NJF&G hypocritical trout regulations...

[thmyorke1]

"There was a lot of discussions around barbless hooks which were put forth by angler's demands and not by science"

As a new angler, my respect for NJ F+G continues to lessen.

The fact that they had a majority of comments against the regulation and chose to ignore them let's me know that they just don't care about what anglers have to say.

Hopefully F+G enact more rules in the future that make a better difference, like improving water quality, if they're actually worried about their trout populations.

When do the new rules get posted officially?

[Jigman13]

Clearly you guys don't know me. I'm insanely conservation minded. I'm also extremely well educated and mindful of all things political in NJ as a resident, tax payer and fisherman. I wrote that purely out of sarcasm and as a mockery of the unanimous decision they ruled on. It's purely bat shit and clearly driven by special interest. The salt water guys have been taking it on the chin with shitty data and negatively impactful size and creel limits. Now it appears as if it's rearing its ugly head into the sweet water putting forth regs such as these. Quite a few members here fish these trout waters sans fly gear. They're some of the most conservation minded people I've fished with personally. Limiting the tactics they like to use has a negative impact economically on NJ. People will stop buying stamps, will buy less of the lures they prefer which impacts local businesses and may opt to fish out of state altogether. Regs like this are an infection. Untreated, they'll spread and abscess. Further untreated they'll grow worse, leading to the further amputation of what many of us enjoy doing.

If you think gut hooking trout on pinhead sized flies is any safer than a lip hooked fish that crushed a plug you're clearly delusional. It's setting a bad precedent--altering regs and rules based off of the input of very few with special interests and bad data. JDTuna cites habitat loss and pollution as more concerning to wild trout pops in NJ. I think that's where the focus needs to be--not on guys tossing plugs for trout. It's impossible for NJ to have western USA trout waters for MANY reasons stated in this thread. This doesn't address ANY of those reasons.

I'm done acting like an adult and apparently submitting our comments against this ruling was a bullshit tactic for opposition to express our democratic opinions on something that was clearly decided before said comments were likely reviewed.

[FASTEDDIE29]

We have some very well educated anglers here. I think we win the debate easily! Unfortunately the elitists won this battle!

[Chrisper4694]

Every real angler here needs to understand that this isn't about the trout AT ALL! These guys have been on the bitch wagon ever since they took away the ridiculously unfair and prejudice 'fly fishing only' sections of rivers and opened them to all anglers.

These regs (barbless, 4 hook points) are for one purpose and one purpose ONLY...to keep non-fly fisherman out of these spots, that they falsely believe is their right above everyone else's. They're hoping real anglers won't take the time to modify their lures to meet the new regulations and, instead, will just go fishing elsewhere. It's one step backwards, towards fly fishing only sections of river.

What we need to do now is send a message that basically says FU because that's the only card we have now to play. I urge everyone to fish these sections of wild trout waters, that the fly fishing elitist they think they have more of a right to than you, as often as possible.

I personally, will show no common courtesy to any fly fisherman i come across, and will fish right through their little drift spots as i efficiently trout fish with my plugs.

I also want to point out that roughly 75% of the wild trout my friends and I catch are OUTSIDE of the designated wild trout waters inaccurately identified by the state....which means I can legally use unmodified plugs AND keep 6 wild trout at only 9 inches!!!! And the other 25% of the fish are still not even in fully catch and release sections...i can eat 1 beautiful 15" wild brown trout every time i go fishing from these spots!!!

And they want you to believe this is for trout protection...the facts are right here, they must think we're stupid. These regulations barely effect my trout fishing habits, but i sure as hell won't be sitting back letting them get away with this.

I'm with Jigman, since i can legally keep 6 wild trout at 9", I guess i'll just fish all their spots out from the boundary lines before they become fly fishing only again...and then i'll grab my fly fishing stuff and keep catching all their fish, just cause i'm a vindictive prick