Alabama.

A fish must voluntarily take the hook in the state of Washington. If it doesn't, then it's snagged: accidentally or intentionally.

I made sure the gamie got 5 snaggers on Saturday Hope the fine was worth fishing in closed waters, and snagging fish therein. You pieces of &*%& You Mudda ****** You. - Joe Pesci from Casino

The Umimak river in Unalaska, Dutch harbor has a large run of pinks and Silvers and snagging is allowed. The fish are pretty ugly and beat up and no one seems to wanna snag these fish other then some of the guys that come up from the lowere states.

in southeast alaska it's legal to intentionally snag salmon in most marine areas and some freshwater areas.


FISH ON!!!

'Yall, do those paddlefish eat via their mouth or their @$$ . Geez, how could they even get close to anything with that big board in the way??

Aerofly, is Unalaska an island up by Alaska? So snagging is totally legal on that river. It isn't legal on all Alaskan rivers, etc. is it?

Doh, Curt, you just answered my question before I had posted it. Thanks.

Thar's a new sheriff in town.....and his name is Y'all! Snaggers beware when he's around

I must say, seeing guys blatantly snagging within sight of a Gamie is deserving of the "...you dumb Mudda f***er." quote.

They weren't that hard to fair hook.......

I've got some friends who live in Pierre, S.D. and I have seen some of there fishing video's of paddlefish fishing, (er snagging) its purely a snag fest, they use rods similar to halibut rods, Penn reels, 4-6oz. lead and big hooks, cast out into the middle of the Missouri river and start swingin hard. They don't keep any, just have the warden tag the fish then release.
A couple years ago I went back there in the fall on a 2 week archery whitetail/muley hunt with a buddy I guide with in Alaska, we took 1 morning off and took his 10 ft. row boat out on Oahe reservoir to fish landlocked chinook, there were a bunch of guide boats out trolling hardware in circles and not catching a damn thing, we rowed out in the middle of the circle of boats and started mooching herring, in 2 hours we released 7 fish and lost a couple others, not sure which was more fun, catching fish or listening to all the upset clients. Going back in the fall of 2002 for another 2 weeks, think I'll bring more herring.

I read an article a while back on the snagfest for those paddlefish. I guess they don't eat anything but plankton. Got any hooks big enough to use plankton for bait??
Seriously, it looked like a lot of work to me, they cast out weighted treble hooks and just jerk it back in really hard.
No thanks.