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Apparently you have to be a northern state to institute sensible and easy fishing regulations. Alaska has been well documented as one of the leaders in our country and now Maine is doing something to in order to kill less fish needlessly.
Do I think gut hooking occurs a lot, no, but there are a decent amount of sand spike using bait fisherman that are too busy drinking beer to notice that there has been a fish on the end of his line for a good 30 seconds. And, if his fish ends up not being legal to take home he is going to have to put back a dead or dying fish. Circle hooks will help in this situation. I tend to think this type of regulation would be suitable for all fishermen that like to use clams, chum and chunk bait, or use eels.
There are some reports, true or not, that Catch and Release fishing is accountable for a lot of striper mortality. I personally do not believe this statement or NOAA's crappy assertions, but perhaps this is what led Maine to do something. I applaud them for their efforts and even though I do not agree with C & R mortality figures we all know that it does happen and Maine just did something to prevent unnecessary harm to the fish that we all love to catch.
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