Costa Rica Makes Circle Hooks Mandatory

[davetclown]

[font "Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"]Costa Rica Makes Circle Hooks Mandatory[/font] [font "Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"][size 2]

COSTA RICA--The Costa Rican Institute of Fish and Aquaculture recently passed a bill requiring sport anglers to use circle hooks when billfishing. Costa Rica is the first country in the world to adopt such a regulation. Details on enforcement of the regulation are unclear so far. However, officials are asking marinas and local agencies to observe and support the requirement.[/size][/font]
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[maddawg]

Any Idea on why that is?

Trent
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[davetclown]

I can only speculate the reasoning behind the regulation change.

after using circle hooks my self and only seeing them bill fish, It would be my assumption that some one would have come up with the idea that the circle hook would be the best hook for less fatalic hook ups.

untill an actual report comes out I will just have to invision the reasoning behind the change of the rules.

ya know who might know if this reasoning is sound or not is JapanRon or Tubedude.
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[raoool]

Circle hooks are less likely to kill the fish since they almost always get lip (even after being swallowed - they come back up) so will not tear up the fish's belly like a J hook can. Much CR fishing is for sailfish which are 'catch and release'.
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[davetclown]

to look at the in-turned point you would think that you couldnt catch a fish, but dispite their aperance they work well... in some cases better than a J hook...

we use them on small trout here in michigan, "not manditory" they work that good...
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