# WI - Salmon snagging didnt die with ban



## Hamilton Reef

I was thinking of the similarities between WI and MI while reading this.

Salmon snagging didnt die with ban

http://cgi.greenbaypressgazette.com...s/archive/out_7802057.shtml&AFFIL=outgreenbay


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## Hamilton Reef

The link I wrote doesn't come up in the post so here is the story printed out. Sorry about the glich.

Salmon snagging didnt die with ban

Area sport fishing club helped get the practice outlawed in 1987

By Kevin Naze
Press-Gazette correspondent 

Fall salmon snagging has been banned for more than a decade, but that hasnt stopped violators from foul hooking, grabbing, netting and even using clubs and pitchforks to capture the death-run kings.

Snagging  using lead-weighted treble hooks to pierce the flesh of half-dead chinook salmon on spawning runs  was outlawed in 1987 after two years of meetings between snaggers, the Department of Natural Resources, sport fishermen and business people. 

The practice was legalized in 1972, and, early on, thousands tried their luck. 

But interest eventually waned as locals found the flesh of the chinooks  often called kings  was of poor quality. 

With salmon eggs commanding $1 a pound or more, some snaggers simply hooked the fish and gutted females for the roe, then let the carcasses rot on the banks. 

Local sport anglers began to frown on snagging, and shore property owners complained of trespass, litter and damage. 

Lee Kernen, the former state fisheries chief, was a fish biologist in Sturgeon Bay 30 years ago. He helped get snagging legalized, but agreed it had run its course and needed to be stopped. 

Times were different in 1972, Kernan said. 

Fewer anglers had offshore boats and equipment, and the regular-season catch of salmon was much smaller. 

That meant more fish returned to try to spawn, and then die, in the Lake Michigan and Green Bay tributaries in which they had been stocked. 

Those who enjoyed snagging claimed there was no other way to catch spawning fish. 

However, a growing number of sport anglers  both fly fishermen and those casting spawn sacs, spoons and spinners  said the fish would still easily bite. 

The truth was somewhere in between, and, in the end, it was the carelessness of the snaggers and introduction of new strains of steelhead that led to snaggings demise. 

Kewaunee connection 

Snaggers were inadvertently hooking fall-run brown, brook and lake trout, species that dont die after spawning unless extraordinarily stressed. 

Fed up, a DNR fisheries manager called one of the organizers of a new sport fishing group in Algoma in 1985, telling him of a plan to build a steelhead and salmon egg collection facility. 

Because the DNR already owned a lot of state land along the Kewaunee River, that was its first choice. 

The hitch was, snagging was still allowed there. 

Some communities along the lakeshore had already banned snagging, or were considering a ban. Club members were told the next time any port asked the DNR for a ban, they would take it statewide. 

So the Algoma-Kewaunee Area Great Lakes Sport Fishermen club organized a petition drive, getting more than 1,200 signatures to ban snagging statewide. 

Public hearings were held in 1986, and in February 1987, the state Natural Resources Board outlawed the practice. 

Some business people  owners of restaurants, sport shops and hotels, especially  were upset. 

But there are still big crowds of anglers in the tributaries each fall. 

Though its illegal to possess a leaded, large-gapped snag hook, many violators use ultra-sharp single hooks or small trebles tipped with preserved salmon eggs or a tuft of colorful yarn to foul-hook fish in low, clear water on upriver spawning sites. 

No limit to snagging tales 

DNR warden supervisor Tom Hansen of Green Bay said Northeast Region conservation wardens cited 145 individuals for violations associated with last falls salmon and trout run in Green Bay and Lake Michigan waters. 

Most were for failure to release foul-hooked fish, fishing at night after Oct. 1, snagging fish, fishing without a license and taking fish by means other than angling. 

Mike Kitt, a DNR warden at Peshtigo, said snagging is a problem that just isnt going to go away. 

We will forever be paying for the sins of our fathers by having a legal snagging season to begin with, said Kitt, who noted hes seeing third-generation salmon poachers with no interest in ethics or fair chase. 

Their only interest is biomass for the freezer, he said. 

Bryan Lockman, a DNR warden in Sturgeon Bay, said salmon started showing up in mid-September in the Sturgeon Bay Ship Canal and the Ahnapee River at Forestville. 

Lockman said one violator used a gaff, and another, seeking salmon in a refuge area, was caught taking fish with a pitchfork. 

In Oconto County, Kitt said a 68-year-old man showed amazing swiftness and dexterity as he scooped up two salmon with the net. 

Upon receiving his citation, the subject said, Do you know how long I have been doing that?

Kitt told him hed rather not know.


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## Engsetter

I would say in a majority of Michigan Rivers snagging is going on.

This is done using NOT traditional snagging hardware, no the snagging is done by "lining" the fish. Lining ain't legal but I would say a majority of fisherman have caught fish this way, and some (most?) have brought them home.


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## msiebers

Ive seen a lot of guys doing the "Tippy Dam Jerk" on the old Manistee below the dam too. I notice the proper method seems to be to look over one sholder (presumably for lurking DNR officers) while giving a quick jerk of the rod while reeling in a small spawn bag laced with a Treble hook... Amazing with all the amount of DNR presence at that dam, that this goes on as much as it does.
Some guys just dont give a Damn I guess...


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