I run trot lines when I get the chance to. Believe it or not if you want to catch fish it takes a little bit of knowledge and skill....I follow all regs and pull my lines if I leave the lake. I have too much time and money invested in a line for some bass fisher to come along and snag his lure on it and cut my line because he is too lazy to undo it. I cant begin to tell you how much fishing line I have pulled from the lake when the water goes down...guess we should ban it too. slippery slope fellas...not to mention this topic has been argued over and over.

50 unmarked hooks will tear you up a lot worse than 50 ft fishing line. My knife will blaze through fishing line, no so much on the hooks.

It's cool, I used to trotline so I see both sides of the argument because I was there once. That being said I have seen exactly what trotlines and liners can do so that's why I stand where I do now

Again apples to oranges

You guys are whipping a dead horse, this debate as happened over and over. They will never be banned, a lot of folks do it right, a lot do it wrong, this has happened for longer than most of us have fished. The only thing that will make it better is if everyone gets on the same page- old lines that are unmarked and not used anymore should be cut by anyone. Lines done properly and marked correctly should be left alone by anyone that doesn't own it. Period


This is a fine line though, a lot of folks think they can cut any line marked or not. That I think, is total disrespect and if you run into the wrong person while cutting his line it can become very dangerous.

Every argument is beating a dead horse technically, but it's still fun, for arguments sake.

I love this debate. All you guys screaming to make them illegal need to take a step back and think a little. It's already illegal to leave a line out with no tags. And it's illegal to leave one more than 30 days without changing the dates. BUT, PEOPLE STILL DO IT. So, do you really think that they'll care if you make them illegal all together????

Making all trotlines illegal will go about as far toward eliminating abandoned trotlines as making all guns illegal will go toward keeping them out of the hands of criminals. All you'd be doing is punishing the law abiding folks.

I started this just complaining about losing rigs to an old abandoned trotline. Never said they should be illegal but maybe someone would read or talk about it and maybe someone would make an extra effort to not leave one out.

Of course the topic stirred a little debate. I apologize for hijacking your thread with "politics." I don't think they should be illegal, but neither was I defending the people who abandon them, etc. If they are abandoned or unmarked they should be cut and removed. If they are within the regulations, they should be respected and left alone unless they pose an imminent threat to boaters, etc. That's my take.