l invited a fishing buddy to go fishing with me this week. he has not yet obtained a license. the idea came up to remove the hooks from one of his swimbaits and use it as a teaser. l was unable to find an exact answer in the regulations as to whether or not this would be considered angling. regs say: pursue, hunt, capture or attempt to do so (roughly). fish has to voluntarily take hook in mouth. no snagging.
no hooks on lure. sooo... is this fishing as described in the regulations?
Grand Master Basser®2010-01-25T18:10:56Z
Favorite Answer
Your fishing buddy's an idiot... he should buy his own damn license.
if you live in an area where you only see a warden a couple times a year, you're probably safe.
However, to me it sounds like you're asking for trouble. A game warden would probably find your justification sarcastic at best and willfully provocative at worse. "Just TRY to prove he was fishing, stupid fishcop. How's he gonna catch a fish with no hook, huh?" It's hard for those guys to not give out a ticket if you're at the water and you've got a fishing pole in your hand, with no license. For example, if you're heading to or from the lake with a fishing pole in your possession -- even if it has no hook or lure on it -- you can be asked to show your license. You can say, "Oh, I'm not fishing, I'm just taking this pole to my buddy" or whatever, but chances are, you'll get a ticket. One of the biggest problems, as I see it, is that your buddy will be with you, and you will presumably have a tacklebox full of lures and hooks and bait. If this pal of yours was alone at the water with a rod but absolutely no means of ever hooking a fish nearby or on his person, then, hmm, maybe the game warden MIGHT scratch his head and say, "Have a nice day." But if you two are together, the warden could make a case that five minutes earlier your buddy could have been fishing with a hook. He'd give your pal a ticket and he'd have to fight it and yadda yadda yadda. If your buddy wants to go along but doesn't want a ticket, just make sure he doesn't lay hands on a fishing pole. Drink beer and shoot the breeze, but don't let the guy even go through the motions. Or, as someone else said, just get him a license...
Your question contains the answer. The fish can't "voluntarily" take the hook if there is no hook. Ain't it funny how if you refine a question, it answers itself?
It does raise interesting questions though about "intent." Last year I was checked for my fishing license by a fish and wildlife officer and he asked what I was fishing for....since I hadn't caught anything yet, it seemed like a silly question but since he was dressed for war I decided to keep my smart remarks to myself.
I suspect I could have gotten in trouble if I had said the wrong thing even though it would have been based on my intent rather than my action.
Except, since I hadn't caught anything I asked if I could get a refund for my fishing license. He wasn't amused.
If you did get fined, I'd begin worrying about practice casting on vacant football fields.
Of course, this assumes there are no sail fish in the area. Apparently, you can catch sail fish with just string...no hook:
Is it possible then to understand the regulation better, the definition be fully translated to incorporate "pursue, hunt, capture or attempt to do so" is fishing without a hook still fishing? using pursuit as the one word of important consequences, not to mention hunting. Where as the ticket would still be written and it's meaning interpreted on a higher level. The only hope after the fact would be taking the ticket to a court and through the leniency of the court it be dismissed. But that would not happen unless before signing the ticket (acknowledging your folly, you have the game warden who wrote the ticket) add the fact that the ticket was written based on loose translation of pursuit, adding (and this would have to be added) "this angler was fishing with hookless baits" but I wouldn't chance it working out without penalty.
I would say no but I'm sure if a warden saw that they would say different. If there is no hook to keep the fish on how is that fishing, you are teasing the fish. If I went hunting with an unloaded shotgun would that be considered bird watching? It's a good question that your state fish and game should define and clarify.