Bait ban in B.C. rivers.

[DLM]

What do you think? I think it sucks! But it did save me from spending $25 on a steelhead tag for my one day /year steelheading.

[mountainman]

I just looked into the regs and could find nothing different from last year, except the Sturgeon licence and 2 year synopsis.

[Matt]

I know that this has been on the table as a proposal for a few years but I'm not aware of any province wide bait ban either.

I do think the proposal is lame, I okay with bait bans on rivers with low populations of wild fish but there's no need for a bait ban on the fraser, vedder, skeena, stamp etc.

[DLM]

Yep. I screwed up again, Bait ban is in Region 1.
Sorry if I got anybody excited.

[Rock Doctor]

We have had bait bans up in 7B for a while now, and yes it does suck. Alot of our rivers are very silty/dirty, you might as well not bother to go fishing in some places now.
It's possible, to catch Burbot without bait, but it's more just luck than anything.
I have not heard that there were more bait bans coming.

The reason I heard, for this area, is that it's too easy to accidentally catch Bull's when using bait, and that they have a tendency to swallow the hook, increasing mortality. Although this can be minimized with proper equipment and tecnique.

[mountainman]

Enlighten me on how to catch burbot without bait! Sounds like it could be interesting!

[Matt]

No idea on how to catch burbot without bait. I would imagine it would be similar to jigging for ling cod with berkley power grubs.

I do think that bait bans in general are misguided. They're driven by the fly only crowd and it is more an access issue than a conservation issue. I've fished bait for years and only had the odd bleeder. Big hooks on spoons can do a lot more damage than fishing roe bags.

[Rock Doctor]

Originally Posted by mountainman

Enlighten me on how to catch burbot without bait! Sounds like it could be interesting!

I've found it to be almost impossible to target them without bait, but I do catch the odd one when targeting Walleye and Pike in the rivers around here (One lake in particular as well). If I was to try to target them, I would use red/yellow (Red/yellow 5 of diamonds, or a yellow jig with a red head), those are the best around here for Walleye, and the colors that I would probably have on when I catch Burbot. Silver and Orange Pixie, with a little piece of orange "Survey Tape" on the hook also comes to mind.
Now, I don't remember ever catching a Burbot first in any given spot, so you could conclude that my lures might have some Pike or Walleye blood on them. But, I don't think you could be accused of baiting just becouse you never cleaned your lure before tossing it in. (This could very well be the secret to my humble success in catching Burbot without bait, then again maybe not)

These ones were caught on an evening Walleye expedition.










Try it sometime, I would love to hear if it works in other areas. It's not fast and furious by any means, I'm doing well to catch one or two once in a while.

[mountainman]

Those are freaking huge man! Sounds like I will be up there in the summer and fall getting ready for a trip up the Muskwa would love to do some fishing also.
I will give this a try on the river this summer as there are some burbot in there and might even try it on the lake if I can find them there with the walleye!

[Rock Doctor]

In the interest of trying not to hijack this thread any more than I already have, I will send you a PM.

[Why not?]

I have caught a lot of burbot on plastic jigs of various sizes and colours. Both yellow and black seen to work very well.

Fish them right on the bottom in our lakes, and the later in the evening the better. Black is the best after dark.

Ted