Hobo Lines and the law ?

[pitdog]

OK so here is my question....

I had taken my son and his 2 nephews Crab fishing the other week and the way we do it is just with the bait tied to a line and once we have a Crab on we pull it up and drop it into a bucket we have suspended over the water.....we only do it for fun but we catch quite a lot and then throw them back.
Anyway this particular day we were getting a lot of Dogfish trying to take our bait so my son said why don't we put a hook on and get a Dogfish !
Because I was by this time bored and wanting to head to the nearby Starbucks for a Mocha I just agreed and within 10 minutes I had bought some hooks and some strong nylon line and we were now fishing for Dogfish !!!
Luckily the Dogfish had already got bored and swam off but I started to think is fishing with a line like this legal ?
This was me showing my nephew one of the crabs...

 

[enix]

i have no idea but i suspect a call to your local fish and game officialls could answer that.

wouldnt it vary from state to state?

 

[DeadeyeLefty]

Hey pitdog,
Here's the fishing regs for BC. You need a tidal license and you can't spear or hook them. Other than that the regs pertain mostly to traps. I've never heard of people handlining for crab around here - sounds kinda fun actually...

Here is what it's specifically illegal to do. Handlining (for the dogfish) shouldn't be an issue, but if you leave the line and walk away they can ding you for setlining, which isn't allowed for finfish.