Pier Gaffs versus Nets

[Fishman Fishman]

I've seen many shark and ray fisherman gaff their catch (with injury) to the shark and ray. Then release the fish. Why are fisherman injuring and releasing the catch. Catch and release implies releasing an uninjured fish. Anyone else see this as a problem? This has occurred at Oceanside, Huntington beach, San Clemente, Belmont Piers. Use large hoop nets. Thank you

 

[Rusty]

Because of lot of those scumbags are uneducated and probably dont care anyway. They are probably also the ones who kick fish around and leave their trash everywhere while blasting their horrible music.

I know im just generalizing, and not everyone is like that, but it gets tiring and its only gonna get worse. People have no respect for anything anymore. Sad times.

 

[Ken Jones]

PFIC has been preaching against the misuse of pier gaffs for 22 years with only a modicum of success. I do think most PFIC regulars now restrict their use but the majority of pier anglers have never even heard of PFIC. The only time they should be used is (1) if it is a legal species (2) that is obviously legal in size to keep AND (3) the angler plans to keep te fish.

 

[Red Fish]

PFIC has been preaching against the misuse of pier gaffs for 22 years with only a modicum of success. I do think most PFIC regulars now restrict their use but the majority of pier anglers have never even heard of PFIC. The only time they should be used is (1) if it is a legal species (2) that is obviously legal in size to keep AND (3) the angler plans to keep te fish.

The SF Bay area fishermen are very educated in this area (as I have discussed with Ken). When I was kid, many years ago, it wasn’t frowned upon. There is much more information available now. I would hope other parts of California are informed too. There are still some people (that I don’t even consider fishermen) that fish on the shore and just land by hand rays and throw them up on the rocks to die killing the fish and stinking up the place. More education is needed.