Remember the New Nova Scotia Salmon Fishing Regulations

I picked up my salmon license a couple of days ago. Larry at the shop was good enough to remind me about the regulation changes for this year.

The big change is barbless hooks are now mandatory in most salmon fishing situations here in Nova Scotia. The other thing is that the number of tags has been reduced to four this year.

That is pretty smart when you think about it. You have to be in possession of a tag to fish for salmon. Like me, many other Salmon anglers love the fall salmon season here which runs until the end of October. There is no way that someone who lives for fall fishing would use up his tags before then, so effectively the maximum number of fish he would consider tagging is really three- at least until sometime in the late afternoon of closing day.

Well done to the conservation minded anglers who pushed to have this change in the regulations.

I would love to see a catch and release license made available for Nova Scotia as they have in Quebec. The choice is there to catch and retain as well, but it comes at a premium.

REMINDERS
FOR 2008 ANGLERS ARE REMINDED THAT
• FOR THOSE RIVERS ON WHICH RETENTION IS PERMITTED, THE YEARLY BAG LIMIT FOR ATLANTIC SALMON HAS BEEN
REDUCED FROM EIGHT (8) TO FOUR (4) GRILSE THAT MEASURE LESS THAN 63 CM FROM THE TIP OF THE NOSE TO THE
FORK OF THE TAIL.
• SALMON FISHING IS ONLY PERMITTED USING ARTIFICIAL FLIES WITH BARBLESS OR PINCHED BARB HOOKS IN CERTAIN
LOCATIONS AT CERTAIN TIMES.
• ALL SALMON 63 CM OR LONGER MUST BE RETURNED TO THE WATER IN A MANNER THAT CAUSES THE LEAST POSSIBLE
HARM TO THAT FISH.

Here is a link to this year's Salmon Fishing Regulations