Do you know if it is not easy to spearfishing lingcod in USA, Washington gov publish lingcod fising regulations that are not easy to follow.
The rules for lingcod in Washington State: May 1-June 15 Hook and line season only. Sound lings have to be 36″, in line with what line fishers have to abide with.
You should to estimate fish sizes before shooting, as the spearfishing size restrictions are the same size as the hook and line, as it should be. Kind of hard to make those ling stay still to measure them before you shoot them! Gonna be a lot of ling cod left on the bottom of the ocean with spear holes in them.
Divers used to be able to spear any ling size in the sound. Being able to keep only 1 ling makes me wonder if it is even worth it by the way those limits only apply within the sound.
Fortunately they usually sit still long enough to get a good look at them to estimate size, but a mistake can be and has been made by many.
The lingcod spearfising regulation would be in line with hook and line fishermen, that meant that the season would be just as long. In fact if you think about it, those who are going to go fish will be much more likely to kill a fish and when the size doesn’t fit, resulting in much more waste then if they were allowed to keep their original catch.
The waste is not what spearfishing is about but I can only assume there will be cases where this waste does happen. They kept the 3 week season for lingcod spearfising and added the length restriction.
All I can see happening there is going to be a lot of Lings left on the bottom. I’m not so sure of the rules in other states, but all the regulations are made solely for the sake of marine life.