Dear Trotliners

[denjac]

Why do you trotliners hide your lines? Lets get em up on the ends so other fisherman can see em and stay out of them. I got into one last week upstream from point 19. What a mess getting my jig undone. Oh by the way it wasnt tagged either. Trotlining is a great way to catch catfish, but lets consider others. In my younger day I would have cut it for not being tagged and for costing me 10 minutes of frustration. Oh and it had a 4 pound flathead on it and a nice 6 or 7 pound channel that I saw and it was 11 am, figured it would have been run by then.

[Flysmallie]

If they are not tagged I'd remove them.

[Champ188]

I'd have cut the darn thing, but then I'm still in my younger days compared to denjac.

[denjac]

I'd have cut the darn thing, but then I'm still in my younger days compared to denjac.

yeh, I got 2 years on you. Dont worry maturity will come to you !

[Sam]

I got one wound up in my prop about 2 a.m. one night. It was between two stumps in a side cove entrance in deep water, not tagged, and tied so low on the trees that nobody would have seen it in daylight, let alone at night.

After half an hour leaning over the back of my boat working with a flashlight and pliers, I left it in about 50 pieces. There was a 5 lb. channel cat on it that went in my livewell, too. Fair enough, I figure.

[RSBreth]

I find them on the streams almost every other trip. Unmarked? Fish let go and line itself cut into several pieces.

Follow the law.

It's not that hard to put your name on a piece of paper in a water bottle.

[getfished]

Not trying to argue here, just making a comment or two. Name or no name doesn't affect the inconvenience issue any. I don't understand what trotliners rationale is when they leave off their name tag. I am fairly sure most know the requirement. When I see one with no name I assume the owner is disrespectful of the legal requirements at best and possibly the owner of more than the legal number allowed at worst. Why would a trotliner do this ?

[Buzz]

Early this Spring we came across a limb line that had a Great Blue Heron hooked to it that had drowned. I was pretty pissed. I took pictures and called it in. I'm sure nothing ever happened though.

[Jason Essary]

Denjac, I set lines couple times a year. From what I have learned on tablerock, if you leave them in clear site, they will not be there long. Have had many cut or stolen so I place them underwater normally. Mine are always deep, so that no one would have problems with their boat, but under that does not help lures. I do tag each line to identify and run each line every morning. I also pull each line after I am done. I have seen a lot of old lines that are just left in the water. Years ago found one that was covered in moss that had a 10lb carp hooked. He had been on there so long, it had a huge hole through his top lip, but guess he couldnt get the hook turned upside down to come off. Released him and cut the line.

[motoman]

I came across one mid-lake in the spring; unmarked. It had fresh cutup bluegills on it; and I thought about cutting it loose, but my warm-cuddly side took over. I thought that maybe someone who had fallen on hard times was using it to supplement there meals.

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Far fetched I know, but it still should've been marked.