Artificial?

Via our fishing buddies at the Southeast Fly Fishing Fourm comes news that the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission is considering a change in the rules that currently allow anglers to use scented baits on streams restricted to "artificial lures having a single hook only."

Here is an excerpt from a post by a SEFFF member who did much of the work to get this change in regulations considered:

The NC Wildlife Resources Commission met yesterday and unanimously voted to send the following to Public Hearing in Jan/Feb 2008:

"For the purposes of this rule, artificial lure is defined as a fishing lure that neither contains, nor has received application of, any substance that attracts fish by the sense of taste or smell. Natural bait is defined as any living or dead organism (plant or animal), or parts there of, or prepared substances designed to attract fish by the sense of taste or smell."

The existing regulations state that on wild trout water you must use artificial lures having 1 hook. The delayed harvest regs also require an artificial lure and that no natural bait may be possessed; ergo, no powerbait.There is one last hurdle and that is that the commissioners will vote at their March 2008 meeting to either approve or reject this regulation change based on what they hear at the hearings.

Fly fishers feel that the use of "power" type scented baits lead to higher trout mortality on streams designated as catch and release. The general feeling has been that there was some confusion as to weather these baits were legal or illegal on delayed harvest streams. This regulation should do a good job of settling the question.

Comments can be sent to the NCWRC at wrccomments@ncwildlife.org.